Henri Martin, achieved what few have managed. From the early 1940s and throughout his wine career, he made a new “château,” which he named Gloria. Henri made it his life’s work to acquire for Château Gloria an impressive collection of Saint-Julien vineyard parcels. Most of the land was purchased from classified growth properties, but, of course, it was the châteaux (mansion + name) that were classified in 1855, not the vineyard land. Thus, “his baby” could not be a classified estate without an amendment of the original classification, which has only ever happened once (Mouton Rothschild, in 1973) or twice if you count the initial oversite in 1855 with Cantemerle.

Then in the early 1980s, Henri Martin realized he was sitting on a bona fide classified growth château, partly. In the 1920s, his father (Alfred) had purchased for his barrel making the cellar of St.-Pierre, a very respectable fourth growth. Only St.-Pierre’s “vineyard” was just a pale resemblance of its former 1855 glory by this time. The original vineyard had been broken up and sold off following various inheritances. Fortuitously, through the family’s acquisitions on behalf of Gloria, Henri already owned some prime parcels of the original vineyard. In 1981, he bought the original St.-Pierre house. In 1982, he was able to buy and reassemble the other superior St.-Pierre plots (then operating under the name of Château Saint-Pierre Sevaistre) as per the time of classification. Finally, Henri tweaked the prefix and spelling of the name to Château Saint-Pierre.

Today, Château Saint-Pierre is the smallest classified growth vineyard within Saint-Julien—the Médoc’s smallest commune. The 17 hectares (42 acres) of vineyard area is divided into two major sections. 

“The biggest piece is just in front of the Château,” Jean told me. “This is where our old Cabernet Sauvignon vines are located. The other part is across the road from Gruaud Larose.”

Owned today by Henri’s daughter Françoise and son-in-law Jean-Louis Triaud, the estate is also managed by the third generation, Jean and his sister Vanessa, and their spouses. Changes to improve quality and increase Saint-Pierre’s reputation continues to this day.

"Most of our vineyard is ideally suited to Cabernet Sauvignon."

“We had some interplanted Petit Verdot, but now we have replanted those over to complete rows of this variety, to be harvested separately. But most of our vineyard is ideally suited to Cabernet Sauvignon. Wines made from a high proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon can be shy when young. Saint-Pierre is less sexy than Gloria, which has more Merlot. Saint-Pierre often needs more time to become balanced. In the context of St Julien, we are more in the style of Las-Cases than Ducru.”

Together, we tasted a vertical from 2007 onwards, which Jean sees as a turning point.

“We have changed much since 2007,” he commented. “First with new stainless-steel tanks and then in 2015 with tanks that perform automatic pump-overs. Since last year, we have been moving toward organic viticulture so that we will be certified in 2024.

And we have been moving toward using more Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend, which is our strength. The blend used to be around 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, now it is around 85%.”

These vineyard and winemaking changes are most apparent in recent vintages. 2019 knocks it out of the park.

“2019 is one of the first vintages at Saint-Pierre that is actually not shy and tight,” said Jean. “We are trying to be more precise with the selection, and you see that in this year. It was partly the greatness of vintage, but we also feel we’re in a very good place now.”