DIVA Bordeaux

The house

DIVA was founded in Bordeaux in 1979 by 3 partners, Pierre Beuchet among them, to sell the great wines of Bordeaux abroad. Jean-Pierre Rousseau joined in 1987 and built up its network outside France. In 1998 the house was one of the 10 négociants chosen to sell Almaviva, the Chilean wine of Baron Philippe de Rothschild and Concha y Toro, through La Place, the city’s old system of brokers and merchants. DIVA works from Bacalan, on the Bordeaux waterfront.

The house looked west and east. It opened an office in California in 2008 and in 2010 set up in New York as an importer, the first of the 3 tiers through which wine is sold in the United States. By 2011 its sales had passed 30 million euros, more than half of them in Asia. In June 2012 Shanghai Sugar Cigarette and Wine, a company of the Bright Food group, agreed to take 70% of DIVA, and Pierre Beuchet and Jean-Pierre Rousseau kept about 30%. At the end of 2012 Jinfeng Wine, the group’s rice wine company listed in Shanghai, planned to take over those 70% and bring the group’s wine business into it. Jinfeng’s board put the plan on hold on November 7, 2013. DIVA bought the Geneviève Limouzy brand and its clients in 2014, and in 2022 its sales came to almost 52 million euros.

It has stayed in the group: in 2024 it was one of the companies abroad of Bright Food International, the group’s overseas arm. Jean-Pierre Rousseau, who joined in 1987, now co-chairs the supervisory board. His successor as president, since February 2025, is Ryan Brown, an Englishman who had trained for 8 years inside the house.

At a glance

Kind

Négociant

Based in

Bordeaux, at Bacalan

Founded

1979

Owner

The Bright Food group, of Shanghai, majority holder since 2012

Direction

Ryan Brown, president, since February 2025

Brands

Geneviève Limouzy, since 2014

Abroad

California, 2008; New York, 2010