“Négociant/Éleveurâ€
Rex Smith of Paphos Emails me: “I have just started taking in interest in wine. The other day I noticed on a bottle of French wine, at the bottom of the label, the name of the producer and the words “Négociant/Éleveur”. What do they mean?
A “Négociant" is a merchant" or "dealer," which refers to a man or woman or a company that sells and ships wine as a wholesaler. The extent of the role played by this middle-man has developed over the years. Traditionally, a Négociant bought, matured, sometimes blended, and then bottled and shipped wine. But the role expanded to include purchasing grapes and making wine.
An “Éleveur” is a person or company who buys recently fermented wine and “raises” (“Elevates”) it by means of fining, filtering, aging, blending and bottling. When these processes are undertaken by a Négociant, he is given the name “Négociant/Éleveur” which indicates the merchant played a more extensive role in producing the wine. In some transactions there is another middleman — a COURTIER or "wine broker," who helps establish the price paid by a negociant to a small producer. Some of the better-known French négociants are Barton & Guestier, Calvet, Cordier, Moueix, and Sichel.
Many noted wine producers in France are also négociants, buying in either grapes (usually from long-contracted growers) or wine, also from makers known well to them. Some who make truly fine and expensive wines secure their “bread” from high volume lines which are blends of bought in grapes or wines. Bichot, Picard, Georges Duboeuf come to mind, as does Guigal. This latter regularly produces “100-pointers” from his own tiny, but ultra-super vineyards in the Northern Rhône, whilst buying in wine from more than 130 producers in the southern part of the region to refine, blend and bottle as his million-plus bottles-a-year generic “Côtes du Rhône”. This reflect the Guigal family’s genius in wine-making and blending – it is a superb wine and at €11.96 retail from La Maison du Vin shops, it is also incredibly good value.
Bon Appetit!
Patrick Skinner
Editor
