【Grand Cru Classe de Graves】
【Malartic Lagraviere's collection】
【Only 6 of the 16 classified growths in Graves are classified as both red and white】
【"Flying Winemaker" Michel Rolland is the wine consultant】
【James Suckling 91 pts】【Vivino 4.0】
Stephen Brook, a wine critic who is well versed in Bordeaux, once praised it by name: "For sheer consistency, Malartic has to be one of the top wines of the appellation!"
ZF518 La Reserve De Malartic Rouge 2017 Pessac Leognan
Special Offer : $188/bottle
Region : Pessac Leognan
Grapes : 50% Cabernet Sauvignon ，45% Merlot ，5% Cabernet Franc
Alcohol：13.5%
【James Suckling 91 pts】
This has attractively fresh aromas of red berries and plums with subtle, leafy undertones. The palate is fine and firm with plenty of tannin that delivers a succulent, smoothly paced build.
Chateau Malartic-Lagraviere is located in the Graves region of Bordeaux, France. The winery was built in the 18th century and was originally named "Domaine de Lagraviere". In the Graves classification officially established in 1959, a total of 16 wineries were rated as classified growths, of which only 6 wineries were classified for both red and white wines, and Chateau Malartic-Lagraviere was one of them.
At the end of the 18th century, Chateau Malartic-Lagraviere was acquired by the Malartic family, one of whose members was a French admiral who had made great contributions in the Anglo-French War, especially in the Battle of Quebec in 1756.
In 1850, Mrs. Arnaud Ricard purchased Chateau Malartic-Lagraviere. In order to commemorate General Malartic and the Malartic family, she added the name "Malartic" to the name of the winery. Since then, Chateau Malartic-Lagraviere has replaced the original name of the winery and has been used to this day. The wine bottle also uses a picture of a sailing warship as the wine label.
Before 1890, Chateau Malartic-Lagraviere was managed by the Ricard family. In 1901, the winery was passed to Angele Ricard, and then to Angele Ricard's granddaughter Simone, who then married the winery manager Jacques Marly. Jacques Marly managed Chateau Malartic-Lagraviere from 1947 to 1990 and was the last descendant of the Ricard family to run the winery.
In 1990, Chateau Malartic-Lagraviere was sold to the Perrier family. In the seven years after purchasing Chateau Malartic-Lagraviere, the Perrier family did not make many changes to it.
At the end of 1996, Chateau Malartic-Lagraviere changed hands again, this time to a Belgian couple, Alfred-Alexandre Bonnie and Michele Bonnie. With the addition of the Bonnie family, the winery made further innovations under the condition of sufficient funds. The area of the vineyard doubled, and all the winemaking equipment was replaced with modern equipment. The winery currently employs excellent winemaking consultants Michel Rolland and Athanase Fakorellis to work in the winery.
The winery has 53 hectares of vineyards, located on the top of a gravel hill formed by alluvial action millions of years ago. The winery's name "Lagraviere" means "gravel" in French. The surface of the soil in the vineyard is covered with an 8-meter-deep gravel layer with excellent drainage and heat absorption. Underneath it is limestone soil containing marine shells, which can provide the necessary nutrients for the grapevines and store a large amount of water. The density of grape planting in the vineyard is 10,000 vines per hectare, of which 46 hectares are red grapes, which are 45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 45% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot. White grapes account for 7 hectares, with 80% Sauvignon Blanc and 20% Semillon.
Since 1997, the Bonnet family has been implementing sustainable farming practices in the winery. The winery has taken many measures to create a balanced and diverse ecological environment for the vineyard, such as not using chemical pesticides, building beehives in the vineyard, and planting flowers on fallow land... This series of efforts has enabled the winery to obtain the Sustainable Agriculture (Agriculture Raisonnee) certification in 2008 and the High Environmental Value (Haute Valeur Environnementale, abbreviated as HVE) certification in 2015.
In terms of winemaking, the winery of the Marati Winery operates entirely on the principle of gravity flow, and grapes are carefully selected twice on a vibrating screening table before fermentation. The winery's winery was built in 1998 and was specially designed by architect Bernard Mazieres. It has an octagonal layout and is equipped with 20 small temperature-controlled conical stainless steel tanks and 10 oak barrels, which can ferment grape bunches harvested from different plots separately. The cellars of Marati are considered to be among the most modern in the region. In the cellars that can accommodate 1,200 oak barrels, the winery replaces 25%-35% of the old oak barrels with new barrels every year to age the blended wine. The winery also has a small cellar that can accommodate 200 oak barrels, which is dedicated to the aging of white wines. Red wines are aged in 50-70% new barrels every year, and the oak barrel aging period lasts up to 22 months. White wines are aged in 40-60% new barrels every year, and the oak barrel aging period lasts up to 15 months. Egg white is used for filtering before bottling.
