History of Château Maison Noble St Martin

The Chateau Maison Noble was initially a feudal castle built at the beginning of the 14th century. Only ruins of one tower remain today, which stood on the meadows of the east side of the castle.

The Castle was probably destroyed at the time of Castelmoron's besiege. This besiege was carried out by English soldiers led by Derby at 1345.

The next owner of Castle’'s remains was Lord of the “Morrinière”.

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The name “Maison Noble” comes from the fact that it was the House belonging to the Nobleman of that time. Due to  massive destruction of the castle, rebuilding of the property was demanded. But it was only realized  in the next century at its present location and became the property of the De Meslon family.

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The “Château Maison Noble”, in Saint-Martin-du-Puy,  belonged to the Chalon family since 1491, obviously. But before…

The owners of Château, at the middle of the 15th century, before 1471, were Gilles d’Albret and his son Etienne, Lords of Castelmoron. Then,  the Château had passed into possession to Gilles’s grandson, Alain.

At the end of the 15th century, one of Alain’s daughters, Anne-Louise d’Albret,  married  Jean de Chalon, son of Louis de Chalon, Lord of Châteauguyon and of Françoise d’Amboise.

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In accordance with the treaty signed on June 24th 1492, the King of Navarre paid off the Chalons’s heirs, particularly, by taking back the Puynormand fiefdom.

It seems that, at that time, the fiefdom of Maison Noble was separated from Castelmoron to form a new fiefdom.

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Taking advantage of the absence of Lord De Melso, who was then Governor of Monségur (1580), the Catholics looted and burnt down Maison Noble, only the wine cellars were spared. Through the different inheritance cases, Maison Noble ended up in the hands of Pierre de Chalon, then in those of his son Charles de Chalon, grandson of Jean de Chalon and Anne-Louise d’Albret.

From that time on, Maison Noble remained at the Chalon family until the Grate French Revolution.

We know that Maison Noble was destroyed twice: the first time during the European Wars of Religion.

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Powerfully fortified Castle - Maison Noble, was, as well as Castelmoron, the scene of several struggles during the Wars of Religion. The Castle was very severely damaged, as we know that in 1685, the former constructions started to be rebuilt.

After the De Meslon family, the building and its domain had belonged to Ezechiel de Chalon, horseman and owner of the estate, since 1632. At the same time, he was likely  the descendant of the famous painter, called Simon De Chalon, who decorated numerous churches in the South of France in the 16th century.

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Simon de Châlons The Holy Family Rouen Museum of Fine Arts

At some sources indicated that exactly Ezechiel de Chalon had have rebuilt Maison Noble for the first time. The magnificent vaulted cellars date from the same time as those of Cadillac, that is to say the 17th century, as well as the terrace and the quadrangular pavilion.

Other building works have been held at the middle of the 17th century, it is illustrated by the keystone of the cellar dating from 1685.

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We also well know, through various sources, that at the time of the Great French Revolution, the Castle’s architecture was really beautiful and everything there offered the image of grandeur. Sold as Property of the State, the buyer could pay the price thanks to the value of the lead roofs. At that time, Maison Noble belonged to Jean Charles de Chalon, who was the leader of Castelmoron d’Albret’s nobility at the General Estates of 1789. Upon his emigration, his estate, Maison Noble and its five farms, was seized and sold as Property of the State.

The building was once again burned to the ground, during the Great French Revolution and the Reign of Terror in 1793. Again, only the wine cellars were spared.

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While in Property of the State (the Duke of Chalon had run away with his wife), M. Laroze, the town property manager, sold to Jean Chanut of Maison Noble, Paul Pauly’s great-grandfather, for the price - two oxen.

The sale was made on Ventôse in February 1794. At that time, the property has an area of 325 acres, according to Castelmoron d’Albret’s measurement, namely 140 hectares. The estate was as follows:

The mansion with 58 acres of land (24 hectares) was bought by Jacques Larose for 51,000 French Livres (currency of the time).

A farmhouse and 70 acres of land sold to René Gaudin for 22,500 French Livres (currency of the time).

