The company "Carl Tesdorpf Weinhandel zu Lübeck" was founded in 1678 by the later mayor of Lübeck Peter Hinrich Tesdorpf (1648-1723). He came from an old-established, respected Lübeck patrician family, which had worked in the Hanseatic city for many centuries with the best connections in cultural and political circles. The family provided numerous senators and mayors and is inseparably connected with the history of the city of Lübeck. The trading house also supplied Napoleon (1769-1821), among others. During this time the French stored their red wine filled in barrique barrels in the maritime climate of Lübeck and found out that it matured better here than at home. This was the birth of a new wine, which has become a household name to this day under the name Rotspon.