Clos cibonne history
Jean-Baptiste de Cibon, born February 19th 1735, navy Captain, Knight of Saint-Louis and of the Cincinnatus Order, took part in the American civil war, witnessed the Saint Vincent battle on the "La Ville de Paris" vessel and emigrated in 1793. At that time, he left Toulon with his wife, Marie-Jeanne Robert de Chateauvert, on board one of the English vessels which had laid sieged to Toulon the same year. He spent the last years of his life in Gibraltar and passed away February 11th 1796. Jean-Baptiste de Cibon was Christine de Cibon's paternal uncle, who married the Admiral of Grasse in 1786.
The Château Cibonne, proud 17th century country seat, acquired by Jean-Baptiste de Cibon from the Vallavielle family in 1787. Following an old provencal tradition, La Cibonne is the name of its former owner put into the feminine.
In 1793, this country seat was partly sold to the Roux family's ancestors who, for more than two centuries, have lived on the Cibonne vineyard. Marius Roux, born in 1850, inherited the vineyard from his mother. He contributed to maintaining it during many years by cultivating citrus fruits, flowers and even some Tibouren grape variety vines. There are still some bottles of his production, 'Château Cibon', in the vineyard's cellar.
In 1930 his son, André, took over the vineyard and his dedication gave the Clos Cibonne its foundations and renown. In the mid-1930s, he progressively stops the growing of citrus fruits and flowers to dedicate his life to vine. That is when he has the boldness to plant a very old grape variety he rediscovers: 'Tibouren'.
The authentic Tibouren from Le Pradet will go around the world. At a young age, André Roux committed himself to improving the vine and wine. His early commitment will allow him, as well as 18 other wine-growers of the time, to be rewarded by a ministerial decree which classified 18 vineyards, including the Clos Cibonne, and authorized the wine-growers to use the designation 'Cru Classé'.
He then worked to implement the controled designations which saw the light of day in 1973. He actively took part in the 'Ordre des Chevaliers de Méduse' association...
His second passion, opera singing, lead him to meet 'show business' celebrities of the 50s. Their visits to vineyard have been immortalized by pictures of Raimu, Gabin, Fernandel and many others, which can be seen on the walls of the wine-tasting cellar. The loyal clients still remember the great moments spent in the cellar with André Roux and the marks the amber colored nectar sometimes left after leaving the cellar's coolness and going back to the Provencal sun's heat.
At the time of his death in 1989, André Roux left the property to his daughter Jacqueline who, with her husband Emile Mourchou, took care of the vineyard during 15 years. For Emile, going back to the land is a real challenge. At 60, he will completely dedicate himself to the reorganization of the vineyard: he buys land, replants Tibouren and creates a new cellar which corresponds to the needs of modern wine-growing at the dawn of the 21th century.
During all these years, he put a lot into carrying on André Roux's work and passing on Clos Cibonne know-how and tradition to his daughter, Brigitte, and to his son-in-law, Claude, who took over the vineyard in 2003.
