Remembering Daniel Cathiard

BY ANTONIO GALLONI | FEBRUARY 26, 2026

I was deeply saddened to learn of Daniel Cathiard’s recent passing. With his wife and life partner Florence, Cathiard transformed Smith Haut Lafitte from a sleepy, run-down estate into one of Bordeaux’s most respected châteaux.

Daniel Cathiard and Florence Bernard met as teenagers, when they were both members of the French national ski team. A few years later the young couple married. The Cathiards ran Genty-Cathiard, the family’s supermarket chain, and opened GoSport, a chain of sporting goods stores, both of which they sold in 1989.

Looking for a new adventure, the Cathiards purchased Smith Haut Lafitte, a little regarded estate in Pessac-Léognan, in 1990. Smith Haut Lafitte wasn’t just an investment for the Cathiards, it was, and remains, a way of life. Whereas many owners live elsewhere and only visit their properties occasionally, the Cathiards made their home at Smith Haut Lafitte, living in the old chartreuse that is just a short bicycle trip away from the main buildings. The Cathiards built a spa and resort on the estate and were among the first to open a boutique where visitors could buy the wines, a radical concept in Bordeaux at the time.

I started tasting the wines in the mid 1990s, when I sold them in Boston area restaurants. The Blanc immediately made an impression and remains one of my personal favorites. I began visiting the estate about a dozen years ago, twice a year, in the spring to taste the primeurs and in early winter to taste the bottled wines. Daniel Cathiard was always there, a constant presence. His cool, introspective demeanor was the perfect foil for Florence’s exuberance. Whereas there is never any doubt what Florence is thinking, Daniel often said more with a twinkle of an eye, a glance, a brief gesture than with words. It was enough to make himself clearly understood. Together, they formed a formidable couple, as witnessed by their considerable success.

Daniel Cathiard’s exploits as a competitive skier and successful businessman are well known, but what impressed me most was his total commitment to organic farming, sustainability and fostering a healthy ecosystem, all catch phrases today, but concepts that he and Smith Haut Lafitte helped pioneer in Bordeaux. Technical Director Fabien Teitgen joined in 1995 and helped drive many of the estate’s initiatives in the vineyard and cellar. The Cathiards built their own cooperage on-site, another example of their total quest for excellence.

In 2020, the Cathiards purchased the former Flora Springs estate in Napa Valley and established Cathiard Vineyard. They dove into their new business endeavor with the same passion that informed all their previous ventures.  Like most outsiders, the Cathiards underestimated some of the challenges of operating another winery in a distant country, but that never diminished their enthusiasm or commitment. Their first vintage was beset by the most traumatic and dangerous wildfires in living memory. The Cathiards were undeterred. Wine Marketing 101 in Napa Valley says new projects must be launched with a strong vintage. The Cathiards paid no heed to conventional thinking and presented Cathiard Vineyard to the outside world with the 2020 vintage. “We had 1991 and 1992 at Smith, right after we bought the property, so we are accustomed to dealing with difficult years,” Daniel Cathiard told me, showing the quiet, understated confidence that defined him.

All of us at Vinous extend our deepest condolences to the Cathiard family.

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