The family empire was established in 1935 through the purchase of the famous Château Haut-Brion Graves vineyard. The buyer was the US financier and investment banker Clarence Dillon (1882-1979), who was born under the name Clarence Lapowski. His father Samuel Lapowski was a Polish-Jewish immigrant. Clarence Dillon bought a majority stake in the investment bank, later renamed "Dillon, Read & Co", in 1916. His son Clarence Douglas Dillon (1909-2003) was US Ambassador to Paris and Secretary of the Treasury under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 to 1965. From 1935 to 1975, Seymour Weller, nephew of Clarence Dillon, ran the company. It was then run by daughter Joan Dillon as president from 1975 to 2008. Her husband, Philippe, Duc de Mouchy, was general manager. In 1983, the Château La Mission Haut-Brion, as well as the nearby vineyards Château La Tour-Haut-Brion and Château Laville-Haut-Brion were purchased.
In 2011, the Saint-Émilion wineries Château L'Arrosée and in 2013 Château Tertre-Daugay were also added. The latter was renamed Château Quintus. In 2015, the two-star gourmet restaurant "Le Clarence" and the wine shop "La Cave du Château" (both in Paris) were acquired. Since 2008, Prince Robert of Luxembourg (son of Joan Dillon and great-grandson of Clarence Dillon) has led the Domaine Clarence Dillon as president. Only descendants of Clarence Douglas Dillon and his daughter Dorothy Dillon-Eweson are on the board. In 2010, Domaine Clarence Dillon and the Dillon family became founding sponsors of the wine culture centre "La Cité du Vin" in Bordeaux. This welcomes around half a million visitors a year. The company has been a member of the renowned family wineries association PFV (Primum Familiae Vini) since 2018.
