BORDEAUX, France — For centuries Bordeaux has been the corporate center of French winemaking, known for luscious wines, elegant chateaus and shrewd wine-sellers. Now there’s a new twist: More consumers want vineyards to use organic or sustainably farmed grapes, and so wineries are responding by mixing tradition with high-tech quality control.
The vineyards at Chateau Haut Lafitte offer visitors a look at both the past and the future of winemaking. The vineyards date back to the 1300s, and the stone manor house was built in the 1700s. Then in 1990 Daniel and Florence Cathiard, former members of the French Olympic ski team, bought the chateau and in recent years began integrating sustainable and high-tech practices into their business.
“If you look 20 years ago, chateaus were not organic or biodynamic at all,” said Alix Ounis, who gives tours at the chateau. But now, more and more chateaus are going in those directions.
Smith Haut Lafitte now farms organically, uses oxen in the vineyards instead of tractors to avoid compacting the soil and captures some winery CO2 emissions to reduce the global warming footprint. The Cathiards also sell grape seeds to their daughter’s company, which uses them in natural skin care products.
But natural doesn’t always mean low-tech. Smith Haut Lafitte and other vineyards now use a variety of technologies to monitor the soil, the grapes, fermentation and aging.
Smith Haut Lafitte uses a program called Oenoview to analyze the perfect harvest time. Data provided by satellite measures plant emissions related to ripeness, providing a digital map of every few square feet of the vineyard.
“We know in every single row of the vineyard how ripe the grapes are,” Florence Cathiard said in an email. “We then taste the grapes in each plot and mark the vines which will be harvested the following day.” Then an optical scanning machine in the winery looks for imperfect grapes, and culls them out. Cathiard says visitors like the combined focus on sustainability and wine quality.
Smith Haut Lafitte offers a variety of tours, a restaurant and a 72-room five-star hotel. Several companies also offer shuttle trips from downtown Bordeaux to the many chateaus in the area, but be sure to reserve in advance.
Bordeaux’s old city has been transforming, too. Delphine Cadei is married to a co-owner of Le Wine Bar, a charming, high ceiling place with a broad selection of wines by the glass and bottle, and luscious fois gras and pate plates. Her family is from Bordeaux, and Cadei says that for a long time the city was “very dark, and not a nice place to live.” Parking lots covered the wide stone quays along the river, but those are gone as part of a citywide makeover.
