History
Our estate is located in Alsace, in eastern France. When our ancestors settled in Guebwiller in the sixteenth century, the Prince Abbots of the Murbach abbey were largely controlling the vineyard. The French Revolution, at the end of the eighteenth century, led to the end of their influence and allowed land redistribution.
In 1810, Nicolas Schlumberger (1782-1867) set up his textile machinery factory in Guebwiller. To mark his attachment to the land, he also bought about 20 hectares of vines. In doing so, he laid the foundations of a rare conjunction of human search for perfection and land:
The "Domaines Schlumberger” were born.
Three generations later, Ernest Schlumberger (1885–1954) assumed control of the estate. Deeply affected by the phylloxera that hit it in the early twentieth cetury, the Guebwiller vineyard had been abandoned by most of the winegrowers.
Shrewdly, Ernest Schumberger realised the opportunity in front of him. He bought as many plots of land as he could and replanted vines.
He then arranged the whole vineyard in terraces and introduced horizontal vine planting.
Eric Beydon-Schlumberger arrived in Guebwiller in 1971 and fully involved himself in the company. We owe to him the replanting of the ageing vineyard and the international reputation of the Domaines Schlumberger.
History
The family of Schlumberger comes from Souabe, a German region today a part of Bade Wurtemberg.
Claus Schlumberger was the first to settle in Guebwiller in the XVI century under the period of the monks “The Princes Abbés”.
As he couldn’t bare the domination of the monks, he moved to Mulhouse, a free and protestant town.
At his death, several Schlumberger family members came from Souabe to settle in Mulhouse. Like Claus himself most of them were tanners.
Several generations followed one another and in the XVII Century Schlumberger was one of the biggest families in Mulhouse.
Peter Schlumberger (1750-1830) Nicolas’s father invested in the fabric factory Jean–Henri Dollfus, the most important one at this period.
Nicolas Schlumberger was born in 1782. He relocated from Mulhouse to Guebwiller in 1810 where he created a factory of fabric machines. He also bought 20 hectares of vineyard and enlarged the cellars.
He married Marie Elisabeth Bourcart: and they had 9 children together.
Nicolas died in 1867, three of his sons (Nicolas Junior, Jean and Adolphe) took charge of the factory. Nicolas Junior and Adolphe quickly gave up.
Jean Schlumberger inherited all the vineyards, lands and forests. He married Clarisse Dollfus in 1845: they had 6 boys
Ernest, one of their sons, married Caroline Trautmann in 1882 (they had 7 children) Fond of nature, he settled at the Castle of Bonnefontaine, a gift from his father, Jean.
Paul, another of Jean’s sons, married Marguerite de Witt: they had 6 children.
In order to avoid them being German (at this time Alsace was annexed by the Germans) Paul settled in Paris with his family. His sons Conrad, Marcel and Daniel moved to the USA and founded the oil company Schlumberger (today it also produces electric meters, phone boxes, parking meter…). Maurice, another son launched the bank Neuflize Schlumberger and Mallet (N.S.M).
Another of Ernest’s sons (also named Ernest –1885-1954) returned to Guebwiller in order to look after the factory as well as the vineyard.
He married his cousin Christine Schlumberger (1894-1971): they had 2 girls Anne (1914) and Clarisse (1919). We have named our more prestigious cuvees after the name of these 3 exceptional women.
Ernest (junior) was a vine fanatic and he spent all his life taking care of it.
He was conscious of the renown of the family and was the only one to carry out all the necessary works to improve the vine.
After the disease of phyloxera has destroyed the whole vineyard, he replanted it and took the advantage in buying more plots. He then enlargened the vineyard from 40 hectares to 110 hectares. He also adopted the horizontally planting system.
His daughter Anne married Roger Koch. She has 4 children.
Clarisse, the second daughter married Jean Beydon: they have 3 sons.
At Christine Schlumberger’s death, Eric, the oldest son of Clarisse took care of the vineyard like his ancestor Jean did in the past.
Since my father Eric has retired in 2001, his brother Alain and myself are handing on the torch.