Dourthe (CVBG Dourthe-Kressmann)

The house

Pierre Dourthe, a hotelkeeper at Lit-et-Mixe in the Landes, started a wine business in 1840. In 1870 Jean Dourthe, who lived from 1841 to 1905, took it over and moved it to Bordeaux, and in 1929 Roger and André Dourthe bought Château Maucaillou, in Moulis.

The other half of the old name has its own story. In 1871 Edouard Kressmann, newly set up as a négociant (a merchant who buys from the châteaux and sells on), came to Martillac for the white wine its gravel made, and in 1884 he grafted the vines for his Grave Monopole Dry. A book on the classed growths of the Médoc printed in London in 1920 records that E. Kressmann et Cie held the whole 1911 vintage of Château Ferrière. The Kressmanns bought Château Latour-Martillac in 1930. In the 1960s the 2 houses came together as the Compagnie des Vins de Bordeaux et de la Gironde, Dourthe-Kressmann, CVBG for short.

The house then built a group of estates. It took Château Belgrave, a fifth growth at Saint-Laurent, in 1979. In 1988 it launched Numéro 1 de Dourthe, a Sauvignon Blanc first made from the 1987 vintage, and in 1990 it bought Pey La Tour, at Salleboeuf, and La Garde, in Pessac-Léognan. At Saint-Estèphe it became the tenant of Château Le Boscq in 1995 and its owner in 2021. Jean-Marie Chadronnier, Patrick Jestin and Xavier Gouvars bought the house in 1998, and in 2005 it took on Grand Barrail Lamarzelle Figeac, in Saint-Émilion.

In 2007 Champagne Thiénot took control of CVBG, which had turned over 123 million euros in 2006. Patrick Jestin became president of Dourthe that year, and Château Rahoul, in the Graves, owned by Alain Thiénot since 1986, came into the house’s care. In 2014 the house bought Château Reysson, at Vertheuil, and in 2020 it took the name Dourthe; since 2022 it has been chaired by Arvitis, the Thiénot family’s company. It works from Bruges, on the northern edge of Bordeaux, with Pénélope Godefroy as managing director since May 2025 and Valentin Jestin as deputy general manager in charge of growth abroad. The 2 families behind the old name still hold their own estates: the Dourthes Maucaillou, the Kressmanns Latour-Martillac.

At a glance

Kind

Négociant

Based in

Bruges

Founded

1840, by Pierre Dourthe; CVBG Dourthe-Kressmann from the 1960s

Owner

Arvitis, of the Thiénot family; in its group since 2007

Direction

Pénélope Godefroy, managing director, since May 2025

Châteaux

Belgrave, since 1979; Pey La Tour, since 1990; Grand Barrail Lamarzelle Figeac, run since 2005; Rahoul, run since 2007; Reysson, since 2014; Le Boscq, owned since 2021

Brands

Numéro 1 de Dourthe; Essence de Dourthe; Promesse de Dourthe; Les Parcellaires de Dourthe

In the record

Ferrière, the whole 1911 vintage, to Kressmann