Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

Chambert Castle, located in Floressas in the Lot sur les causses du Quercy, has its origins in a 13th century fortified farm, called a "shelter". From 1100, texts mention vines on this estate, exploited for centuries. In the 17th century, families such as the Baureilhes or the Fabres lived there, drawing their livelihood from the famous vineyard, whose wines were exported to England and Russia under the name of Kagor.

In 1870, the Bataille family, succeeding the Lathèze (bourgeois anoblis), modernized the estate. Louis Bataille, notary married to Mélanie Lathèse, had a Viollet-le-Duc style castle built in 1873 on the basis of an old 16th-century den. He built a park, a wall, and replanted the vineyard. A fire ravaged three quarters of the building in 1886, requiring partial reconstruction. The estate, flourishing, was struck by the phylloxera from 1877 and by the death at the front in 1914 of General Marie Désiré Pierre Bataille, heir of the place and first French general killed during the First World War.

The decline of the vineyard, once spread over 300 hectares, followed until its renaissance in 1973 under the impetus of Marc Delgoulet. This wine dealer restores the castle, adds two round towers in 1985, and revives wine production, awarded in 1978. His son Joël continued the work with respect for the environment before the sale of the estate in 2007 to Philippe Lejeune. The latter, assisted by consultant Stéphane Derenoncourt, redirects the vineyard towards malbec and chardonnay, adopts biodynamics, and obtains the organic ECOCERT certification in 2012 after a program launched in 2009.

The architecture of the castle thus mixes medieval defensive elements (glacis, speakers) with 19th century additions, while its history reflects the economic upheavals (phylloxera, wine market) and the national tragedies (wars) that marked Quercy. The domain remains today a living testimony of the evolution of winemaking techniques and the adaptation of local elites to the challenges of their time.

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