Château de Boursault

Château de Boursault in Boursault, France, is a 19th-century Neo‑Renaissance residence built by members of the French seigneurial class. Its present form dates to the mid-1800s and was created to replace an earlier medieval stronghold; the house became important both for its connection to the family behind the Veuve Clicquot champagne house and for the vineyards and cellars that surround it.

The site has medieval roots. Records of the seigneurie of Boursault appear in the 14th century, when Robert de Flandre transferred the land to Geoffroy de Naast, and later the estate passed through Robert’s daughter into the family of Henry IV, Count of Bar (around 1315–1344). In 1409 Cardinal Louis de Bar received Boursault and other lordships from his father, Robert, Duke of Bar. By the 16th century the barons of Boursault occupied a fortress-like château, and vineyards covered the surrounding slopes from that era onward, except for a century when the hill was wooded.

By the start of the 19th century the medieval château had fallen into serious disrepair. The present château was built at the request of Madame Clicquot Ponsardin, founder of the Veuve Clicquot champagne house, to mark the 1839 marriage of her granddaughter Marie Clémentine de Chevigné to Louis de Rochechouart-Mortemart. Work began with the laying of the first stone on 15 August 1842 in the presence of the local national guard when the young Paul de Mortemart was held by his father, and construction was finished five years later; other dates given for the building period are 1842–1848 and 1843–1850. An architect who was working on the restoration of Reims Cathedral designed the house and laid out a landscaped park of about eleven hectares on the wooded hilltop planted with vines.

Madame Clicquot retired to the new house at the age of 64 and died there at 89. Her granddaughter’s daughter, Anne de Rochechouart de Mortemart (1847–1933), later Duchess of Uzès, inherited the property in 1866 and sold it in 1913. The Berry family of Canada owned the château from 1913 until 1927. During both the First World War (1914–1918) and the Second World War (1939–1945) the building was used as a military hospital.

The park was converted to vineyards to produce champagne, and the Château de Boursault label is made from grapes grown in the surrounding vines and aged in the estate cellars, with production recorded from 1927. A plaque above the central window facing the basin bears the Latin inscription NATIS MATER, translated as “a mother to her children,” recalling the gift of the house to daughter and granddaughter. The grounds were placed on the pre-inventory of remarkable gardens.