Setting Sail - Malartic-Lagravière 1916-2013

BY NEAL MARTIN | APRIL 2, 2019  

Growing up in a sailing family, I spent many a Sunday crossing the Thames Estuary with my father and any conscripted siblings. It was fun clinging to the rigging with legs dangling over choppy, foaming waters, even if I never did persuade Dad to sail all the way to France. Nowadays, much of my life centers upon another estuary, the Gironde in Bordeaux. Here, one can find a property whose history is nautically entwined: Malartic-Lagravière. But the voyage of this Pessac-Léognan has not always been plain sailing. Over the years, it has encountered rough seas as well as periods when it drifted aimlessly through the doldrums and almost ran aground. Thankfully, in the 1990s the property found a fine Belgian captain who has navigated a safe passage to calmer waters, and Malartic-Lagravière is presently one of the finest vessels among the fleet of Bordeaux châteaux. Last year I visited the estate to find out about its history and conduct a vertical tasting. So let us cast off and begin by looking at its origins.

Château Malartic-Lagravière.

History

The origins of Malartic-Lagravière stretch back to a time before the French Revolution when the estate was known as Domaine de Lagravière, for its gravel soils. In 1803 it was bought by Pierre de Malartic, the nephew of Comte Hippolyte de Maurès de Malartic, an admiral who scored a famous victory over the British at the battle of Quebec in 1756 and later became governor of Mauritius. Some time in the 1840s, Pierre de Malartic’s son Jean Ernest Malartic sold the estate to Auguste Thibaudeau, whose tenure lasted only a couple of years. Here, facts become sketchy. Clive Coates MW believes that Mme. Angele Ricard, who took over the estate in 1850, was born Thibaudeau, since Auguste's ownership was so brief. It does seem more likely than her purchasing the property outright, since those were misogynistic times. Then again, Mme. Ricard was known as "le grand homme de la famille," so maybe not. Two facts that are true: she prepended the surname of the estate’s erstwhile proprietor, changing Domaine de Lagravière to Malartic-Lagravière; and in 1860 her son Jean Ricard acquired Domaine de Chibaley, which became Domaine de Chevalier.

Strangely, I can find no mention of either Malartic-Lagravière or Domaine de Lagravière in the 1874 edition of the Féret guide, though in the 1898 edition, Jean Ricard is listed as owner of three Graves crus: Malartic-Lagravière, Domaine de Chevalier and de Fieuzal. Malartic-Lagravière is recorded as a 35-hectare vineyard producing 45 tonneaux per annum, the same as Domaine de Chevalier. In 1908, Jean Ricard passed away and the estate went to his son-in-law, Lucien Ridoret, whose family came from Cambes. They were mariners, which is why Ridoret’s galleon, the Marie-Elisabeth, was depicted on the label. Ridoret’s seafaring life meant that in all likelihood, his wife looked after daily running of the vineyard and oversaw the oldest wine included in this article.

André succeeded his father in 1929, and his only child, Simone, eventually married Jacques Marly, who became proprietor in 1947. (One interesting aside – again courtesy of Clive Coates – is that Marly's ancestors once owned a vineyard now occupied by Merignac airport.) Marly’s main business was manufacturing mirrors, and this inspired the labels of the 1962 and 1964, both decorated with mirror images of the name. Authorities banned its continued use, since apparently some customers thought it was written in Russian, which is easy to understand if you examine the image below.