Philosophy

The origins

The BARBERINI family reigned in Rome for two decades. Matteo BARBERINI was elected as pope Urban VIII and appointed his family members to the most senior positions of the Curia (Cardinals, Prefect of Rome, etc.), greatly enriching the family and arousing the jealousy of other notable Roman families. When Pope Urban VIII died in 1644, these families forced the BARBERINI lineage to flee to France.

From the 15th century the MARTIN family, already established in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, were the owners of a dispersed vineyard. Hélène BARBERINI married Claude MARTIN and their son married Françoise DELOUME who brought “La Solitude” with her as a dowry. 

18th CENTURY

Their descendant Paul MARTIN gave the vineyard a real boost. His diary is a precious testimony to his work and contains explicit details about his methods of growing vines, the costs and the results. He was one of the first to sell his wine in bottles and organised the sale of his harvests as far afield as England under the name “Vin de La Solitude” (the notion of wine from Châteauneuf-du-Pape did not yet exist).
Sadly, this incredibly visionary winegrower died young, preventing him from really seeing the fruit of his life’s work. Since then, by a strange coincidence, the property has been always been passed down from daughter to daughter.

19th CENTURY

His daughter Rosalie MARTIN married another MARTIN known as MARTIN–MORICELLY because of the homonymy. He fought with Napoleon and was awarded the cross of the Legion of Honour for his bravery in the battle of Waterloo.

His family descended from the artist Philippe SAUVAN, who perfected his painting skills in Avignon and whose works can be seen in the city’s CALVET Museum. Their daughter Elodie married Paul VIGNEAU, Secretary of the School of Medicine of Marseille.

20th CENTURY​

Their daughter Marie VIGNEAU married Albert JACOB who worked as a doctor of law in Paris but who chose to retire in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The fact that the owners had moved away, and the phylloxera catastrophe, had put the vineyard in jeopardy. But once he returned Albert JACOB set about righting the situation and getting it back to its past greatness.

His daughter married Pierre LANÇON who continued to strive for this return to glory. Two of their children, Michel and Jean, joined him in the 1970s. A few years later, feeling that he had passed on to them his expertise and experience, he left them in charge of the Estate. From 1999, driven by the desire to go even further in the expression of their terroirs, they decided to create new cuvées: Barberini and Réserve. These wines show their determination to take the quality of the wines to the very highest spheres

THE NEW GENERATION

Since 2008, the eighth generation represented by Florent Lançon, Michel’s son, continues the work begun three centuries earlier, following in his family’s footsteps and under its benevolent watch. In 2012, we created the “Maison Famille Lançon”, which markets the wines of the “Domaine de la Solitude” as well as a selection of Rhone Valley wines.

From generation to generation, the Estate has been handed down in a spirit of love and sharing.