The Trade

Négociant · Saint-Loubès

A. de Luze & Fils

Alfred de Luze was 23 when he opened his house on the quai des Chartrons in 1820, and in 1908 and 1910 it bought the whole Calon-Ségur crop.

Négociant · Saint-Émilion

Antoine Moueix - Jules Lebègue

In 1906 the Lebègue house, one of the 2 old Bordeaux names this Saint-Émilion merchant carries, helped bring château bottling back to Château Lafite.

Négociant · Pauillac

Baron Philippe de Rothschild SA

In 1924 Baron Philippe de Rothschild had the whole Mouton crop bottled at the château, and in 1933 he bought a small négoce (the merchant trade of Bordeaux) of his own, the start of this Pauillac house.

Négociant · Blanquefort

Barton & Guestier

For 10 years from 1844 the whole crop of Château Latour went to 1 Bordeaux merchant: the house Thomas Barton had opened in 1725, which still trades as Barton & Guestier.

Négociant · Le Bouscat

BéBa

A Bordeaux négociant (a merchant who buys from the châteaux and sells on) named for a couple: Basile Tesseron, who took over La Vintage Company in 2024, and his wife, Bérangère, who runs Château Larrivaux.

Négociant · Bordeaux

Beyerman

The Beyermans, Dutch in Bordeaux since 1620, owned Château Haut-Brion from 1824 to 1837, and a glass seal from their bottles has turned up in Louisiana.

Institution · Bordeaux

Bordeaux Négoce (Union des Maisons de Bordeaux)

A little over 80 wine merchant houses handle more than 98% of the trade in Gironde wine, and this is their association, the négoce’s voice inside the CIVB.

Négociant · Bordeaux

Borie-Manoux

The merchant house Eugène Borie founded in 1870 counts 2 fifth growths of Pauillac among its family’s estates: Batailley, which the Borie brothers bought in 1924, and Lynch-Moussas, in the Castéja family since 1919.

Courtier · Bordeaux

Bureau Blanchy & de Lestapis

Nicolas Ballarin and Cédric Roureau took over this Bordeaux brokerage in 2016 and kept its name of 1997; since 2020 Cédric Roureau has also led the brokers’ association of Bordeaux.

Courtier · Bordeaux

Bureau Jourdan

A Bordeaux brokerage that deals in wine by the vat as well as in bottle, from every appellation of Bordeaux, run by the 5th generation of brokers in the Jourdan family.

Courtier · Bordeaux

Bureau Laurent Quancard

Laurent Quancard, a sworn courtier, brokers the grands crus of Bordeaux, and through Excellence Vin, which he also founded, brings wines from beyond Bordeaux to its market: 40 estates in 8 countries in 2026.

Courtier · Bordeaux

Bureau Lévêque & Associés

For 5 generations the Lévêques have been brokers, and the Bordeaux firm they keep works in the grands crus, with Caroline Lévêque, sworn courtier (a broker, who places a château’s wine with the merchants) since 2012, at its head.

Négociant · Landiras

Calvet

Founded on the Rhône in 1818, Calvet came down to Bordeaux and held whole crops of the Médoc: all of Calon-Ségur’s 1899, all of Ferrière’s 1912 and 1913.

Négociant · Blanquefort

Castel Frères

The wine business that 9 Castel brothers and sisters set up in 1949 went on to buy Barton & Guestier in 2010 and to join Suntory as an owner of Château Beychevelle in 2011.

Institution · Bordeaux

CIVB (Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux)

Since the law of August 18, 1948, the growers, négociants (merchants who buy from the châteaux and sell on) and courtiers (brokers, who place the châteaux’ wine with the merchants) of Bordeaux have run their wine trade together in this council, which grew out of a committee of 1943.

Négociant · Talence

Clarence Dillon Wines

In 2005, 70 years after Clarence Dillon bought Château Haut-Brion, his great-grandson Prince Robert of Luxembourg gave the family a négoce (the merchant trade of Bordeaux), to make Clarendelle and deal in the fine wines of Bordeaux.

Institution · Bordeaux

Conseil des Grands Crus Classés en 1855

The association of the Médoc and Sauternes estates that brokers ranked by price in 1855, which guards the name of the Classification and in February 2026 brought 54 of them to Paris to taste together.

