Difficult to know before that by the parish archives, unfortunately disparate. The vineyard was then very fragmented, divided between many owners, renting or exploiting their own vineyards. The plots were very small as evidenced by the notarial acts. But going up the Sadon lineal family (maiden name of our grandmother Raymonde), we can identify a Pierre Sadon, "vigneron" in 1635 in the parish of Pouilly. Then five successive generations of Sadon mentioned "vigneron à Pouilly" in parish and municipal archives. In the early 1800, there are two generations of Sadon both "vignerons" and "pontonniers" (that is to say "passeur" de Loire) in the hamlet of Charenton, village of Pouilly.
Our great-great grandfather, Louis Sadon, left Charenton to settle vigneron in le Bouchot in the late nineteenth century when he married Marie Chollet. She herself inherited some of her parents' various bits of vines. Together they created the current Domaine de Bel Air.
Their only son André Sadon nicknamed "Riquette", born in 1900, was a great precursor to the forefront of new technology of the time (tying ...). He made great improvements to the domaine.
He initiated his son in law Lucien Mauroy and daughter Raymonde as good winemakers. The 1940 years were marked by war and occupation and the 50s were painful for the vineyard, especially in le Bouchot, facing south and east that had to suffer almost annually frost or hail.
It took a lot of courage and perseverance to survive and then remain faithful to an exciting job but subject to the vagaries of nature.
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| Gérard joined them at the end of the 1960's. With his wife Simone, he carried out a lot of modernization in the vineyard and the cellar (new tanks, thermoregulation,...) in order to keep on improving the quality of our wines. He also welcomed the new generation represented by Katia and Cedric in the mid 90s, in parallel with new plantings, diverse cultural practices (cover crops, thinning ...), an expansion of the winery, a new vintage reception, a change of vat ... But modernism is well-balanced with tradition : de-budding, respect of soils, grass seeding, etc... |
But what all those generations most passed on to us, is the love of our land and our job. Thanks to them we know our vines well and their historical background, which enables us to respect and exploit the very best of the terroir of Pouilly. Gérard is retired since January, 2009. Nevertheless, he gives us his help and his advices without moderation... And we thank him for it! |
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