Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Château Malromé, located in Saint-André-du-Bois en Gironde, finds its origins in the sixteenth century with the construction of the "Noble House of Taste" by Étienne de Rostéguy de Lancre, member of the Parliament of Bordeaux. This estate, initially a seigneurial residence, was acquired around 1780 by Catherine de Forcade, widow of Baron Jean-Baptiste de Geneste, who named him Malromé. The castle was then passed on in 1847 to his grand-neveux, Adolphe de Forcade Laroquette and Marshal Armand Jacques Leroy de Saint-Arnaud, who had it restored in a style inspired by Viollet-le-Duc.

In 1883 the Countess Adèle de Toulouse-Lautrec, mother of the famous painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, bought the estate after the phylloxera crisis and began replanting the vineyard with resistant American rootstocks. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec spent long summer stays there, painted abundantly, and died there in 1901 at the age of 37. The castle, marked by its passage, became an emblematic place of its work and life.

After the death of the Countess in 1930, the estate changed hands several times, notably in 1933 with Georges Séré de Rivière, then in 2013 with Kim Valéry Huynh, who undertook its restoration and opening to the public. In 2016, the castle received the label "Maisons des Illustres" in tribute to Toulouse-Lautrec. Today, it combines wine tourism, exhibitions and receptions, while preserving the artistic and wine heritage of the place.

The architecture of the castle, organised around a square courtyard, combines Renaissance elements (windows, round towers) and contemporary renovations. The interior lounges, decorated with coffered ceilings and monumental fireplaces, house the old apartments of the painter and his mother. The vineyard, cultivated for five centuries on argilo-gravel hillsides, produces wines under the appellations "Bordeaux" and "Bordeaux supérieur".

The name Malromé could be linked to a brook and a place known as homonymous in Saint-Jean-de-Duras, evoking a former seigneury next to Duras. This historical and wine heritage, marked by illustrious figures, continues to shine through its history, architecture and cultural and oenological activities.

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