Cruse family

{{for|the American evangelistic musical group|Cindy Cruse-Ratcliff}}

The Cruse family is a well-known French Protestant{{cite book |title=Grand fortunes: dynasties of wealth in France |author=Michel Pinçon |author2=Monique Pinçon-Charlot |page=95 |publisher=Algora Publishing |year=1998 |isbn=0-9646073-5-2}}{{cite book |title=Présence de l'Allemagne à Bordeaux: du siècle de Montaigne à la veille de la Seconde Guerre mondiale |editor=Alain Ruiz |chapter=Des négociants allemands de Bordeaux aux XVII^e et XIX^e siècles: les Schröder & Schÿler et les Cruse |author=Paul Butel |page=62 |publisher=Presses universitaires de Bordeaux |year=1997 |isbn=2-86781-208-9}} wine-merchant family from the Bordeaux region of France. Family members also own several renowned wine estates.

History

In 1815 Herman Cruse,Full name: Hans Wilhem Herman Cruse. a Danish–German merchant from Segeberg, now in Germany but then part of the Duchy of Holstein under the Danish Crown,Although under the Danish crown, Holstein was a state of the Holy Roman Empire in 1790, when Herman Cruse was born, and became part of the German Confederation in 1815. Herman Cruse married a German wife, Emma Raake from Bremen, and many sources count the Cruse family among the German families in France. settled in the Bordeaux region of France, where he co-founded the firm Cruse et Hirschfeld in 1819.{{cite web |title=Cruse |url=http://www.chateaulaujac.com/cruse-laujac-e.htm |publisher=Château Laujac/Château Lafitte Laujac |access-date=2011-10-30 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130119060414/http://www.chateaulaujac.com/cruse-laujac-e.htm |archive-date=2013-01-19 }}{{cite book |title=Des vignobles et des vins à travers le monde |editor=Claudine Le Gars |editor2=Philippe Roudié |author=Paul Butel |author2=Corinne Domblides |chapter=Le négoce des vins de Bordeaux dans la première moitié du XIX^e siècle: l'exemple de la Maison Cruse et Hirschfeld |publisher=Presses universitaires de Bordeaux |year=1996 |pages=71–77 |isbn=2-86781-153-8|language=fr}} With financial support of his wife, he cornered the Bordeaux market in 1847; that year's harvest turned out to be excellent, and he made a fortune.{{cite book |title=The wines of Bordeaux |author=Edmund Penning-Rowsell |publisher=Penguin |year=1979 |page=173 |isbn=0-14-046202-3}} In 1850, the firm Cruse et Hirschfeld came under the sole control of the Cruse family and was renamed to Cruse et Fils Frères. Cruse developed the firm with the help of his three sons to one of the major wine-trading companies in Bordeaux.

Wine estates

Next to the flourishing wine-shipping business, Herman Cruse set out to diversify and invest in wine-growing estates.{{cite book |title=A Vineyard in My Glass |url=https://archive.org/details/vineyardmyglass00ashe |url-access=limited |author=Gerald Asher |publisher=University of California Press |year=2011 |page=[https://archive.org/details/vineyardmyglass00ashe/page/n90 82] |isbn=978-0-520-27033-6|author-link=Gerald Asher }}

=Château Laujac=

The first winery acquired by Herman Cruse, in 1852, was Château Laujac in Bégadan, Gironde, in the heart of the Médoc area. The estate has remained in the hands of the Cruse family since; from 1962 it was managed by Herman's great-great-grandson Bernard Cruse, as is the adjacent estate of Château Laffitte Laujac.{{cite web |title=Château Laujac: Histoire |url=http://www.chateaulaujac.com/histoire-laujac.htm |publisher=Château Laujac/Château Lafitte Laujac |access-date=2011-11-07 |language=fr |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130119023229/http://www.chateaulaujac.com/histoire-laujac.htm |archive-date=2013-01-19 }}

=Château Pontet-Canet=

File:Pontet-Canet 1970.jpg

In 1865, Herman Cruse purchased Château Pontet-Canet, a renowned wine estate that had seen better times. He quickly modernized the facilities at Pontet-Canet and built a subterranean wine cellar. The wine was not bottled at the estate, and sold in large quantities without vintage label to the French railways company.

