Smith Haut Lafitte | Jean Pierre Méric

Writing the history of a classified Bordeaux wine, isn't it merely coming to the aid of an already assured victory? Perhaps. But when this history exemplifies the centuries-long continuities and transformations of the Gravas de Bordeu vineyard, this "matrix space of Bordeaux viticulture," to use the words of Sandrine Lavaud, why would one disdain it? Especially since monographs on the great Graves estates are not abundant. From the medieval tenants of the Sainte-Croix Abbey of Bordeaux in this Notre-Dame de Martillac parish, to the renaissance of the past twenty years under the direction of Florence and Daniel Cathiard, the book traces the evolution of the Maujan estate. It became the country house of the Douzon de Bourran in the Modern Era, and later the property of the wise and exuberant figure Dufour Dubergier, Mayor of Bordeaux, "King of Aquitaine," inventor of the 1855 classification, and true creator of the current vineyard. Exemplary of the continuities and centuries-long transformations of the Graves vineyard, as we have said, this history cannot be separated from its context. Privileges of Bordeaux wines, the terrible winter of 1709, powdery mildew, the missed opportunity of the 1855 classification, phylloxera, etc. The fortunes and misfortunes of the Graves of Bordeaux, which in their finest achievements have nothing to envy from the Médoc's glory. Smith Haut Lafitte is a demonstration of this.