Château Latour: Nobility and Merchants
During the tenure of Nicolas-Alexandre de Ségur, and then also that of his daughters, the Latour estate had been run by a local notary named Souisse, who also ran Lafite on behalf of the same family. For many years the two were run in tandem, with the wines of both estates commercialised at exactly the same price, year-in, year-out, in keeping with a notarial deed drawn up in 1760. This continued to be the case after the inheritance, up until 1774. Then, from 1774 to 1797, by which time the estate was in the hands of the aforementioned trio of sisters, it was run by a régisseur named Marc-Antoine Domenger, previously the régisseur at Lafite, and also proprietor of the Marbuzet estate in St Estèphe.
Passing as it did through the generations, as the end of the 18th century drew near the estate had three owners; the Comte de Ségur-Cabanac, the son of Angélique-Louise de Ségur, who had a little over 27% of the domaine, as well as Charles Joseph de la Pallu (1753 – 1823) and André Bonnin de la Bonninière de Beaumont (1761 – 1838), who each had 36.47%. These latter two were both sons-in-law to Marie-Antoinette Victoire; I presume Charlotte Emilie had relinquished her portion, perhaps due to her having no heir, although history does not seem to clearly speak to this matter. With the coming of the Revolution the Comte de Ségur-Cabanac, fearing for his life, fled France, and thus in 1797 his portion, just over a quarter of the domaine, was sold.
