Chateau Leoville Poyferre
Traditionally, Bordeaux estates were named after their owners or founders. But history’s path to the ownership of Chateau Leoville Poyferre is a long and winding road shared with Chateau Leoville Las Cases starting all the way back to 1638.
Jean de Moytie a member of the Bordeaux Parliament owned a Bordeaux vineyard. Moytie called it Mont-Moytie. Mont-Moytie was one of the first chateaux in the Medoc to produce wine along with Chateau Margaux and La Tour de Saint-Lambert, which we know today as Chateau Latour.
The Domaine remained in the family for almost 100 years. Through marriage, the estate ended up as part of the de Gascq family. Alexandre de Gascq renamed Mont-Moytie as Leoville or Lionville.
The Leoville estate was at the forefront of vineyard management at the time. Some of their ideas seemed odd at first to many growers, but today many of their vineyard practices are still widely in use.
For example, they changed the grape varieties in the vineyards to allow for vines that produced smaller berries, giving the wine more concentration. They trellised the rows with pinewood. They began aging their wine in oak barrels, which they kept clean using a sulfur solution.
While we take these practices for granted today, in those days, they were wild ideas! By the time Alexandre de Gascq died, with his steady purchasing of Bordeaux vineyard land, Leoville was one of the biggest vineyards in Bordeaux at more than 200 hectares!
The Saint Julien property was divided in 1840. Pierre Jean de Las Cases, the oldest son received a share, which became Château Leoville Las Cases. His sister, Jeanne, passed on her share to her daughter, wife of Baron Jean-Marie Poyferre de Ceres. That is the birth of what we know as Leoville Poyferre. At first, the wines were sold as Baron de Poyferre.
While the vineyards were separated, the buildings remained connected, just as they are today. In fact, the parking lot for both chateaus is a common area. You park in either one, to visit the other. This is a unique arrangement in not only the Medoc as well as all of Bordeaux.
After the Leoville vineyards were divided into 3 different Leoville estates, Leoville Las Cases, Leoville Barton, and Leoville Poyferre, many of the vines remained intermingled, making harvesting a little chaotic from time to time.
The true modern age for Leoville Poyferre beings with the purchase of the estate by the Cuvelier family in 1920 from the Lalande family.
The Cuvelier family got their start in Bordeaux the same way numerous other future chateau owners did, as negociants, or wine merchants. The Cuvelier family has a long history in the Bordeaux wine trade dating all the way back to 1804.
The first purchase made by the family was their property in St. Estephe, Chateau Le Crock in 1903. They next purchased Chateau Camensac in the Haut Medoc appellation. They followed that up with their next two investments, Chateau Leoville Poyferre and Chateau Moulin Riche.
Interestingly, even though they were experienced chateau owners, at first they allowed their neighbor to manage Leoville Poyferre. Roger Delon, one of the owners of Chateau Leoville Las Cases was the first to manage the estate for the Cuvelier family.
The logo featured on the label is a statement about the tradition of the family. Before Leoville Poyferre had a chateau, the first member of the Cuvelier family to own the vineyard created a simple logo design with a chateau and a small tower on both sides.
