Château Lanessan: André Delbos
A little more than a decade later, in 1861, Louis died, and his widow Anaïs took up the reins. She is thus noted as the proprietor, under the name Veuve L Delbos, in the 1868 edition of Cocks et Féret, and despite her being widowed production has been maintained at 90 to 100 tonneaux. Although Anaïs appears to have remained in rude health until 1901 she decided long before this moment to hand over responsibility for the domaine to the next generation; this meant her son André Delbos (1851 – 1908) was next to assume responsibility for the domaine, his elder half-brother Édouard Delbos (1824 – 1847) having died young.
It was presumably André Delbos who was responsible for the construction of the château, one designed by architect Henri Duphot, which was finished in 1878. The same can be said of the construction of a new chai, which began the same year. André had plenty of time to consider and complete such projects, because he remained at the helm here for many decades. He was still listed as the proprietor in the 1883 Cocks et Féret, and the vines remained productive at this time, the estate continuing to turn out 100 tonneaux per annum on average, and André won a gold medal from the Société d’Agriculture in 1884, a reflection on the handsome state of his vineyard.
The domaine was also gaining a stronger reputation for quality, so much so that in the 1886 Cocks et Féret the property is profiled in a little more detail; at this time the property accounted for 277 hectares, although of this only 57 hectares were planted to vines, the remainder being largely pine and oak woodland and managed forestry (activities still ongoing in the estate in recent times, as can be seen in the image below, with vines in the foreground, newly planted poplars behind, and natural woodland behind that) or farmland.