Négociant · Bordeaux

Cordier

Désiré Cordier came to Bordeaux from Lorraine in the First World War, and by 1935 he had put Gruaud-Larose, divided in 2 since 1867, back together.

Négociant · Bordeaux

DIVA Bordeaux

In 1998 DIVA was one of the 10 négociants (merchants who buy from the châteaux and sell on) chosen to sell a Chilean wine, Almaviva, through La Place; since 2012 the house has been majority owned by Shanghai’s Bright Food group.

Négociant · Bruges

Dourthe (CVBG Dourthe-Kressmann)

Pierre Dourthe, a hotelkeeper in the Landes, began trading wine in 1840, and the house that grew from it now holds estates from Belgrave to Le Boscq.

Négociant · Bordeaux

Dubos Frères

In June 1892 Château Cantemerle went by licitation (a court-ordered sale among co-owners) to the father of the Dubos brothers, whose Bordeaux house Jean-Baptiste Dubos had founded in 1785.

Négociant · Paris 17e

Duclot

Duclot sells some 500 Bordeaux châteaux in about 100 vintages, and the family company that owns it, Videlot, also owns Petrus.

Négociant · Libourne

Établissements Jean-Pierre Moueix

From the mid-1940s Jean-Pierre Moueix sold Petrus as its sole agent, and in 1961 its owner, Madame Edmond Loubat, left him a share of the estate.

Négociant · Saint-Émilion

Établissements Thunevin

In 1991 Jean-Luc Thunevin and Murielle Andraud made the first Château Valandraud, 1,291 bottles; the négoce (the merchant trade of Bordeaux) he had opened 3 years before now sells more than 2,500 wines in more than 50 countries.

Négociant · Paris

Ficofi

Philippe Capdouze, born in Bordeaux, was risk manager and treasurer at Renault when he started this members’ wine club and buying house in 1990.

Négociant · Bordeaux

H. Cuvelier & Fils

In the wine trade since 1804, the Cuvelier family bought Château Léoville Poyferré and Château Moulin Riche in 1920 and holds them still.

Négociant · Bordeaux

HMS, Société du Haut Médoc Sélection

The president of Bordeaux Négoce, who since July 2026 has also co-chaired the CIVB, runs his own firm of 6 people from a 17th-century Dutch house on the quai des Chartrons.

Négociant · Bordeaux

JJ Mortier & Cie

Louis Mortier, who founded this Bordeaux merchant house in 1889, managed Château Lafite from 1900 to 1920, and his son Jean Jules followed him at both.

Négociant · Carignan-de-Bordeaux

Joanne

In 1990 the house Paul Joanne founded in 1862 gave itself over to the grands crus of Bordeaux, and its cellars at Carignan-de-Bordeaux hold more than 5 million bottles.

Négociant · Arsac

La Passion des Terroirs

In 1992 Lucien Lurton divided his 10 Bordeaux estates among his 10 children, and that year the children set up a merchant house of their own at Arsac.

Négociant · Landiras

Les Grands Chais de France

The Helfrich family’s group came to Bordeaux from Alsace in 1991 by buying, and it now holds 4 names of the old Bordeaux trade and estates from Margaux to Sauternes.

Négociant · Bruges

Les Vins de Crus

This merchant house in the classed growths began in 1975 as a partnership between 2 export men and the family that then owned Château Cos d’Estournel.

Négociant · Moulis-en-Médoc

Les Vins Fins Anthony Barton

Anthony Barton left the family firm in 1967 to set up this house under his own name, 16 years before Langoa and Léoville came to him in 1983.

Négociant · Bordeaux

Lestapis & Cie

The Lestapis brothers came from Gascony to the Bordeaux wine trade in 1818, and their house was among those whose heads set about rebuilding the city’s commerce after Waterloo.

Négociant · Pauillac

Louis Vialard

In 1951 Louis Vialard moved to London to sell the wine of his Château Cissac himself, and the Pauillac house that grew from that move is still the only one that sells Cissac.

Négociant · Bordeaux

Mähler-Besse

Since 1938 the family of Frédérik Mähler, who came from the Netherlands at 20 and opened this house in Bordeaux in 1892, has shared Château Palmer with the Sichels.

