History
At the beating heart of the Beaujolais crus, Vignobles Victoire d’Affaux is a unique ecosystem that has been nurtured for 350 years by a single family with ancient origins in Provence, Lyon, Auvergne and Charolais.
Emotionally and spiritually nourished by this terroir and its roots, and a guarantor of this ecosystem, Gauthier Rebillard d’Affaux represents the 14th generation of this family : today he embodies the future and the spirit of the place where he was born and grew up. Immerse yourself in the long history of Vignobles Victoire d’Affaux, a source of courage and determination.
1691
The Provencal Gaspard Jourdan, treasurer of France in Aix en Provence, became attorney general and honorary advisor to the Court of Mints of Lyon. He bought the stronghold of Saint-Lager at the foot of Mont-Brouilly in Beaujolais, put up for auction since November 5, 1683 following the seizure of Antoine de Chardonnay de Laye.
1694
On 29 October 1694, Gaspard Jourdan, the new Baron of Saint-Lager, Cercié and other places, summoned Jean-Baptiste Merille, a merchant and building contractor from Montmerle-sur-Saône, to restore the Château de Saint-Lager and the farms on the wine estate.
1707
In his will dated 31 January 1707, Gaspard Jourdan de Saint-Lager named his grandson Jean-Gaspard as his sole heir and replaced him, in the absence of other male heirs, with the daughters of his descendants. This was a wise precaution, as the vineyards and the title of Baron would be passed down through women for the next 300 years. The Saint Lager estates are operated and farmed by wine growing farmers.
1748
Confirmed by a ruling in 1748, Gaspard’s granddaughter, Marie-Anne Jourdan de Saint Lager, became Lady Baroness and passed on the title to her husband Jean Aymé Berthelon de Brosses, Attorney General at the Dombes Parliament.
1782
In the next generation, Gaspard’s great-granddaughter, Marie-Anne Berthelon de Brosses, confirmed by a court ruling in 1782, became Dame Baroness and in turn passed on the title to her husband, Robert René d’Affaux de Glattas, an officer in the Lyonnais Regiment, Commissaire aux revues des troupes and then Inspecteur des Haras du Lyonnais.
1790
On 28 September 1790, Suzanne dite Victoire d’Affaux de Glattas married Captain Ovide Denis de Cuzieu, a descendant of the Lyon alderman Blaise Denis. They had three children, Charles-Robert, Hector and Athénaïs. Only Athénaïs, who later married the Chevalier de Saint-Thomas, had any lasting descendants.
1794
Victoire’s only brother, Antoine Gabriel d’Affaux, Marquis de Glattas, was sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court and shot on the plains of Les Brotteaux on 1st February 1794, while his art collections were pillaged and his mansion on Place Bellecour demolished by order of the representatives of the Convention. Victoire d’Affaux, lady-baroness of Saint-Lager and Cuzieu, the last of her descendants, survived the revolutionary upheavals and settled permanently in the midst of her vineyards in Saint-Lager, a commune where her husband, colonel-baron Ovide de Cuzieu, was mayor for more than 30 years until 1848.
1825
Victoire d’Affaux de Glattas died in her château at the foot of Mont-Brouilly on 20 September 1825. Her will favoured her eldest son Charles-Robert de Cuzieu over her daughter Athénaïs de Saint-Thomas A Saint-Cyrien marked by the wars of the Empire, he preferred to devote himself to painting the châteaux and landscapes of the Beaujolais region rather than cultivating vines.
1852
Valentine Périer was born on 12 September 1852 in Thizy in the Rhône department, on the borders of the Lyon, Beaujolais and Forez regions. Born into a family of weavers and bankers, she married Gustave Champalle, a cotton manufacturer and future mayor of Thizy, in 1871. Maman-Valentine, as her granddaughter Simone Grosse-Dumas de Vaulx later called her, brought industrial culture and a love of fine fabrics back into the family. The Cuvée Valentine is dedicated to her.
1886
On 24 December 1886, Ovidie de Cuzieu, Victoire’s granddaughter, died in Francheville without issue and bequeathed part of her fortune to the Hospices Civils de Lyon. After several legal disputes, his cousin Ludovic de Saint-Thomas inherited the vineyards of the barony of Saint-Lager. His widow survived him until 1935. The vineyards were ravaged by phylloxera and managed with great difficulty.
1940
Robert Dumas de Vaulx de Cuzieu, heir to the estates in 1935 following the death of his great-aunt de Saint-Thomas, died tragically in the spring of 1940 without descendants. His brother Gérard Dumas de Vaulx, a racing driver in Amilcar, Delage, and Bugatti cars, inherited the title of Baron. The last harvest took place in September 1940, and the Saint-Lager estates were sold to the Pasquier-Desvignes brothers’ trading company. The history of the Brouilly Crus took a new direction, driven by the post-war revival and dynamism of the Beaujolais region.
1972
Doctor Pascal-Suisse settled in Fleurie in the north of the Beaujolais region and, with his passion for oenology, patiently built up an estate year after year with selected plots of Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie, Saint-Amour and Bourgogne Blanc.
1997
On 5 April 1997, Doctor Pascal-Suisse’s daughter married the grandson of Gérard Dumas de Vaulx, Victoire’s last descendant, and Simone Grosse, Valentine’s granddaughter, and daughter of cotton manufacturer Émile Grosse, maker of the famous Vichy textiles, in Saint-Lager.
2021
Gauthier Rebillard d’Affaux inherited the family seals, titles and private archives dating back to 1691 from his grandmother Micheline, the last Baroness of Saint-Lager, who died on 31 December 2020. Gauthier, in turn, consolidated the vines at Vierre-Manin in Romanèche-Thorins. This was followed by the vines at Les Perrelles and Les Greneriers, all in the Moulin-à-Vent cru.