In 1973, the Cruse family lost Château Pontet-Canet when a wine fraud was discovered in which cheap table wine was turned into expensive red Bordeaux by falsifying the records. The ensuing scandal forced Cruse to sell the estate in 1975 to Cognac merchant Guy Tesseron, owner of Château Lafon-Rochet.

=Château d'Issan=

Emmanuel Henri Georges Cruse (1892 - 1968)http://bertrand.auschitzky.free.fr/AppendicesLabarre/09.LAWTON.htm {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}} purchased the Château d'Issan winery in 1945.{{cite web| title = Overview| work = thewinedoctor.com| publisher = Site Editor| year = 2008| url = http://www.thewinedoctor.com/tastingsprofile/issan.shtml| access-date = 2008-06-13| archive-date = 2008-05-13| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080513170343/http://www.thewinedoctor.com/tastingsprofile/issan.shtml}} There was much work to be done, including replanting the vineyards and re-equipping the dilapidated cellars, work which was duly undertaken; it was some time before the château received its long-overdue restoration.

In 1998, the grandson of Emmanuel Cruse, also named Emmanuel Cruse, became proprietor at the young age of 30. Under his proprietorship, the Cruse family still owns the property today, with Eric Pellon working as general manager. The effort and expenditure they have poured into Château d'Issan over the ensuing decades may be paying off, as some recent vintages have produced top quality wines.

==Emmanuel Cruse==

Emmanuel Cruse (b. April 7, 1968) is a winemaker, since 2008 Grand Maître of the Commanderie du Bontemps de Médoc, Graves, Sauternes et Barsac,{{cite web |title=Commanderie du Bontemps de Médoc, Graves, Sauternes et Barsac |format=press kit |date=2011 |publisher=Commanderie du Bontemps |url=http://commanderie.a2com.com/presse/DP_COMMANDERIE_BONTEMPS_EN.pdf |access-date=January 1, 2012 }}{{dead link|date=August 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} and since 2010 also President of the Grand Conseil du Vin de Bordeaux as well as Grand Maître of the Commanderie de Bordeaux worldwide.{{cite web |title=Commanderie History |publisher=Commanderie de Bordeaux aux États-Unis d'Amérique |date=2010 |url=http://www.commanderie.org/showHistory.action |access-date=January 1, 2012 |archive-date=January 11, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111053318/http://commanderie.org/showHistory.action }}{{cite magazine | title =Emmanuel Cruse: Proprietor Of Chateau D'Issan |magazine=Forbes | url = https://www.forbes.com/2006/02/21/cx_0221wine2.html |date=2006-02-21}}{{cite web| title = Overview |website= Wine Taste TV | url = http://www.winetastetv.com/video/wine-regions/france/23/article%3C!---emmanuelcrusechateaudissan---%3E |date=2007-04-17}}{{dead link|date=March 2025}}

=Château Corbin=

Annabelle Cruse-Bardinet manages the 15th-century Château Corbin in Saint-Émilion, which she and her two sisters, the children of Bernard Cruse of Château Laujac, bought in 1999. This is one of only a few examples of women owning a winery in Bordeaux. Château Corbin is a grand cru classé Saint-Emilion.

=Other estates=

Other famous châteaux owned at some time by members of the Cruse family include Château la Dame Blanche, Château Haut-Bages-Libéral, Château Giscours, and Château Rauzan-Ségla.

References

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20090406075025/http://www.pontet-canet.com/uk/enhistoire1.htm History of Château Pontet-Canet]
[http://www.chateau-issan.com/ Château d'Issan]
[http://www.chateau-corbin.com/ Château Corbin]

Category:French families

Category:French winemakers

Category:Wine merchants