Château de la Velle

History

The château is said to date back to the 13th century, although most of what stands today is from the 16th. It passed through the hands of many lords, and in the 16th century it was held by Protestants during the Wars of Religion. At the end of the 18th century it belonged to Guéret de Villeneuve, which is why it was also called the Castel de Villeneuve.

In 1973 Bertrand and Bernadette Darviot moved their wine cellars here and patiently restored the buildings. The château was listed as a historic monument in 1989, including its bread oven and its well. Wine production paused in 2015, and today their children, Benoît and Marie Darviot, the tenth generation of a family of wine growers, are bringing the estate back to life.

Architecture

The buildings stand around a courtyard open to the street to the west and to the vines to the east. On the north side, the tall main range rises two or three storeys above its cellar, with arrow-slit windows and round-arched carriage doors. At the entrance to the courtyard, a well keeps its stone pulley frame. At the back stands a bread oven roofed with stone slabs.