Nicolas-Alexandre, marquis de Ségur (1695–1755) was a

Bordeaux wine Bordeaux wine (; ) is produced in the Bordeaux region of southwest France, around the city of Bordeaux, on the Garonne River. To the north of the city, the Dordogne River joins the Garonne forming the broad estuary called the Gironde; the Gi ...

maker who during his lifetime was known as the "Prince of Vines" due to his ownership of some of the most famous Bordeaux chateaus-including Château Lafite,

Château Latour Château Latour is a French wine estate, rated as a First Growth under the 1855 Bordeaux Classification. Latour lies at the very southeastern tip of the commune of Pauillac in the Médoc region to the north-west of Bordeaux, at its border with ...

, Château Mouton and Château Calon-Ségur. A hundred years after his death, the

Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855 The Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855 resulted from the Exposition Universelle (1855), 1855 Exposition Universelle de Paris, when Emperor Napoleon III of France, Napoleon III requested a classification system for France's best Bordea ...

would designate Lafite and Latour as First Growths, Mouton as a second growth and Calon-Ségur as a third growth.

Biography

Family background

Nicolas-Alexandre Ségur was the son of Alexandre de le Meon de Ségur de Francs et Portugaises and Marie-Thérèse de Clausel and paternal grandson of Jean-Isaac, marquis de Ségur (d. 1707), military commander and a descendant of François de Ségur, seigneur de Sainte-Aulaye (d. 1605).The Marquis de Ségur
Chateau Latour history His first cousin was Henri François, comte de Ségur. Through his maternal grandfather, he inherited

Vineyard ownership

In 1716, Alexandre de Ségur bought Château Lafite and, following his death that occurred soon after, the estate passed on to Nicolas-Alexandre. In 1718, Nicolas-Alexandre acquired Château Mouton and Château Calon-Ségur. At one point, Ségur owned the land that would become the classified estates of Chateau d'Armailhac and Chateau Pontet-Canet.

Prince des vignes

Under the Marquis' influence, the wines of Chateau Lafite became firmly entrenched in the

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

market.

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Robert Walpole Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford (; 26 August 1676 – 18 March 1745), known between 1725 and 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole, was a British Whigs (British political party), Whig statesman who is generally regarded as the ''de facto'' first Prim ...

was a frequent customer, purchasing a barrel every three months. The Marechal de Richelieu introduced the wines of Chateau Lafite to the royal court of

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached maturity (then defi ...

and spoke glowingly of the wine's invigorating benefits.Chateau Lafite Rothschild - Profile
/ref> Louis gave Nicolas-Alexandre the nickname "The Prince des vignes" when he visited his court. The king mistook the buttons on the Marquis' coat for

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of e ...

s and complemented on their quality. The king was then informed that those stones were actually the cut and polished rocks from the Marquis' famous vineyards.H. Johnson ''Vintage: The Story of Wine'' pg 257 Simon and Schuster 1989

Death

Ségur died in 1755 and his estate was divided among four daughters.

Legacy

Nicolas-Alexandre is credited with drawing the line that divides the neighboring Chateau Lafite and (now) Chateau Mouton-Rothschild and distinguishing the different styles of wine that these two properties produce. While the other properties were sold not long after his death, Chateau Latour stayed within his family till 1963.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nicolas-Alexandre, Marquis De Segur Wine merchants French merchants French winemakers 1695 births 1755 deaths Marquesses of Ségur 18th-century French businesspeople