At Leognan property Malartic-Lagraviere you are some distance from the Garonne, yet there are boats on the label of the wine. These honour a former owner, Count Hippolyte Maures de Malartic, an Admiral and a former governor of Mauritius. After the Maures de Malartic family, a hundred or so years with the Ricard family (who also owned de Fieuzal and Domaine de Chevalier) and a brief stint with Laurent-Perrier Champagne, since 1997 Malartic-Lagraviere has been owned and managed by the affable, very committed Bonnie family. They had no experience in wine estate management when they arrived, having made their money in detergent, but have turned what was an underperforming estate into one of the most admired in its appellation.

With mainly gravel soils (sometimes as deep as eight metres) over a clay-veined bed of limestone, the terroir here is excellent, for both red and white. In red, the vineyard is planted to 45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 45% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot. The cooler parts of the vineyard are planted to white grapes, 80% Sauvignon Blanc to Semillon. for a slightly richer style. Overall, there are 46 hectares of red grapes and 7 of white.

When the Bonnies arrived, they built a completely new, gravity-run cellar. They conducted a terroir study which led to them replanting the vineyard. They also expanded the vineyard considerably by buying or planting plots that were part of the property in the nineteenth century, and introduced sustainable farming practices across the estate. Selection in the vineyard and at the cellar door has become considerably stricter, and the results are clear in wine whose reputation is now dramatically improved. (NT 28/08/25)