Château de Pressac: The Josselin Era
Sadly, Jean-Marc Constantin de Pressac (as he soon styled himself) died not many years after his acquisition of the estate, in 1782. He had married Anne Delpech on 20th November 1771 and they had just one son, Jean-Baptiste de Constantin de Pressac (1773 – 1870). It was he that now inherited the estate, even though at the time he was just a boy. After the estate changing hands so frequently, there was at last a period of stability for the estate, as Jean-Marc held possession for many years. He married Gracieuse Constance de Biré on August 12th 1806, and they had a son named Leon Joseph Rémi (1823 – 1873). He too married, continuing the Constantin de Pressac bloodline, but it does not seem as though this or subsequent generations continued on with the estate (even if they kept the name). Having inherited the château when he was aged just nine years, in 1860 (when he was 78 years old) Jean-Baptiste decided the time was right to sell. The buyer was Maximin Josselin.
Maximin Josselin
Despite this great heritage, and a considerable winemaking history, the estate was not even mentioned in the 1850 Cocks et Féret. The authors undertook a rather comprehensive overview of the appellation, taking in all levels of quality, as did Wilhelm Franck a few years later, writing in Traité sur les vins du Médoc (third edition, Chaumas, 1853). It thus seems possible that, prior to the acquisition by Josselin, there was no commercial-scale winemaking ongoing here, both vineyards and facilities having fallen into disuse and disrepair.
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