Les Grands Chais de France

The house

Joseph Helfrich founded Les Grands Chais de France at Petersbach, in Alsace, in 1979, and the group came to Bordeaux by buying. In 1991 Pernod Ricard sold it its trade in the classed growths, which became Crus et Domaines de France, the group’s Bordeaux arm. The Caves de Landiras followed in 1994, bought from LVMH, and the cellars at Landiras, in the Graves south of Bordeaux, hold and ship its Bordeaux wines. Joseph Helfrich is still president of the group, with Frédéric Helfrich as managing director.

Crus et Domaines de France brings together 4 old houses of the Bordeaux trade. Jean-Marie Calvet founded his at 29, in 1818. Louis Eschenauer, born in Alsace, came to Bordeaux 170 years before the group did: he settled there in 1821 and started the house that carries his name. Dulong dates from 1873, and Alexis Lichine started his company in 1951. Calvet stands in the old record of the classed growths: in 1912 and 1913 it held the monopoly of Château Ferrière, in Margaux, and took the whole crop. In 2018 the group bought the merchant Robert Giraud, owner of Château Timberlay, and in 2020 renamed it Dulong-Calvet and moved it to Landiras.

The family and the group also work the land. Through its farming company the group has run Château du Cartillon, at Lamarque, since 2007, and it runs Château German Marbuzet in Saint-Estèphe, Château La Fortune in Margaux and Château Sergant in Lalande-de-Pomerol. Château Lestage Simon, at Saint-Seurin-de-Cadourne, belongs to Crus et Domaines de France, through which the family has owned Château Faizeau, in Montagne-Saint-Émilion, since 2011. The Helfrich family became the owner of Château Bastor-Lamontagne, in Sauternes, in November 2018, and it also runs Château Cantelys in Pessac-Léognan. Since 2022 Terres Bordelaises, a company of the family and the group, has worked Château Nairac, in Barsac, on a lease of 25 years. In 2021, 30 years after Pernod Ricard sold the group its trade in the classed growths, the Helfrich family bought one: Château du Tertre, the classified growth of Arsac, in Margaux.

At a glance

Kind

Négociant

Based in

Landiras, at the Caves de Landiras; the group’s seat is at Petersbach, in Alsace

Founded

1979, by Joseph Helfrich; in Bordeaux from 1991

Owner

The Helfrich family, since 1979

Direction

Joseph Helfrich, president; Frédéric Helfrich, managing director

Châteaux

Du Tertre, 2021; Bastor-Lamontagne, 2018; Faizeau, 2011; Lestage Simon; run by the group: Du Cartillon, since 2007, German Marbuzet, La Fortune, Sergant

Brands

Calvet, Eschenauer, Dulong, Lichine

In the record

The whole Ferrière crop, 1912 and 1913, to Calvet