La Mission in the days of the Chiapellas
Photo Archives Domaine C. Dillon

Jérôme Chiapella (1743-1822) came to New Orleans in around 1770. Two family lines descend from him, one in France and the second one in America.

In France, Célestin Chiapella (New Orleans, 1774-Bordeaux, 1867) came to Bordeaux when his father retired in France.
He purchased La Mission Haut-Brion, spared by the revolutionary violence, in 1821.

It was at the public auction of the "national asset" of La Mission, on November 14, 1792, that Martial Victor Vaillant, the concessionnaire of public lighting for the city of Bordeaux, acquired the estate against the sum of 302,000 pounds.

The Vaillant family remained owners of La Mission for some thirty years, until October 5, 1821, when the daughter of Vaillant, Adélaïde-Marie, wife of Charles Flury, the Consul General of France, resold La Mission at a public auction. Célestin Chiapella bought it for 91,000 francs.

Through his family links in Louisiana, Célestin Chiapella developped trade with this far away state. The barrels of La Mission left the harbour of Bordeaux for New Orleans.

The pier of the Chartrons and the harbour of Bordeaux in the 19th century.

The New Orleans harbour
Photo Bibliothèque Nationale de France

Barrels of La Mission arriving at the harbour of New Orleans.

Celestin Chiapella commissioned a large model of a boat to commemorate the transatlantic background of the family.

A small model of it is still used as a weather-vane and reminder of the oceans linking new world and old.

Celestin and his son Jerome built the beautiful iron-clad gate of La Mission.

The Chiapellas took good care of the wine of La Mission. The estate was awarded the Gold Medal at the Universal Exhibition of London in 1862.

When Jerome Chiapella sold the estate to the Etablissements Duval in Paris, La Mission and its wine had become well known in France, Great Britain and America.

In 1895, Ferdinand de Constans, wine merchant in Bordeaux, bought La Mission. In 1903, he sold it to Victor Coustau, owner of La Tour Haut-Brion.

In 1919, Frederic Otto Woltner purchased La Mission.