Clos L’Église: The Modern Era
By the time Jean Rouchut inherited his half of the Rouchut estate his wife Thérèze Laval had already died, this having happened in 1867. Jean himself died on January 3rd 1882, and the property passed to the next generation, their daughter Thérèze Rouchut. She was listed as the proprietor of the estate in the 1893 edition of Cocks & Féret, at which time the estate is said to account for 5 hectares of the Pomerol vineyard, a figure which seems to contract in subsequent years.
At some point during the ensuing decades, although I am not clear when, a transition of ownership from the Rouchut descendants to the Moreau family then seems to have occurred. One possibility is that the transition was the result of a marriage between the two families, and this seems plausible, although I have not seen definitive proof of this. Alternatively, it may be that the Moreau family acquired the estate through purchasing it, possibly after a period of working the vineyard as tenants.
Francis and Michel Moreau
Writing in Pomerol (Jacques Legrand SA, 1984), Bernard Ginestet seems to indicate that the brothers Francis and Michel Moreau initially worked the vineyard on a fermage agreement, although confusingly he also refers to them as the proprietors. The domaine, for many years standing at just 4 hectares, had been expanded to 6 hectares by the two siblings.
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