Château Martet

The château

Château Martet was built in the 13th century as a house of the Knights Templar for pilgrims on the road to Santiago de Compostela. It has been a wine address for a long time: Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, list vines at Martet from 1883, under Sivadon, at 25 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels) of red and 12 of white, and in 1922 J. Ladoux made 22 tonneaux of red and 35 of white there. Patrick de Coninck and Albert Michiels bought it in 1991. Patrick de Coninck died in 2016, and his children carry his work on. Louis Mitjavile advised on the vines and the wines from 1998, and Nina Mitjavile has been the wine consultant since 2021.

The 37 hectares lie on the hillsides above the Dordogne, on rich clay-limestone and, higher up, ferrous clay-limestone gravel, farmed without pesticides or chemical fertilizers. The barrel cellar, built in 2003, takes 600 new barrels from the Radoux cooperage every year. The flagship, La Réserve de Famille, is 100% Merlot aged 18 months in new barrels; La Fierté de mon Père, made in tribute to Patrick de Coninck, is also pure Merlot, in numbered bottles. The other wines are Les Hauts de Martet, La Réserve de Famille Blanc, Les Vignes de Compostelle and, from 2025, La Petite Réserve.

At a glance

Appellation

Sainte-Foy Côtes de Bordeaux

Commune

Eynesse

Classification

No classification

Owners

The de Coninck family, since 1991

Consultants

Nina Mitjavile, since 2021; Louis Mitjavile before her, from 1998

Vineyard

37 hectares on the hillsides above the Dordogne

Soil

Clay-limestone; ferrous clay-limestone gravel on the higher land

Farming

No pesticides or chemical fertilizers

Cellar

Barrel cellar of 2003; 600 new barrels a year; La Réserve de Famille 18 months in new barrels

Wines

La Réserve de Famille, red and white; La Fierté de mon Père; Les Hauts de Martet; Les Vignes de Compostelle; La Petite Réserve

In history

Vines at Martet under Sivadon, 25 tonneaux of red and 12 of white, in 1883