The story
Founding and early years (1805–1870s)
The Croizet cognac house was established in 1805 in Saint-Même-les-Carrières, a commune within the Grande Champagne growing area. This district is classified as the premier cru among the six designated crus of the Cognac appellation d'origine contrôlée, a classification originating with the geological survey by Henri Coquand in the 1860s and formalised by a decree of 13 January 1938. Saint-Même-les-Carrières had been a centre of limestone quarrying since the Middle Ages, and several cognac producers established cellars there, using the deep underground quarry galleries for spirit ageing.
The founder, Simon Croizet (28 September 1786 – 22 March 1854), belonged to a family of vineyard owners in Grande Champagne. The Syndicat des Maisons de Cognac describes him as a former sommelier attached to Napoleon I's Haut Commandement. He served as mayor of Saint-Même-les-Carrières from 1843 to 1847.
The founding date of 1805 is cited in cognac reference works including Nicholas Faith's Classic Brandy (2001) and Conal R. Gregory's The Cognac Companion (1997). The Croizet trademark was first registered in 1871, following French trademark legislation enacted on 23 June 1857.
Léon Benjamin Croizet and the phylloxera crisis (1870s–1911)
The phylloxera epidemic, caused by the root-feeding insect Daktulosphaira vitifoliae, devastated the vineyards of the Cognac region from the late 1860s, ultimately destroying an estimated 280,000 ha (690,000 acres) of vines in Charente and Charente-Maritime. The primary remedy—grafting European Vitis vinifera varieties onto resistant American rootstocks—was especially challenging in Grande Champagne, where the calcium carbonate-rich, chalky soils caused chlorosis in many American vine species.
Vineyard reconstitution
Léon Benjamin Croizet (27 June 1842 – 3 March 1911), born in Champmillon (now part of Val-de-Bonnieure), led the family firm from the 1870s. He proactively began observing and experimenting with vines in 1871, well before the crisis severely impacted the Charente region between 1877 and 1880. He undertook a rigorous programme of vineyard reconstitution using grafted vines on the limestone soils of Grande Champagne, eventually establishing a public experimental field in 1883 to disseminate his findings. Louis Ravaz (1863–1937), professor of viticulture at the École nationale supérieure agronomique de Montpellier, documented Croizet's contribution in Le Pays du Cognac (1900), writing that his experimental work had « certainement contribué à la sélection des cépages porte-greffes et, par suite, à la reconstitution du vignoble charentais » ("certainly contributed to the selection of rootstock varieties and, consequently, to the reconstitution of the Charentais vineyard").
The experimental vineyards established by Léon Benjamin Croizet were organised as enclosed plots known as clos—walled vineyard enclosures, a practice more commonly associated with Burgundy than with the Cognac region. A commission of the Société d'Horticulture et de Viticulture de la Charente visited the estate on multiple occasions between 1888 and 1891. In its report on the visit of 20 September 1891, the commission described the vineyard as comprising two clos totalling approximately 8 ha (20 acres), planted with grafted vines on Riparia, Solonis, Jacquez, and Rupestris rootstocks and including varieties such as Folle blanche, Jurançon, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Saint-Émilion (Ugni blanc). The commission praised the results, noting that each vine bore 10 to 15 kilograms of fully ripened grapes, and expressed the hope that other proprietors would follow Croizet's example. Notably, the commission reported that Folle blanche—a historic grape variety essential for fine cognac—thrived on the reconstituted estate, describing a half-hectare of old Folle blanche vines on American rootstocks as being of "admirable beauty" (« d'une beauté admirable »).
