Château Lafon-Rochet

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Château Lafon-Rochet is a known vineyard of Bordeaux . Since the classification of 1855 , the winery has been classified as Quatrième Grand Cru Classé (fourth level of classification).

The estate is located in Saint-Estèphe and is medium-sized with around 45 hectares. 55% of the area is planted with Cabernet Sauvignon , 40% with Merlot and 5% with Cabernet Franc . The planting density is 8,800 to 9,200 vines / hectare. In the middle years the estate produces around 120,000 bottles of wine.

The years 2000 and 1996 deserve special mention, each with 90 Parker points .

The second wine of the estate is called Les Pèlerins de Lafon-Rochet . The word pèlerin means “pilgrim” in English and recalls the time when Lafon-Rochet was a stop for pilgrims on the Way of St. James to Santiago de Compostela .

Today the estate is run by Michel and Caroline Tesseron. The company management is supported by the oenologist Jacques Boissenot.

history

The history of the estate can be traced back to April 30, 1557 as Janot Bernard de Leyssac the fief Fief de la Vallée Roussillon took over from Jeanne Bernard. Janot Bernard had become wealthy as a trader and expanded his property further by buying adjacent parcels. He was fiefdom of the Seigneur de Lesparre. In 1563 he had his house protected by a wall. His daughter Françoise inherited the estate after his death. Her marriage to Hellies de Lahaye (or Hellies de La Haye) was not a happy one and the arguments were verifiably settled by Guillaume de Lafite of what is now Château Lafite-Rothschild . After Hellies' death in 1593, Françoise ran the estate until 1619 and finally bequeathed it to her daughters. The part known as Rochette ( French : stony) went to Adrianne de Lahaye. From her marriage to Charles de Guillamotes, the daughter Antoinette emerged, who inherited the estate. She married Etienne de Lafon, an influential member of the Parlement of Bordeaux . The marriage remained childless and Antoinette decreed in her will that the estate should revert to the de Guillamotes family after Etienne's death. When Antoinette died in 1700, Etienne married a second time and challenged this will. The litigation led to Etienne being awarded a small part of the estate. This smaller part roughly corresponded to today's Lafon-Rochet. Etienne de Lafon stayed only rarely on the mainly agricultural estate and delegated the management of the estate to Pierre Delage, who enlarged the estate on behalf of Lafon and greatly expanded the viticulture on the estate with the planting of vines.

After Etienne's death, his second marriage son, Pierre, took over the fortunes of the estate. He hardly stayed on the estate either, but had more plots bought. After Pierre's death, his wife Marguerite and one of their sons, Jean, ran the estate until 1788. In contrast to many other estates, the history of Lafon-Rochet was hardly influenced by the French Revolution , as the Lafon family was not was considered influential enough and on the other hand, Jean supported the revolution as a member of the local Revolutionary Council.

Jean changed his name to Jean de Lafon Rochet and his brothers were called Arnaud Lafon Barrail, Joseph Lafon de Camarsac and Raymond Lafon Du Hayet. The estate was soon divided into four. The central areas of the property including the manor buildings went to Joseph and Arnaud. Arnaud later signed his share over to Joseph.

Joseph had married the once wealthy Anne Paignon in 1793. The couple lost almost everything through the turmoil of the revolution and probably through mismanagement. After Joseph's death Anne tried her hand at managing director until 1824, but could no longer hold her property due to the extremely poor financial situation. The winery went to her son Louis Arnaud Blaise Lafon de Carmasac.

Louis Arnaud set new accents on the estate and was able to slowly expand the remaining 15 hectares of land, but suffered a severe setback in 1839 due to a devastating hailstorm.

After his death, two thirds of the estate went to his wife Marie-Chevalier Pages and one third to his son Pierre.

Pierre earned his living with photos embedded in enamel and left the estate to his daughter Lucie, who ran the business together with Marie-Chevalier. In 1855, on the occasion of the world exhibition, the efforts of the two were rewarded by inclusion in the classification.

The phylloxera crisis and subsequent powdery mildew hit the owners Pierre and Lucie so financially that they had to part with the winery on June 30, 1895. The new owner was the financially strong Frederic Audon from Cannes , who also owned the neighboring Château Ladouys. He rebuilt the estate until 1924, but had to part with a large part of his property due to his divorce from his wife Marie Madeleine Lucie Buttura. Marcel Ricard and his wife Catherine Marguerite Eyssand bought Château Lafon-Rochet at an auction on June 4, 1924. Catherine died that same year and Marcel and his two children could not agree on an appropriate distribution of the property. On September 8, 1938, they finally sold the estate to Elie and Berthe Nafrechoux, who, however, barely two years later, sold it to Charles Louis Duquenoy-Legry.

Duquenoy-Legry lived in northern France and left the day-to-day business to the hapless Fernand Revon. Quality and production volumes practically waned annually. Only 9 years after the purchase, production was barely 50 percent of the amount that was being produced at the beginning of the century. When the estate was taken over by Guy and Nicole Tesseron on May 6, 1960, there was almost no wine production any more.

The Tesseron era

The Tesseron family had since the 16th century in the region of Cognac in the distillation of spirits involved. When Guy Tesseron joined the family business, he wanted to expand the business. However, a decree by the French minister Pierre Mendès France destroyed his expansion plans.

Guy Tesseron married Nicole Cruse, daughter of Emmanuel Cruse. As a result of this marriage, the connections to viticulture in Bordeaux were laid, as the Cruse family with Château d'Issan and Château Pontet-Canet were one of the most important owners of the Médoc region. Guy therefore turned his attention to the region and bought Lafon-Rochet, his first Bordeaux estate, in 1960. In 1975 he also took over Pontet Canet.

There were later allegations that the two wineries were too similar in style. In 1999 Pontet Canet was bequeathed to the brothers Gerard and Alfred Tesseron, while Gerard's twin brother, Michel Tesseron and his sister Caroline received Lafon-Rochet.

literature

Web links