Château de Lamarque

The château

Garsion de Lamarque built the first fortress between 1050 and 1090 to protect the country from Viking raids, and the family that holds Lamarque today traces its line to him and to his cousins the Fumel. In the Hundred Years War it was English: Henry V held it, and the Duke of Gloucester lived there from 1414 to 1447; after 1453 it went to the Maréchal de Matignon. Vines have grown at Lamarque since the 15th century.

Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, called Château-Lamarque one of the oldest of the Médoc in 1868. In 1760 it was still the seat of a jurisdiction, under M. de Brassier; after he emigrated in 1793 it was sold to Poppe and Giard, bought in 1825 by M. Sauvage and sold by him in 1841 to the comte de Fumel. The Fumels, who owned Haut-Brion until 1801, Château Margaux until 1811 and Brane-Mouton until 1853, had come back after the Revolution with Jacques-Pons de Fumel, and between 1839 and 1841 the vineyard became a farm in its own right. Its 20 hectares on the gravel between the river and the road to Pauillac made 50 to 60 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels) of a fine, scented wine, the first of the commune; by 1893 it was a cru bourgeois supérieur of 27 hectares of vines, with 27 of meadows and 82 of woods, and from 1901 the books name the marquis d’Evry.

After a long sleep, Marie-Louise d’Evry and her husband Roger Gromand revived it in the 1960s, and their successors, Pierre-Gilles and Marie-Hélène Gromand d’Evry, the 25th generation, replanted the whole vineyard to the rules of the Haut-Médoc appellation. The estate belongs to the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux. The family also owns Château Cap de Haut, a Haut-Médoc of 11 hectares bought by Georgine de Fumel, Marquise d’Evry, in 1920.

The 48 hectares lie in 3 vineyards, La Curade, Bahura and Maucaillou, on gravel rises of the Riss and Mindel terraces, with Merlot at 42% of the planting beside Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. The vines have been fed by the Cousinié method since 1995, and the estate holds Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms). Before fermentation 10% to 15% of each vat is bled off to make a rosé, Noblesse Oblige; the grapes are fermented by variety and stay about 21 days in vat, and the wine ages 16 to 18 months in Allier oak, racked every 3 months and bottled unfiltered. The second wine is Donjon de Lamarque.

At a glance

Appellation

Haut-Médoc

Commune

Lamarque

Classification

No classification

Owners

The Gromand d’Evry family; Pierre-Gilles and Marie-Hélène Gromand d’Evry

Vineyard

48 hectares in 3 vineyards: La Curade, Bahura, Maucaillou

Soil

Gravel of the Riss and Mindel terraces Terroir of Haut-Médoc →

Grapes

Merlot 42%, with Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot

Farming

Haute Valeur Environnementale; the Cousinié method since 1995

Cellar

By variety; about 21 days in vat; 16 to 18 months in Allier oak; unfiltered

Wines

Château de Lamarque; Donjon de Lamarque; Noblesse Oblige, a rosé

The house

Also Château Cap de Haut, Haut-Médoc, since 1920; a member of the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux

In history

A fortress of 1050 to 1090; the comte de Fumel from 1841; a cru bourgeois supérieur of 27 hectares of vines in 1893