The farmhouse of CAVREGUE and 56 acres of land sold to Jean Grégoire for 16,000 French Livres (currency of the time).

The vineyards were sold separately, with an area of 31 acres, that is to say 15 hectares. There were also 20 acres of land and woods of 100 acres.

The manor house/mansion, as you can see it today, was built around 1800 by Jean Chanut.

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The Maison Noble was progressively dismantled for building materials. At the beginning of this century, only the foundations, the great terrace and the wine cellars seemed to still be there. On the mentioned foundations, with the remaining stones, the Chateau was partially rebuilt to its present form, which you can see nowadays.

We know that Guillaume Chanut (Paul Pauly’s father) still owned it in 1895. The same year, in a now collapsed underground passage, he discovered a bronze candelabra, that originated  undoubtedly from the former chapel of the manor.

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During the 18th and the 19th centuries, dry white wine was mainly cultivated. The red wine had appeared only at the beginning of the 20th century. Hence the name of the "appellation”: Entre-deux-Mers.

Naturally, this wine was not intended to be sold. That situation took place up to 1930s, that the wine had been presented on the market.

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In 1950, Pierre Pauly purchased Maison Noble. The fifties were a catastrophic time for wine production, especially in 1956:

Damages on the vineyards;

poor weather;

crop failure in the whole « Bordelais » region;

Nevertheless, step by step, wine production starts coming back to life, and confirmation of that - great vintages: 1959-1960-1961-1962-1964-1966.

Then, at the beginning of the sixties, the Bordeaux wine-growing region's rebirth starts!

At first, it was the production of Bordeaux liquoreux (sweet/dessert wine), then of Bordeaux Rouge (red wine).

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At 1962, the “pieds-noirs” (people who had been forced to leave the French Algeria) immigrated and brought us more advanced methods of cultivation. They had really contributed of the improvement within the treatment with the soil and the vineyards.

A lot of them them invested to “L’entre deux mers”. The science has started to play a key-role in wine production and oenology evolved.

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In the seventies, the estate belonged to Roger Pupovac, former prisoner of Mauthausen concentration camp.

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(Concentration camp established by the Nazi regime of the Third Reich, around the villages of Mauthausen and St. Georgan/Gusen in Upper-Austria, 22 km away from Linz).

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Then, at eighties, the Maison Noble has start to produce Rosé by the "saignée" method.

The “saignée” method is a way to create a wine, during which, the berries, without additional use of the press, independently, under their own weight, produce juice. After, the wort is separated. This method is typical for our region, where high-end rosé wines are produced. It should be noted that rosé wines obtained by the “saignée” method are rarely found due to the difficult mode of production and high expenses within such production.

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In the 90s, oenology was booming and Monsieur Pupovac surrounded himself with an oenologist, and also some sales managers, in order to promote his wines which weren’t  well known to the general public yet.

He had sold his wines through a supermarket brand and listed them in a newspaper called “Le Patriote Résistant”, thanks to which he managed to have a steady line of customers who were former deportees like him.

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Created by people who were deported and imprisoned, the FNDIRP, a non-profit organization, came to life in October 1945, five months after the victory over Nazism.

In 1997, Château Maison Noble St Martin was purchased by Michel Pelisse, CEO of a major Parisian law firm. Passionate with the soil, stones and good wine, he has done his utmost, for more than ten years, to give back to this vineyard all its former architectural nobility and richness.

During the castle's studies, he had discovered the underground passages of the Château and rebuilt one of the two towers which had collapsed during the Great French Revolution. Assisted by passionate craftsmen and artists, he had restored, stone by stone, the whole building.

During the restoration of the wine cellar, the huge, sculpted fireplace was found.

On the roof of the dovecote, an iron weathercock bearing the Ducales coat of arms was found.

We still don’t know today if this coat of arms belongs to De Meslon or De Chalon.

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Today, at Château Maison Noble St. Martin, we live and work in accordance with its history.

We are really proud to carry on the work of our ancestors and remember all the achievements since 1345. Today, our efforts to pass down our common respect and our passion, are directed to those who will write the history of tomorrow.