Château Gaby: The 20th Century
It was with the marriage of Raphael Capdepon (1859 – 1927) to the aforementioned Louise Anne Marie de Boussiron, which took place on August 16th 1894, that the story begins to pick up pace. It was Raphael who acquired the Gaby-Rouleau vines, thus reuniting the two parts of the property. The estate and its wines clearly had their fans, as evinced by the words of the authors of the 1922 Cocks et Féret, who wrote of its “perfectly kept vineyards”. The production was much higher now, standing at 35 tonneaux per annum, and it is noteworthy that the wines produced were both white and red. They were praised by the buyers of the time for their “velvety nature, their finesse and their ability to age”, and they had picked up a number of accolades, including gold medals in Paris expositions, in both 1898 and 1899.
Raphael and Louise had, to the best of my knowledge, just one child, a daughter named Raymonde Marie Joseph Elisabeth Capdepon (1895 – 1979). On August 22nd 1918 she wed René Louis Gaultier de Kermoal (1892 – 1956), and the property passed to this generation. Their union produced six offspring, starting with Amaury (born 1919), who may have died young as he had no further part to play in the story of the estate. The other five children were Jacqueline (born 1920), Yves (born 1922), Marie-Antoinette (born 1924), Monique (born 1929) and Henri (born 1930 or later). Sadly, with the passing of their parents in 1956 and then 1979, the inheritance of the estate would prove to be a difficult one.
