Château Bellevue: Mathieu Gaston Lacaze
Like his father, the young Mathieu Gaston Lacaze worked out of Libourne as a négociant. With several generations of wealth-making behind them, and more than a drop of blue blood in their veins, the rank and file of the family included not only moneyed merchants both also judges, lawyers and mayors. It was perhaps unsurprising therefore that Mathieu seems to have been incarcerated during the French Revolution. The evidence for this comes from the record of his marriage, which indicates that the venue for his wedding ceremony in 1793 was the prison in Libourne (either that or this was a very ‘alternative’ wedding reception).
His wife was Marie-Anne Victoire Fournier (1769 – 1818) and happily neither of them seem to have had an unpleasant encounter with Dr Joseph-Ignace Guillotin’s invention. They presumably went on to leave prison, ultimately having four children together. It does seem as though they later separated, however, as Mathieu subsequently married again, to Sophie Thérèse Lafaye, and she bore him another two children. Of note, Mathieu’s time in prison seems to have done his reputation no harm; it was only a few years later, in 1800, that he was elected to the mayoral office in Libourne, which he held for fifteen years.
Mathieu Gaston Lacaze was also notable for being at the helm when the existence of the vineyards and winemaking on the estate was first independently recorded. This came in 1841, from Lecoutre de Beauvais, who was editor of Le Producteur, a journal published monthly between January 1838 and December 1841. At the time the estate was noted to be turning out 15 tonneaux per annum.
