Château de La Dauphine: The 19th Century
The Fronsac region does not crop up in many of the sources I commonly cite for the early 19th century, although it is perhaps notable that it was covered in some detail in the first edition of Cocks et Féret, published in 1850. At a time when the guide skipped quickly through the châteaux of St Emilion, and Pomerol barely makes an appearance, both regarded as second-class regions after the great wines of the left bank, this surely reflects the great viticultural heritage within Fronsac.
In 1850 the property belonged to a Monsieur Gaspard, whose precise identity I believe to be Jean Baptiste Gaspard (born 1788), a doctor who was listed as a resident of Fronsac a couple of years earlier, in 1848. At this time we have a first indication of the production of wine on the estate, which stood at 55 tonneaux per annum, equivalent to 220 modern-day barrels (one tonneau being 900 litres, in other words four barrels). Jean Baptiste married Catherine Théophile Clemenceau (born c.1795) and they had a daughter, Catherine-Lydie Gaspard (1815 – 1867). On April 10th 1836 she married Paul Romain Joseph Chaperon (1812 – 1889), known as Joseph, and not the same Paul Romain Joseph Chaperon (born 1814), known as Paul Romain, who owned Château Daugay and Château Tertre de Daugay (if my research has yielded the correct information they were brothers). This explains how in many subsequent editions of Cocks et Féret Château de La Dauphine was noted to be in the hands of a Joseph Chaperon.