Léon Benjamin Croizet was appointed Chevalier of the Legion of Honour by decree of 23 February 1902, on the report of the Minister of Agriculture. His dossier (LH/633/12), preserved in the Base Léonore database maintained by the Archives nationales, includes a typed résumé des services in which Croizet stated that from 1880 he was "the first and only person who [...] actively undertook the reconstitution of the vineyard through the use of grafted American plants". The Ministry of Agriculture's official characterisation, recorded in the same dossier, describes Croizet as « l'initiateur, le propagateur, le vulgarisateur de l'œuvre de reconstitution du Vignoble Charentais, et a de ce chef rendu les plus grands services à son pays » ("the initiator, propagator, and populariser of the work of reconstitution of the Charentais vineyard, and has on this account rendered the greatest services to his country"). Like his grandfather Simon, Léon Benjamin served as mayor of Saint-Même-les-Carrières (1904–1911). The office was subsequently held by his son, Léon Émile René, from 1911 to 1919, marking three generations of civic leadership by the family.
Léon Benjamin Croizet expanded the estate by acquiring the ruins of the Château de Saint-Même in 1884 and the Logis de Flaville in the neighbouring commune of Bonneuil in 1889. A vintage advertising label reproduced in Faith's Classic Brandy (2001) shows the firm trading as "B. Léon Croizet, Propriétaire Viticulteur, à St Même près Cognac" and advertising "Vignobles entièrement reconstitués aux Châteaux de St Même et de Flaville, Grande Champagne", indicating that the reconstituted vineyards were used as a commercial distinction.
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Exhibition awards
Beyond his viticultural work, Léon Benjamin Croizet represented the firm at several major international exhibitions, where its cognacs and his reconstitution efforts both received recognition.
At the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle, Croizet served as a jury member hors concours—a distinction given to exhibitors of established reputation who served on the judging panel rather than competing for prizes—and was appointed Chevalier of the Order of Agricultural Merit. The house held the same hors concours status at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle, where Jean Eymard (Croizet's son-in-law) received a gold medal. The firm's cognacs received further recognition at international exhibitions, including a gold medal at the 1878 Paris Exposition Universelle and Grand Prix awards at the 1908 London and 1910 Brussels exhibitions.
Croizet-Eymard era (1911–2007)
Following Léon Benjamin Croizet's death in Nice on 3 March 1911, the firm passed to the Eymard family through the 1892 marriage of his daughter Léonie Croizet (born 1874) to Pierre Jean Eymard (born c. 1863). Pierre Jean Eymard was born in Havana, Cuba, into the French merchant diaspora. Gregory (1997) recorded that part of the house's pre-phylloxera reserve stock had been given as a dowry on this marriage. The company subsequently traded under the name Croizet-Eymard & Cie and later as Veuve B. Léon Croizet & Cie.
In the following generation, Pierre Léon Jean Eymard (born 1894), eldest son of Pierre Jean and Léonie, married Marie Jacqueline Camus (1902–1984), daughter of Gaston Camus (1865–1945) of the Camus cognac house—connecting the Croizet, Eymard, and Camus families.
Under the Eymard family's stewardship, the firm built a robust domestic logistics network. A surviving collection of approximately 200 commercial letters from the firm's archive, spanning 1905 to 1948 and offered at public auction in 2018, documents a wide French client base of hotels, restaurants, and regional distributors, including wartime invoices from the firm trading as P. J. Eymard & Cie (Propriétaires de Vignobles, St Même près Cognac).
International distribution
Late 19th-century trade labels described B. Léon Croizet as Fournisseur de M. le Président de la République (supplier to the President of the French Republic), as well as purveyor to the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, and in Paris to the Hôtel Continental and the Grand Hôtel. A German-language trade brochure issued by the firm c. 1900 listed commercial agents or depots in 18 cities across four continents, reflecting the breadth of the house's export network at the turn of the century.
The British distribution network was supported by independent chemical analyses. In January 1898, A. Norman Tate, a public analyst in Liverpool, examined four grades of Croizet on behalf of the London importers Cossart, Gordon and Co. Five months later, The Lancet published its own laboratory analysis of the house's shipments, noting an alcohol content of 38.50–39.30% by weight, with volatile ether content increasing with maturity.
