La Place de Bordeaux: «The Commercial Ecosystem of Top Wines», Says Timothée Moreau – Bgv
Last March, Michele Chiarlo has officially announced the distribution of Barolo Cerequio 2018 at La Place de Bordeaux. This is an important milestone: Cerequio is the very first Barolo – and the first Piedmontese wine – to be distributed through this prestigious French network. Entry at La Place officially includes Michele Chiarlo in the «Big League» of wine trade (as the network is often called by insiders), alongside the most famous labels in the world.
La Place de Bordeaux is one of the world’s oldest “wine markets”, dating back to the 13th century. In 1243, Louis IX granted the first licenses to sell wine, which were then codified about a century later by Philip IV. Today, La Place distributes two thirds of all wine produced in Bordeaux, connecting more than 300 négociants (wine distributors) with traders and importers from almost 170 countries around the world.
But what is La Place de Bordeaux and how does it work? We interviewed Timothée Moreau, founder of BGV – Bureau Des Grands Vins, an intermediary company that works with wine producers and the négociants of La Place.
Monsieur Moreau, thank you for granting this interview. Can you tell us about your work?
Let me use music as a metaphor to help you understand. Let’s say that a vigneron is a person who writes music using wine. While the négociants are the instruments that allow wine to be played around the world. That makes me the conductor, the person standing in the middle: I must put the music in contact with the performers, producing the best possible arrangement. Metaphor aside, I come from a family who has worked as intermediaries for Bordeaux’s top wines. I continued this tradition and founded Bureau Des Grands Vins in 2021, working as a broker for wines produced «beyond» Bordeaux (including other French wines as well as international ones). I help these wines enter the ecosystem of La Place.
What is La Place de Bordeaux?
We can define it as a complex yet highly effective distribution network founded on the relationship between three elements: the vignerons, intermediaries and distributors. It is one of the oldest wine markets in the world and offers the best professionals in the sector. In other words, La Place de Bordeaux enables wine producers to reach top clients from the most important wine markets in the world, in both a direct and widespread manner. The négociants have an advantage: they have open markets at their disposal, which allows them to build custom distribution networks dedicated to each brand. La Place is a very accurate distribution ecosystem with access to a wide range of markets, reaching clients who truly matter. Négociants can also store some vintages of wines that they purchase, always ready for when the market needs them.
Which characteristics must a label have to enter La Place?
It simply has to be the top of its class and have a certain reputation. La Place does not build wine brands from scratch but helps top-level wines gain greater notoriety and enter key markets.
La Place was born for Bordeaux wines but has now opened its doors to producers from other regions of France as well as other countries. What is the reason behind this change ?
When it comes to the most prestigious wines in the world, the clients of La Place are also interested in wines that come outside Bordeaux. La Place is a vast network equipped with cutting-edge logistics: this expanded La Place’s portfolio which covers Bordeaux as well as top labels from Champagne, Chile, Argentina and Italy.
Chiarlo has recently entered La Place: where will it go from here?
La Place does not make one-time sales but builds long-term relationships. With Chiarlo, we will begin by introducing it to top clients from target markets in order to present Barolo Cerequio, but also share the winery’s philosophy, the wines from the great crus of Piedmont and Palás Cerequio. We will be working on creating awareness, which will benefit the positioning of the entire brand.