Négociant · Ludon-Médoc

Maison Barrière

Founded in 1932 by the brothers Armand and René Barrière, this Médoc house now does the selling for the company that owns Château Beychevelle and Château Beaumont.

Négociant · Landiras

Maison Bouey

The house Roger Bouey founded with his sons in 1958 makes about 10 million bottles a year and sells 60% of them abroad, and the family has had vines in the Médoc since 1821.

Négociant · Bordeaux

Maison Descaves

Jeanne Descaves ran this Bordeaux merchant house for 74 years, and the cellar of old château-bottled grands crus she built still reaches back to 1875.

Négociant · Carignan-de-Bordeaux

Maison Ginestet

From around 1950 to 1977 the whole of Château Margaux belonged to the family of Fernand Ginestet, who had founded his merchant house in 1897.

Négociant · Bordeaux

Maison Sichel

In 1961 Peter and Diana Sichel settled at Château Angludet, in Cantenac, and set out to restore it; their family had shared Château Palmer since 1938.

Négociant · Bordeaux

Mestrezat Grands Crus

In 1906 Château Latour sold its crop for 5 years in thirds, and one third went to Mestrezat, a Bordeaux house founded in 1815 and since 2023 a company of the Laffort group.

Négociant · Bordeaux

Millésima

Patrick Bernard’s house has sold the grands crus of Bordeaux straight to private buyers since 1987, and online since 1997, out of its own cellars on the quai de Paludate.

Négociant · Bordeaux

Nath. Johnston & Fils

The Bordeaux mixture, the spray that beat mildew, was proved on the estates of Nathaniel Johnston, of an Irish merchant family that still runs its Bordeaux house.

Négociant · Lormont

Producta Vignobles

Formed in 1949 as a grouping of cooperative cellars to sell their wine together, this house of the Bordeaux cooperatives was putting appellation wines on supermarket shelves from 1960.

Négociant · Bordeaux

Schröder & Schÿler

In 1902 the Schÿlers signed to buy every future harvest of Château Kirwan, in Margaux, and in 1926 they bought the estate itself.

Négociant · Bordeaux

Seignouret Frères & Cie

Laurent Barrier had worked at this Bordeaux merchant in the grands crus for 16 years when he took control of it in May 2011, after 84 years in the Brou de Laurière family.

Institution · Bordeaux

Syndicat régional des courtiers en vins et spiritueux de Bordeaux, Gironde et Sud-Ouest

The city already regulated the brokers’ trade in the 16th century, and on June 12, 1903 the wine and spirits brokers of Bordeaux, the Gironde and the Southwest founded this association.

Courtier · Bordeaux

Tastet & Lawton

The brokers of 60 quai des Chartrons have notes on every Bordeaux vintage back to 1795, and ledgers older still, begun by Abraham Lawton, who came from Cork in 1739.

Négociant · Etikhove

Thienpont Wine

In 1979 the Thienponts judged 1 hectare of Pomerol too dear at 1 million francs, and Jacques Thienpont, who oversees the family’s wine house today, bought it himself: it became Le Pin.

Négociant · Bruges

Twins

Alain Moses, a former Bordeaux broker, founded Twins in 1994, and his twin sons now run a house that owns no vineyard and sells the wines of about 500 estates in 70 markets.

Négociant · Margaux-Cantenac

Ulysse Cazabonne

Since 1994 the Margaux merchant house that 3 members of the Médoc’s wine brotherhood founded in 1976 has belonged to Chanel, and it works beside Château Rauzan-Ségla, its sister estate.

Négociant · Puisseguin

Vintex

Founded in 1982 by William Blatch, an Englishman in Bordeaux, Vintex made its name on Sauternes, Barsac and the American trade; Thea, a group from Provence, has owned it since 2017.

Négociant · Gironde-sur-Dropt

Yvon Mau

The Entre-deux-Mers house Aristide Mau founded in 1897 and named for his son Yvon had 2 of the 10 best-selling Bordeaux brands in 2011, Yvecourt and Premius.

Cooperage group · Paris 8e

Charlois

The Charlois line in oak goes back to a stave splitter of 1657, and the group grew out of a workshop Eugène Charlois opened at Murlin, in the Nièvre, in 1928.

