Description
About Domaine de Chevalier
Archives from the 17th century show us that the small Domaine de Chivaley included “houses, outbuildings, gardens, grounds, vines, woods, and meadows.” The name “Chivaley”, (meaning “knight” in Gascon) is believed to be linked, for an unknown reason, to the presence of the very old pilgrim trail to Santiago de Compostela which still borders the estate.
“Only three men have managed Domaine de Chevalier from time it was acquired by Arnaud and Jean Ricard in 1865 until it was purchased by my family in 1983. As for Jean Ricard, I would say that he is the true creator of Chevalier as we know it. However, his son-in-law, Gabriel Beaumartin, who was at Chevalier for forty years, was responsible for crystallising its reputation”.
“Claude Ricard had been running the estate for thirty-five years when I arrived in 1983. He was much respected and had an encyclopaedic knowledge of winegrowing. Under his leadership, the estate was included among the elite grands crus in the 1953 classification of the Graves. It is also thanks to Claude Ricard that the château gained a true international dimension… We worked together for five years, which enabled me to understand Chevalier’s true nature”.
