The origins of Château Lafon-Rochet date back to the 17th century. It’s a story of Guillemotes and Lafon Carmasac families who joined in 1650 to create “Domaine Le Rochet.“ The name reflects the locality where the pro- perty is located, is called “Le Rochet“.

A few years later, in 1799, the Lafon family acquired the shares of the family Guillemotes and added its name to the property giving rise to “Château Lafon-Rochet.“ Between 1855 and 1960, the property passed through the hands of 5 different families. In 1960 Guy Tesseron, acquired the property

“My grandfather was the heir to a family present in the world of Cognac (Maison Tesseron) for 5 centuries. He is married to a Bordelaise whose family strongly prompted him to buy property here, Lafon-Rochet.“ (Basile Tesseron)

Between 1960 and 1975 he worked a lot for the revival of Château Lafon-Rochet, but all this ended in 1975 when he acquired the Château Pontet-Canet. He concentrated all his efforts and financial resources to restore Pontet-Canet, leaving Château Lafon-Rochet in an unfinished state.

In 1999 the succession separated the two properties. Château Pontet-Canet returned to Alfred and Gerard Tesseron and Lafon-Rochet to Michel Tesseron and his sister.Wishing to be in sole command of the property management, Mr.Tesseron bought a large portion of his sister’s shares thus becoming the major shareholder. “My father, Michel Tesseron chose to beging the project at Château Lafon-Rochet because he is a man who loves challenges, and everything was to be restored here.“ (Basile Tesseron)

For the record, Château Lafon-Rochet has a small chapel in the gardens. It is on the Chemin de Compostelle and was built in the 17th century perhaps in- tended to serve as a stopover for pilgrims. In 1789, following the French Revolution, the chapel was de-consecrated.

During the 2nd World War the German army, to defend the marshes and forests down hillsides, installed an automatic machine gun and a rocket launcher on top of the small chapel and is located in the castle chapel gardens. The latter was “demilitarized“ at the end of the war.

©Châteaulafonrochet

“At first I wanted anything but to work in wine. From my father’s side we have been in the world of Cognac for five centuries and from my mother’s side we are in the world of spirits aperitifs (Maison Lillet) for the last three centuries. I did not want to work in here although I had quite an affection for the aroma and taste of wine.

I wanted to work in communication. I worked in the luxury sector, for the Richemont Group in London and New York. During a business lunch I met a person who said to me that I was only talking about wine and therefore maybe I had been mistaken. It made me think… I went on to attend Bordeaux wine-oenology studies and then I worked for different properties here (Haut-Bailly, Pontet-Canet …) and in Argentina. On my return from Argentina my dream was to go back to New York but I met Jean-François Moueix who asked me what I planned to do. He offered me to work for him for three months during the time my future wife was to finish her studies.

After the three months I still had the dream, the desire to return and to work in New York but my wife got a good internship here as a wine merchant. She asked me what I wanted to do. In the end I accepted the job proposal of Jean-François Moueix. I worked in international distribution (export sales) in wines for the Duclos group. I stayed on in that company for three years.

During a dinner in London I had the opportunity to taste a bottle of ‘Les Genevrières’ 1990 Domaine Leroy and I had a real revelation.This was a the bottle of Burgundy, which brought me back Bordeaux. I maintain a certain passion for the white wines of Burgundy and for some Swiss wines from Canton of Vaud.

Following that meal I returned to my father to ask him if I could work with him on the property. I wanted to try to give the same pleasure to the people who taste our wines.” (Basile Tesseron)

Since 2012 we are working with a consultant oenologist Jean-Claude Berrouet. He enabled us to bring more precision, smoothness, roundness to our wines and a gentle touch to our Cabernet Sauvignon which can normally be hard.” (Basile Tesseron)

The bottles of Château Lafon-Rochet and the property are easily recognizable by their yellow color. From 1975 to 1999 the property was grey, A shade that bored Michel Tesseron who wanted to see a little color. He decided to paint the buildings in three colors,: yellow, green and red for a period of one year. After one year, loving the finish of the yellow Château, he decided to keep the color and make it the official color of the property (packaging, building, communication support).