What is a Négociant?

 A négociant is a wine merchant who assembles the product of smaller growers and winemakers and sells the result under its own name. Bounty Cellars not only produces wines from its own grape but is also blazing a trail as one of British Columbias premier négociant style wineries.

Négociants buy everything from grapes to grape must (pressed grapes that have not yet started to ferment) to wines in various states of completion. In the case of grapes or must, the négociant performs virtually all the winemaking. If it buys already fermented wine in barrels or 'en-vrac' - basically in bulk containers, it may age the wine further, blend in other wines or simply bottle and sell it as is. The result is sold under the name of the négociant, not the name of the original grape or wine producer.

Négociants have been operating in France for centuries. Currently over 190 négociant wineries operate in the Bordeaux region alone. Some négociants have a recognizable house style and have become world famous for their style and wines. Most notable would be Georges Duboeuf.

Négociants have been a dominant force in the wine trade for various reasons:

• Historically the owners of vineyards and producers of wine had no direct access to buyers.
• It was too expensive for growers to purchase the wine production equipment and bottling lines necessary to produce a finished wine.
• Owning only a small portion of a particular high-quality single vineyard (lieu-dit) meant that a grower often had insufficient wine from a parcel to vinify on its own. Under French inheritance laws, vineyard holdings were often split until offspring owned no more than a single row of grapes, not enough to fill a barrel .

Many négociants are also vineyard owners in their own right. In Burgundy for instance, négociants are the largest owners of vineyards. Well-known examples in Burgundy are Louis Jadot and Duboeuf, and Guigal and Jaboulet in the Rhône.