320 cousins meet up over a glass of Bordeaux

Roots in Bordeaux but branches across the entire globe”, is how a press release described the giant family get-together held at Graves Grand Cru Classé Château Latour-Martillac on August 9. The fourth of a “very unique type of family reunion” brought together 320 descendants of Edouard Kressmann who arrived in Bordeaux in 1858 and established his own negociant business a decade or so later. Ten years after the last reunion, the family got together at what is now its collective focal point, after Edouard’s son Alfred bought the property in 1930.

The various branches of the family came not just from France, but also from Canada, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Denmark, Italy, Polynesia, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Togo and the United States. Since 2018, another Edouard Kressmann has managed the technical side of Château Latour-Martillac, making him the fifth-generation incumbent since his namesake great-great-grandfather. Although the event had not been held since 2015, family members, both old and young, successfully reenergised a gathering that has become sacred to them. The highlight of the reunion came when a Nabuchodonosor 2014 “a vintage chosen for its balance and so that we can jointly state that ‘we bring to life what we have inherited’” was opened, celebrating the legacy of a shared ancestor who invested in the wine industry.

The second volume of the family book, “stemming from years of research by Joël Kressmann” was also presented during the event, “highlighting the family’s Bordeaux roots, founding figures, migrations and wine professions which have shaped the Kressmann culture”, concludes the press statement.