Château cooperage · Pauillac

Château Lafite Rothschild cooperage

Few estates make their own barrels and Lafite does: 5 coopers at Pauillac make 2,000 barrels for the Rothschild family’s estates, each toasted for the wine it will hold.

Château cooperage · Margaux

Château Margaux cooperage

Nearly one quarter of the barrels at Château Margaux are made at home, by a cooper of its own, in a cooperage set beside the cellars of the château built from 1810.

Château cooperage · Martillac

Château Smith Haut Lafitte cooperage

Daniel Cathiard hired a master cooper in 1993, and today Smith Haut Lafitte makes almost all of its barrels at home, in its own cooperage at Martillac.

Cooperage group · Paris 8e

Chêne & Cie

In September 1997 Henri de Pracomtal, who had chaired the management board of Hennessy, bought the cognac house’s cooperage, Taransaud, and built a family oak group around it.

Cooperage · Montagne

Darnajou

The François family’s TFF Group bought this cooperage beside Saint-Émilion in 2019 and, the next year, 80% of a stave mill, in part to make sure of fine oak for it.

Cooperage · Saint-Caprais-de-Bordeaux

Demptos

A cooperage that has made barrels at Saint-Caprais-de-Bordeaux since 1825 and sends about 4 in 5 of them out of France, from a house with workshops in Napa, Spain, Hungary and China.

Cooperage · Gensac-la-Pallue

Doreau Tonneliers

Thierry Doreau started a cooperage near Cognac in 1989 and built it up mill by mill into a group of 120 people on 3 sites, which Charlois bought, with Hennessy as partner, in 2021.

Institution · Paris 16e

Fédération des Tonneliers de France

French coopers submitted their statutes for approval in 1268, and their federation now gathers 67 cooperages in 3 regional associations, for Burgundy, the Charentes and the Southwest.

Cooperage · Saint-Romain

François Frères

From the cooperage Joseph François opened at Saint-Romain, in Burgundy, in 1910, his family built TFF Group, which owns the Bordeaux cooperages Demptos and Darnajou and Radoux of Jonzac.

Cooperage · Ludon-Médoc

Nadalié

Auguste Nadalié opened his cooperage in Montpellier in 1902; his family later brought it to Ludon, in the Médoc, and opened another in the Napa Valley in 1980.

Cooperage group · Cognac

Oeneo

Oeneo, the Cognac group of the Hériard Dubreuil family, sells about 60,000 barrels a year under Seguin Moreau, a name with roots in 1838, and the stoppers of Diam.

Cooperage · Jonzac

Radoux

A cooperage that reads the tannin in each stave by near infrared light before a barrel is made, grown from the shop Robert Radoux opened at Jonzac in 1947 to repair barrels and vats.

Cooperage · Merpins

Seguin Moreau

In 2014 Seguin Moreau, born of 2 Charente workshops of the 19th century, helped Château Dauzac build wooden fermentation vats with 2 transparent staves, to let the estate’s team watch the grapes ferment.

Cooperage · Saint-Denis-de-Pile

Sylvain

Gérard Sylvain repaired barrels in Libourne in 1957; the 2nd and 3rd generations of his family now make about 20,000 new ones a year at Saint-Denis-de-Pile.

Institution · Paris

Syndicat des Mérandiers de France

The 30 French stave makers of this association work 1 step before the cooper, and in 2024 they made 37,252 cubic meters of merrain (the split oak staves a barrel is made from).

Cooperage · Merpins

Taransaud

A family of coopers since 1672, whose cooperage, founded in 1940 and rebuilt at Merpins after the fire of 1968, began making wine barrels beside its cognac casks in 1988.

Cooperage group · Saint-Romain

TFF Group

From the barrels it began making at Saint-Romain, in Burgundy, in 1910, the François family has built a listed group that owns 2 cooperages in Bordeaux and supplies oak to the bourbon trade.

Cooperage · Archiac

Tonnellerie Allary

At Archiac, in the cognac country, the cooperage Roger Allary opened in 1953 has made casks as small as 1 liter and conical vats as large as 45,000 liters.

