The Lord's domain of Carignan first appeared on registers in the 11th Century and was built on the site of a Roman villa.

It was a gift to Jean Poton de Xaintrailles from Charles VII, king of France. Poton de Xaintrailles, a companion in arms of Joan of Arc, built the present castle in 1452 and one year later crushed the English army led by Connetable Talbot at the battle of Castillon, thus putting an end to the Hundred Year war, enabling the Aquitaine region to return to French rule.

He subsequently became Governor of Aquitaine and, with the judicious help of Bishop Pey Berlan from Bouliac, put down the beginnings of a civil war in Bordeaux between partisans of the English and the victorious French troops.

Château Carignan was called Motta-Verta initially and was renamed Talence in the early 16th Century. Among the successive owners were some illustrious families including the Canteloups, Géres, de Vallier and Jean Dubernet, who upon his death in 1652 left the property to one of his daughters who married Jean Baptiste Gaston de Secondat, baron of Montesquieu, lawyer at the Parliament of Toulouse.

In 1689, the year that the future writer and philosopher Charles Louis de Secondat was born, the estate was sold to the 'De la Devise' family, they later sold on to the Cursol family who lived on the estate until the early 19th century. In 1814 General Etienne Donna, aide-de-camp to Joseph Bonaparte, bought the property and his family later sold to Mr. Honoré Picon in 1892. His heirs sold to André Abadie in 1940. Philippe Pieraerts bought the estate from the latter's heirs in 1981.