Domaine de Chevalier: History
Although some châteaux in the southern communes of the Médoc, Graves and Sauternes have many centuries of history, Domaine de Chevalier dates only from the 18th century, and although vines soon appeared viticulture only became a significant part of the story during the 19th century. As the Bordeaux vineyard expanded and the Médoc was drained, opening up the gravelly terroirs of the left bank, one entrepreneur looked south instead of north to establish his domaine. The man who planted vines on the soils of grey-white gravel among the trees was named Chivaley (chivaley was an old Gascon word for knight, and thus analogous to chevalier in modern French), and his venture seems to have been successful.
His estate was not grand it seems, with a few small houses and outbuildings the most significant structures (although it is marked on the 1763 map of the region drawn up by Pierre de Belleyme) and he produced up to 15 tonneaux (1 tonneau is 900 litres, conveniently equivalent to four modern-day Bordeaux barriques, so this is 60 barrels) of wine per annum. Nevertheless, despite this apparent success things did not continue smoothly; by the early 19th century the land, which now appeared as Chevalier on the maps, fell into disuse, and slowly but surely an encroaching army of pine trees began to reclaim the vineyard. Sadly, history does not tell us much more about what happened to the pioneering Chivaley.
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