Château Quintus: The Acquisition of L’Arrosée
Despite being located very close to Château Tertre-Daugay (see the two pictured together, below), and indeed very close to some of the grandest châteaux of all St Emilion, Château L’Arrosée does not have the same illustrious and well-documented history that many of its peers have enjoyed. I suspect the main reason for this is that, for many years, the estate did not produce any wine of its own, the entire production being sold to the cave co-operative. It was only with the arrival of new blood in the middle of the 20th century that the estate’s fortunes were turned around.
Perhaps unsurprisingly over the years the authors of Cocks et Féret have given Château L’Arrosée short shrift. The estate does not appear in the 1850 edition, popping up for the first time in 1868. The proprietor at this moment was Pierre Magne (1806 – 1879), a man from simple stock, being the son of Louis Magne (1765 – 1836), a teinturier (dyer) by trade, and Jeanne Buis (1780 – 1854). Nevertheless fortune seemed to favour Pierre who, under the sponsorship of Thomas Robert Bugeaud (1784 – 1849), Marshal of France and Governor-General of Algeria, went to study law in Toulouse. During his career Pierre Magne became a celebrated lawyer, then a politician, and ultimately a successful government minister; he was a member of the third cabinet of Napoleon III, and was appointed to the role of finance minister for France several times. It is perhaps, therefore, no surprise that he could afford to buy an attractive retreat in St Emilion. Under his aegis the estate was turning out between 8 and 10 tonneaux per annum.
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