Born into a family of Bordeaux lawyers, Thierry Rustmann began his career as a lawyer at the Bordeaux Court of Appeal. For family reasons, he gave up law practice to become CEO of a Grand Cru Classé de 1855 du Médoc. A Cru Bourgeois, which he bought with his wife in 1999, was also under his management.

His dual experience as a lawyer and winegrower gave him the opportunity to advise major Bordeaux families, owners of Grands Crus Classés, with family sharing and shareholding restructuring activities. He also sat on the Board of Directors of the Union des Grands Crus and on the Board of Directors of the Conseil des Grands Crus Classés du Médoc.

Thierry played a key role in the initiative from “Les Châteaux de Saint-Julien” to mutualise waste treatment for several classified growths from the Saint-Julien appellation. Saint Julien de Beychevelle thus became the first municipality to carry out such an ecological project.

In 2005, Thierry exported his skills to the Rive Droite de la Garonne, as the General Manager of Château Beau Soleil, located within the Pomerol appellation and now a member of the Cercle Rive Droite.

Thanks to his experience as a lawyer and his successful career in managing prestigious chateaus, Thierry’s friends and neighbours were seeking his guidance with regards to valuations, growth strategy or family sharing.

Florence Forzy-Raffard grew up in the south-west of France, where her fatherwas a farmer and Armagnac producer. Having graduated in political sciences, she joined the Bordeaux Wine Bureau in 1988 as International Communications Manager. In the subsequent 18 years, she built a sound understanding of the wine industry, promoting Bordeaux in overseas markets and launching the “Bordeaux Wine School” concept that has been adopted worldwide.

In 1995, she was elected to Bordeaux’s City Council, with the Tourism portfolio, and became Deputy Chair of the Bordeaux Tourist Office. These roles matched perfectly with her job at the Bordeaux Wine Bureau, making her naturally one of the key players in launching the annual “Bordeaux Fête le Vin” (Bordeaux celebrates wine) Festival, now the leading wine tourism event in Europe.

On 1^st July 2017, she was appointed as Bordeaux’s first ambassador to the Great Wine Capitals Network for a voluntary term of two years.

In 2006, she moved to Melbourne, Australia and widened her professional experience, working for multinational corporations in Asia-Pacific. She returned to France at the end of 2011, where she became Head of Public Affairs and Communications with Keolis Group.

While she was away from Bordeaux, Florence kept close contact with the city she loves most and in 2014, she was re-elected to Bordeaux City Hall and given the portfolio for European Affairs and International Business. From then on, her life has been shared between Paris, Bordeaux and the rest of the world as she pursues her professional and municipal activities.

Florence joined Rustmann & Associés in July 2017 as Senior Partner. Her international expertise in wine, tourism, politics and business enhances the skills of the existing team so that investors and owners of winegrowing properties can benefit from world-class support.

ERIC LEYMARIE

Eric Leymarie comes from an very well-known family from the Saint-Emilion-Pomerol-Fronsac region and was involved in the management of a wine and spirits trading company for 18 years. In parallel, he was also involved in the management of the family properties in Fronsac and Pomerol until 2000. Eric knows the Bordeaux vineyard perfectly, and in particular the terroirs, appellations and chateaus from the right bank. With such a broad background covering all functions, from production to marketing, Eric joined Thierry Rustmann and his team in 2011. Since then, he has assisted and advised sellers and potential investors and conducted many successful transactions.

BRUNO EYNARD

Bruno Eynard, an agronomist by training and a native of Bordeaux, managed a very famous Grand Cru Classé from Saint-Julien for many years. He now teaches in the major agricultural schools and in prestigious business schools. Recognised in the world of wines for his technical know-how and for having participated in the development of highly innovative techniques such as sexual confusion, co-inoculation or optical sorting of the harvest, he sat on the Board of Directors of the Union des Grands Crus and the Conseil des Grands Crus Classés in 1855. He is a legal expert in viticulture and oenology at the court of appeal of Poitiers. He is a Knight of the Legion d’Honneur (a very prestigious French Honor) and a Knight of the Ordre National du Mérite.

PHILIPPE BROSSEAU

Born into a winegrowing family from Loire-Atlantique (Muscadet), holder of the National Diploma of Oenologist, Engineer and graduate of a postgraduate degree from the elite French Business School HEC, Philippe BROSSEAU started his career with Patrick de LADOUCETTE (a larg wine producer in Pouilly-Fumé, Sancerre, Chablis). He then spent fifteen years working for LVMH, initially managing the Group’s Calvados subsidiary, and then as Director of Purchasing and Development for Veuve CLICQUOT and its subsidiaries (Krug, Canard Duchène, Henriot, Cape Mentelle and Cloudy Bay). He moved to the Bordeaux wine Region to lead the Syndicat des Bordeaux & Bordeaux Supérieur, France’s leading professional wine organisation before managing a company providing services to the wine industry. With a deep economic and strategic knowledge of the wine sector, he is now a consultant and accompanies the managers of the wine industry in the management of their company and in their development projects. He is involved in two Masters’ degrees at the University of BORDEAUX. He was a Consular Judge at the Commercial Court of BORDEAUX. He is also passionate about cars and collects miniature cars.