CHAPTER I.
Gloria is a creation story, beginning in the late 1930s with a single hectare of land. It is a
rare entrepreneurial triumph that spanned the working lifetime of one man.
Parcel by parcel, Henri Martin would craft a splendid legacy, and reshape the face of the Saint-Julien appellation. By acquiring land primarily from the most revered 1855 Classified Growths, he would guarantee a quality worthy of the name he dreamt of.
Today, Gloria radiates the ambition, devotion and joyful energy that he poured into his vineyards. And while the estate could never re-write the historic classification, Henri Martin would mischievously raise his glass ’to the most classified estate in Saint-Julien’.
Henri is not born into wealth, but he knows the terroir of Saint-Julien like the back of his hand. He spends his childhood and young adult years wandering its vineyards and woodlands, learning the intricacies of its deep, gently-sloping gravel.
Throughout his life, he always refers to Saint-Julien with admiration, as a land that is “béni des dieux” or “blessed by the gods”.
His father, Alfred Martin, is a humble cooper with an entrepreneurial streak. His growing barrel making business is housed in the winery of Château Saint-Pierre, in the village of Saint-Julien-Beychevelle. The cooper’s craft combines creativity and meticulous attention to detail, which Henri inherits, along with a deep fondness for the small village in which he is born and raised, in rhythm with the terroir of Saint-Julien.
Henri is intelligent, ambitious and commercially-aware.
As Grand Master of the Commanderie du Bontemps, de Médoc et des Graves and Grand Master of the Grand Conseil du Vin de Bordeaux, Henri toured the United States, presiding at press conferences and banquets, and acting as an ambassador for Bordeaux and promoting Château Gloria, in which he continues to invest.
A little background information
1903
Henri Martin is born in Saint Julien at Château Gruaud Larose Faure where his grandfather had been a cellar master and his father, Alfred Martin, works as a cooper. (barrel maker) and his family has been in the wine business for almost 300 years.
A true child of the village, Henri is well-known and liked locally, and builds excellent relations with estate owners and the local community.
Working initially alongside his father, Henri soon dreams of owning vineyards and creating his own wine in Saint-Julien, the smallest major appellation of the Médoc.
He experiences first-hand the huge challenges that Bordeaux faces during and in the aftermath of the Great War, but does not give up hope.
1930
At the end of the 1930s, he makes his first acquisition of one hectare of land. It is the first in a life-long series of vineyard acquisitions, including classified growths. Henri targets small parcels of exceptional vineyards belonging to estates whose main vineyard holdings are distant from them, making them costly to manage.
Over time, Henri skilfully unites and assembles 50 hectares of vineyards. His entrepreneurial creation, Château Gloria, becomes the largest non-classified estate in Saint-Julien.
1956
Henri Martin becomes known as a leader of the Médoc.
He is elected President of the Interprofessional Committee of Bordeaux Wines in 1956, and administrator of Château Latour in 1963.
1960 – 1970
In the 1960s and 1970s, he travels to the USA, where the economy is booming, singing the praises of Bordeaux and Château Gloria. His charm, entrepreneurship and exceptional wine win American hearts.
The New York Times Magazine runs a feature on Château Gloria in 1976, calling Henri’s achievements ‘miraculous’, and catapulting Gloria to stardom.
In 1981, the great success of Gloria enables Henri to realise another lifelong dream that was previously unimaginable:
to acquire a classified estate, Château Saint-Pierre, in his home village of Saint-Julien-Beychevelle, and to leave not only one but two great legacies.
