Charles-Louis de Secondat, who became baron of La Brede in 1713, and baron of Montesquieu in 1716, was born in the château in 1689. He lived there in the style of a Gascon farmer, alternating stays in Paris with long periods spent there, developing the land and the vines, while also writing his famous «Spirit of Laws».
After his death, in 1755, his son Jean-Baptiste continued to manage the family properties with great enthusiasm for wine production: he carried out renovation work on the farm and in the vineyard. He suffered the vagaries of the French Revolution, when the property was put into sequestration. He looked after La Brede until his death in 1795.