Les Vins de Crus

The house

Les Vins de Crus began in 1975 as a partnership between the Prats family and 2 men who had run the exports of a large Bordeaux house, Herman Mostermans and Michel Mas. The Prats then owned Château Cos d’Estournel and Château Marbuzet, in Saint-Estèphe, and Château Petit Village, in Pomerol. Mostermans was Dutch, and in 1977 he and Mas turned over 8,500,000 guilders a year, selling Bordeaux from appellation wines to the grands crus in the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark. By 1987 he worked with 7 courtiers (brokers, who place the châteaux’ wine with the merchants) who searched the region for wines; he tasted every offer himself and sold to importers and retailers. He had lately won Japanese clients, and he expected them to take over the place the Americans held in Bordeaux. Théodore Mostermans joined the house in 1988.

In 2001 Théodore Mostermans bought the company with Antoine Darquey, who had sat on the board of a large Bordeaux merchant house, and the 2 have run it together since. Their company Antheo, formed in January 2002, is its president. In 2009 they left the boulevard Pierre 1er, in Bordeaux, for 3,500 square meters of offices and cellars they had built at Bruges, on the edge of the city. The cellars there now hold more than 3 million bottles. An office in Hong Kong followed in 2012. Antoine Darquey’s son Pierre is the export director.

The house buys most of the classed growths en primeur (sold as futures, while the wine is still in barrel) and on release, alongside a range of smaller estates it sells alone. Some 25 people work there; the classed growths make two thirds of its sales, and export three quarters. The house marked its 50th year in 2025. It neither buys at auction nor takes in lots that have left Bordeaux.

At a glance

Kind

Négociant

Based in

Bruges, since 2009

Founded

1975, by Herman Mostermans and Michel Mas with the Prats family

Owner

Théodore Mostermans and Antoine Darquey, since 2001

Direction

Théodore Mostermans and Antoine Darquey; Pierre Darquey, export director

Abroad

An office in Hong Kong, since 2012