Bernard Magrez, who already owns over thirty vineyard properties worldwide, including Bordeaux classified estates Château Pape Clément (Pessac Léognan) and Château La Tour Carnet (Haut-Médoc), has added another three Bordeaux estates to his portfolio according to the Sud Ouest newspaper. The estates are: Château Malleprat (Pessac Léognan), Château Moulin d’Ulysse (Listrac) and Château Romer (Sauternes).
Château Malleprat, situated in Martillac, has just under 15 hectares of vines producing on average 80,000 bottles per year of both red and white wines. Owned by the Cots family it was exclusively distributed by Ginestet until 2005 when the owner, Jean-Claude Cots, decided to take over the running of the estate and the distribution of the wine. It will bring to three the number of estates in Pessac-Léognan owned by Bernard Magrez, the others being Château Pape Clément and Château Poumey.
Château Moulin d’Ulysse has just over 10 hectares under vine and is situated in Listrac-Médoc. The property had been in the same family for several generations and was one of the pioneers of the cooperative movement having been instrumental in the creation of the “Cave Coopérative” in Listrac during the crisis of the 1930s. At that time the estate covered just 2 hectares but grew to its current size through various purchases and exchanges. In 1999 Albertine and Jean-Claude Castel took over the running of the property and from 2000 the wine was made on the property and no longer taken to the cooperative.
Château Romer is situated in Fargues de Langon close to Château de Malle and Château Bastor-Lamontagne. It was classified as a second growth in the 1855 classification of the Médoc and Sauternes. The estate covers 7 hectares of which only 3.5 are in production, making it the smallest classified estate in Sauternes. Having once belonged to the Count of La Myre Mory and later to the Count of Beaurepaire Louvagny it has been owned by the Farges family since 1911. Having been farmed under lease for many years by the neighbouring estate, Château Romer du Hayot, the running of the estate was taken over by Ann Farges ten years ago. Bernard Magrez already owns an estate in nearby Barsac, Château Latrezotte, which has 5 hectares of vines.
According to an article in La Revue du Vin de France Bernard Magrez intends to integrate the production of Château Latrezotte with that of Château Romer and to use the vineyards of Château Moulin d’Ulysse to produce a second wine for Château La Tour Carnet. The same article reports that Bernard Magrez also recently acquired 5 hectares of vines on the borders of Saint-Emilion that previously formed part of Château Fombrauge, the Saint-Emilion Grand Cru he owns.