The Johnstons are among the most long standing négociants in Bordeaux, established in 1743 on the Quai des Chartrons in Bordeaux, then in the English cellars on the outskirts of Bordeaux, and after the second world war, they divided into two separate companies namely Maison Nathaniel Johnston & son based on the Quai des Chartrons, in Bordeaux and the Maison Raoul Johnston based on chateau Malecot at Pauillac in the Médoc.
The family is scottish in origin and since its arrival in Bordeaux in 1720 has been involved with wine. In the beginning dealing in cereals, they added a range of wines to their catalogue, and the wine itself rapidly became one of the major activities of the company. The wines most in demand were the houses wines, the claret whose development has been painstaking and which represents the pride of the establishment, its best kept secret. There were also the important crus, Hermitages, Graves, Médoc and Sauternes.
The Johnston wines were vinified in the English cellars on the outskirts of Bordeaux towards Pessac, which leads to the chateaux of Haut Brion and Pape Clément. Their capacity comprised 25 000 barrels and 2 millions bottles.
Something essential was discovered in the cellars of Maison Johnston, essential to the keeping qualities of wines ; how to prevent the oxidisation of wine by the use of sulphur. By using a Dutch match, made incidentally with sulphur, it was possible to look inside the barrels to check their cleanliness and thus it was discovered that the wines exported by Maison Johnston did not suffer from oxidisation, not was it necessary to take the usual preventive action of mixing in stronger wines better able to travel the long distances required for export.
The practice was a jealously guarded secret for a long time thus allowing the Johnston wines to enormously develop their export trade.
In the course of the XIX century, the Johnstons set about acquiring a certain number of Chateaux, amongst which one thinks of Ducru beaucaillou, Dauzac, Phélan Ségur.
The Bordeaux mixture, a well-know, concoction of copper sulphate as its base was discovered and experimented with for the first time in the vineyard of Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou at Saint-Julien and developed by professor Alexis MILLARDET.
The standing of the Johnston family was considerable toward the middle of XIX century evidenced by the fact that Nathaniel Johnston was invited to attend with two colleagues in the formation of the celebrated 1855 classification of the wines from the Médoc and the Graves for the great exhibition.
The day after the second world war broke out, Raoul Johnston
left his twin brother Nathaniel to take over the associated Algerian
Company of Maison ESCHENAUER :
The Great Algerian Wines.
He returned in 1961 and founded his own company which he based in Pauillac right in the heart of Medoc at Saint-Lambert half between the chateaux Pichon Lalande and Lynch Bages.
Raoul Johnston is located in the heart of the Grands Crus and it is from his privileged position that the wines are marketed and important links are established with the very best in the world of wines.
From 1987 Jean-Marie Johnston has been developing the range of operations to include supervising the making of wines, not only in Bordeaux, but also in Gascogny and Languedoc taking advantage of all the technical advances developed in the Antipodes as concerns the white wines, and of the new methods of wine making used in Bordeaux for the red wines.