Cooperage · Les Gonds

Tonnellerie Baron

A family cooperage at Les Gonds, near Saintes, that plants 1 oak for every barrel it sells and sends about 70% of them abroad, in a trade Henri Baron took up in 1875.

Cooperage · Vertheuil

Tonnellerie Berger & Fils

The Berger family founded this cooperage at Saint-Estèphe in 1954, and today its 8 coopers make every barrel in the house’s own workshop, a few kilometers inland at Vertheuil.

Cooperage · La Charité-sur-Loire

Tonnellerie Berthomieu

A cooperage begun at Vinay early in the 20th century, which made small chestnut barrels for the Beaujolais poured in restaurants and now belongs to Charlois, a family of stave makers.

Cooperage · Martillac

Tonnellerie Bordelaise

Gaëtan Martos was one of the coopers of this independent workshop at Martillac, in Pessac-Léognan, from 2001 to 2004; in October 2023 he and Cyril Morosi bought it.

Cooperage · Cognac

Tonnellerie Leroi

In 1824 the cognac house Martell had 75 coopers making and looking after up to 130 barrels a week, and in 2006 its cooperage became Tonnellerie Leroi.

Cooperage · Galgon

Tonnellerie Millet

Guy Millet founded this cooperage at Puisseguin in 1952; his son Dominique moved it to Galgon and, when Oeneo took 51% in 2018, kept 49% and stayed on to run production.

Cooperage · Ladoix-Serrigny

Tonnellerie Rémond

For 37 years from 1989 Catherine Desbois-Mouchel led this Burgundy cooperage at Ladoix-Serrigny, founded in 1954, which TFF Group has owned outright since March 2026.

Cooperage · Saint-Pantaléon-de-Larche

Tonnellerie Saury

François Cabrié founded this cooperage in the Minervois in 1873, but it carries the name of his grandson Marius Saury, whose son Marcel took it to Brive in 1952.

Cooperage · Cognac

Tonnellerie Vicard

About 40,000 barrels a year, 70% of them for export, come out of the Cognac cooperage that Paul Vicard joined in 1925, working beside his wife’s father.

House of the past · Bordeaux

Armand Lalande et Cie

In October 1881 Armand Lalande, a merchant of the Chartrons, presided over the international phylloxera congress at Bordeaux, and the delegates were taken to see his own Château Cantenac Brown.

House of the past · Bordeaux

Bethmann

This Protestant banking family from Frankfurt shared Gruaud-Larose for decades and gave Bordeaux a mayor, Alexandre de Bethmann, who built the Fontaine des Trois Grâces on the Place de la Bourse.

House of the past · Bordeaux

Cruse et Fils Frères

The house Hermann Cruse founded on the quai des Chartrons in 1819 bought the crops of Lafite, Rauzan-Ségla and Ducru-Beaucaillou, and his family bought Pontet-Canet and Laujac.

House of the past · Bordeaux

David Gradis et Fils

From 1717 to 1792 the Gradis, a Bordeaux house of shipping, trade and banking, fitted out 244 ships for the French colonies, and in the 1750s they supplied French Canada.

House of the past · Bordeaux

Eschenauer

For the 10 vintages from 1907 to 1916, the house Louis Eschenauer opened in Bordeaux in 1821 shared the crop of Château Margaux with 2 other merchants.

House of the past · Bordeaux

Journu Frères, Kappelhoff et Cie

The head of this Bordeaux house owned Château Saint-Pierre, in Saint-Julien, with his brother-in-law, and the house bought its wine until 1916, the 10th year running that it shared the Château Margaux crop.

House of the past · Bordeaux

L. Rosenheim et Fils

For 5 vintages, from 1912 to 1916, the whole crop of Château Lafite went to this Bordeaux house, which around 1900 bought the crops of great Médoc estates year after year.

Institution · Bordeaux

Musée du Vin et du Négoce

The museum of the Bordeaux wine trade sits where the barrels once lay, in the vaulted cellars of an 18th-century merchant’s house in the Chartrons that had been a royal broker’s under Louis XV.

House of the past · Saint-Yzans-de-Médoc

W. & A. Gilbey

For 125 years the London wine and spirits house of Walter and Alfred Gilbey kept Château Loudenne, with its own harbor on the Gironde, to gather and age its Médoc wines.