Château La Lagune: Madame de Parouty
Pierre Séguineau de Lognac married Catherine-Marguerite Bernard, and they had at least two daughters. One was Catherine-Bénigne who married Jacques-Jean Louis de Parouty, procureur général in the Cour des Aides. Most historical texts refer to Catherine-Bénigne simply as Madame de Parouty. There was another daughter, whose name remains a mystery to me, but who seems to have married into the noble Dumas de Laroque family. Thus when Pierre Séguineau de Lognac died at the age of 64 years on Feb 24th 1784 there were two potential heirs. They seem to have held onto the estate together, turning over its management to an experienced merchant in the wine trade from Bordeaux, and the wines he made were sold under the names Cru Séguineau, Cru Dumas Laroque or Cru La Lagune.
The Séguineau de Lognac family managed to maintain control of La Lagune during the closing years of the 18th century, even through the Revolution. That this was so is usually credited to the fact the family were not of great nobility, but also because the land was in the shared ownership of several different family members. I don’t have any better explanation to offer.
The Piston-d’Eaubonne-Jouffrey Family
The property is known to pass into the hands of the Piston d’Eaubonne family sometime during the course of the 19th century, and Lorbac & Lallemand inform us, again within the pages of Les Richesses Gastronomiques de la France: Les Vins de Bordeaux (Hetzel, 1868) that the property was sold in 1819, passing through the hands of a Monsieur Malherbe for a couple of years, before coming to its new owners in 1821. It was Pierre Etienne Pierre Piston (1766 – 1823) who acquired the estate. A wealthy shipbuilder who had spent much of his life based in Mauritius, it was no doubt the wealth thus generated that he used to fund the purchase. Sadly for Pierre, however, he did not live long after the acquisition, passing away a couple of years later in 1823.
