Château Fonplégade: Jean-Pierre Beylot
It is often written that Jean-Pierre Beylot (born 1782) acquired the property in 1852, although this is certainly incorrect; by this time, at the age of seventy years, he had already taken possession, four decades earlier in fact. After the death of Jacques Gaussens the property first came to his son Pierre Auguste Gaussens, and it was Pierre Auguste who sold the estate to Jean-Pierre Beylot in 1812, the asking price a handsome 12,000 francs. In 19th-century texts the wine merchants and authors of the era regularly credit Jean-Pierre with having recognised the true potential of these slopes of limestone and clay. The land here was already planted with vines, as they had been for many centuries I expect, and the domaine was well-equipped, nevertheless Jean-Pierre Beylot was noted to have made a number of “notable improvements” to the estate.
The first time the estate crops up in any 19th-century writings was in 1850, in the first-ever edition of Cocks et Féret, the Bordeaux bible. At this time the estate was referred to as Fontplegade, a slight variation in spelling, and the proprietor was at this time still our Monsieur Beylot (note this is before many authors say he even bought the estate). The vineyard was an active one, turning out on average 10 tonneaux per annum. It was about this time that he built the imposing château (pictured), one of the many changes he made during his tenure. A couple of years later, in 1852, he sold the property.
Noble Proprietors
Upon the occasion of this sale the property came into the hands of Alexis Sabatier (1809 – 1854), proprietor of A. Sabatier & Cie, which was owned by Alexis and his colleague Charles Auguste Louis Joseph de Morny (1811 – 1865), Duc de Morny. The selling price was just 54,000 francs. Alexis seems to have been the driving force behind the estate, augmenting the vineyard with the purchase of two parcels in 1853 which had belonged to the Labat and Despaigne families, two of the 17th-century smallholder-style proprietors. Tragically, the following year Alexis died of cholera. This essentially left the estate divided between Charles de Morny and the widow and children of Alexis Sabatier.
