The Thibon family bought Libian in 1670...
At that time they still lived in the village; Libian served as a gentleman’s hunting lodge and manor house. Soon the family moved in definitively and worked as farmers.
Gustave Thibon (1903- 2001) began working as a farmer when his father was away fighting in World War I, then shifted to focus more on philosophy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Thibon
His third child, Jean-Pierre Thibon (known as “Papou”), married Jacqueline (alias: Ou-i) in 1974. A cardiologist, she left a life in medicine to work in the vines. They lived happily ever after and… had a lot of daughters: Hélène, Catherine, and Cécile.
Jean-Pierre decided that the main activity at Libian would be wine: he built a cellar in 1970, which was later enlarged in 1982. The vines were, from the beginning, under organic agriculture: they plowed the soils, hoed by hand in the spring, treated the vines with copper and sulfur, etc. A continuation of this philosophy and an important milestone for the domaine was being certified biodynamic in 2005.
All three of the daughters chose wine as their path.
Hélène and her husband Alain joined the family domaine, working with her parents, in 1995.
Cécile does oenology research at the ISVV (Institute of the Science of the Vine and Wine) in Bordeaux.
Catherine also joined the family domaine, in 2006. A few months later, she bought Nestor, a workhorse from Franche-Comté, with whom she plows 5 hectares of vines. Plowing the earth, with love and respect, in tune with the rhythm of a horse (quite a different rhythm from what we’re used to today) always brings a calm and serenity to life. In 2016, Bambi (a handsome blond horse) joins forces with Nestor and Catherine to work the vines using this traditional method.
Over time, the domaine became larger, arriving at today’s 25 hectares of vineyards and 8 hectares of “nourishing” land (planted with olive trees, grains, hay, a vegetable garden and flower garden as well as a few beehives).
In 2011, the wine cellar space was doubled. This created space to keep a bigger collection of large oak barrels from various cooperages including Rousseau and Grenier but mostly comprised of 30/ 40-hectoliter barrels from Stockinger.