By the late 1930s, Croizet cognac was distributed in the United States by Standard Wine & Liquor Co., a wholesale firm based at 415 Lafayette Street, New York City. Following the Second World War, the house's prestige expressions were retailed by the London department store Fortnum & Mason. A 1960s catalogue, issued under the store's royal warrant, offered the 1914 Bonaparte vintage in a gift set, marketing it on the premise that "like many of the great Cognac houses, old vintages cannot now be bought". Gregory (1997) documented that Croizet appeared on the wine lists of Michelin-starred French restaurants including Troisgros, La Tour d'Argent, and Vergé.
Vintage stocks
The firm's longstanding practice of maintaining vintage-dated stocks gained renewed commercial significance from 1988, when updated regulations permitted producers with documented provenance to sell millésimé cognacs. Faith (2001) noted that Croizet and Hine were among the houses that took advantage of this framework. Gregory (1997) wrote that the house had "shown such assiduous record-keeping that it has been permitted to sell some cognacs as single vintages". According to cognac industry sources, the firm was one of three houses—alongside Hine and Delamain—that maintained continuous records of vintage stocks during a period when the BNIC restricted commercial labelling of vintage-dated cognac from 1962.
Modern era (2007–present)
By the early 21st century, the estate was managed by Philippe Pierre Jean Gaston Eymard (1925–2013), the grandson of Pierre Jean Eymard and Léonie Croizet, who served as chairman and chief executive. On 13 February 2007, Eymard sold the Croizet cognac house to the Russian Wine Trust (RWT), a Moscow-based wine and spirits producer, importer, and distributor (the trust has since been dissolved). The transaction was widely noted in the trade press as the first significant acquisition of a cognac house by a Russian investor. The sale ended eight generations of continuous family ownership spanning 202 years.
Following the acquisition, the new ownership announced a US$15 million (equivalent to US$22,430,448 in 2025) investment programme aimed at acquiring 77 additional hectares of vines and more than doubling annual revenue to €10 million. The house gained institutional recognition under its new management when it was admitted to the Syndicat des producteurs de Cognac in the summer of 2008. The company is currently registered as a société par actions simplifiée (SAS) and managed by Marina Roy, who serves as managing director.
In the subsequent decades, the house expanded its distribution across Asian and Middle Eastern luxury markets, establishing dedicated placements at MGM Macau from 2009 and the Le Clos duty-free boutique at Dubai International Airport. In early 2026, the house formally launched operations in the Israeli market and introduced its Bonaparte Collection to target emerging sectors in South America, Africa, and India.
Croizet's commercial activity in Asia following the 2007 acquisition was historically associated with Croizet Hong Kong Limited, a separately incorporated affiliate established in 2007 by Alexander Shponko and a business partner, which presented the Cuvée Léonie 1858 at the 2011 Shanghai auction (see § Notable sales). In December 2025, the United States-based sanctions and risk-intelligence firm Kharon reported that Shponko also held stakes in several other Hong Kong-registered companies, including Cuvee Importers Limited, which the European Union designated under export restrictions in July 2025 for activities supporting the Russian defence sector. According to Kharon, Cuvee Importers had sent hundreds of shipments of items on the international Common High Priority List to Russia since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Kharon found "no ownership stake, management role, or direct involvement" by Marina Roy or Maison Croizet in the Hong Kong entities.
Trademark dispute
During this period, a trademark and trade name dispute arose between the SAS Croizet entity and Léopold Croizet (formerly Pierre Croizet), a descendant of the original family through the Eymard line who operated a separate cognac production business in the Fins Bois cru and registered the domain name croizet.com in 2000.
In a decision on 7 September 2022 (n° 21-12.602), the Cour de cassation ruled on the case, addressing the exception d'homonymie (homonymy exception)—a principle in French trademark law under which a person may use their own patronymic name in commerce, even when it conflicts with an existing trademark, provided they act in good faith and take steps to avoid confusion. The ruling ordered the transfer of the domain name to Maison Croizet while affirming the defendant's right to use the patronymic name, subject to displaying the given name in the same font size as the surname. Following the resolution, the competing entity rebranded as Léopold Croizet in 2024.
From Wikipedia’s article on Croizet, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4