A
négociant is the
FrenchFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language by about 136 million people worldwide. Around 190 million people speak French as a second language, and an additional 200 million speak it as an acquired foreign language. French speaking communities are present in 57 countries and territories...
term for a
wineWine is an alcoholic beverage, typically made of fermented grape juice. The natural chemical balance of grapes is such that they can ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes or other nutrients. Wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast consumes...
merchant who assembles the produce of smaller growers and winemakers and sells the result under its own name.
Négociants buy everything from
grapeA grape is the non-climacteric fruit, botanically a true berry, that grows on the perennial and deciduous woody vines of the genus Vitis. Grapes can be eaten raw or used for making jam, juice, jelly, vinegar, drugs, wine, grape seed extracts, raisins, and grape seed oil...
s to grape
mustMust is freshly pressed fruit juice that contains the skins, seeds, and stems of the fruit. The solid portion of the must is called pomace; it typically makes up 7%–23% of the total weight of the must. Making must is the first step in winemaking...
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.
Some négociants have a recognizable house style. For example,
Georges DuboeufGeorges Duboeuf is the founder of Les Vins Georges Duboeuf, one of the largest and best-known wine merchants in France...
was notorious for using
yeastYeasts are eukaryotic micro-organisms classified in the kingdom Fungi, with the 1,500 species currently described estimated to be only 1% of all yeast species. Most reproduce asexually by budding, although a few do so by binary fission...
that produced a pronounced
bananaBanana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red. In popular culture and commerce, "banana" usually refers to soft, sweet "dessert" bananas. Bananas from a...
aroma.
Négociants, who are also called Wine Merchants/Traders, were the dominant force in the wine trade until the last 25 years 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 press
A fruit press is a device used to separate fruit solids - stems, skins, seeds, pulp, leaves, and detritus - from fruit juice.-Cider press:A cider press is used to crush apples or pears. In North America, the unfiltered juice is referred to as cider, becoming known as apple juice once filtered; in...
es and bottling lineBottling lines are production lines that fill a product, generally a beverage, into bottles on a large scale.-Wine bottling process:The first step in bottling wine is depalletising, where the empty wine bottles are removed from the original pallet packaging delivered from the manufacturer, so that...
s necessary to produce a finished wine.
- Owning only a small portion of a particular high-quality single vineyard (lieu-dit
Lieu-dit is a French wine term which in its typical usage translates as "vineyard name" or "named vineyard". Typically, a lieu-dit is the smallest piece of land which has a traditional vineyard name assigned to it...
) 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 barrelA barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container, traditionally made of vertical wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. Traditionally, the barrel was a standard size of measure referring to a set capacity or weight of a given commodity. For example, a beer barrel was originally a 36...
. Since prices for a premier cru are typically higher than for wines from a larger area like a village or region, the grower could make more money selling off the production as the premier cru rather than blending it into a less specific appellation.
Many négociants are also vineyard owners in their own right. In
BurgundyBurgundy wine is wine made in the Burgundy region in eastern France, in the valleys and slopes west of the Saône River, a tributary of the Rhône. The most famous wines produced here - those commonly referred to as "Burgundies" - are red wines made from Pinot Noir grapes or white wines made from...
for instance, négociants as
Bouchard Père et FilsBouchard Père et Fils is a French wine grower, négociant and producer based in Beaune, in the Côte de Beaune wine-growing region of Burgundy, France....
and Faiveley are among the largest owners of vineyards. Well-known examples in Burgundy are
Louis JadotMaison Louis Jadot is a wine company that produces and markets Burgundy wine. Louis Jadot operates both their own vineyards and has a négociant business...
, Joseph Drouhin and Vincent Girardin, in Beaujolais
Georges DuboeufGeorges Duboeuf is the founder of Les Vins Georges Duboeuf, one of the largest and best-known wine merchants in France...
and
GuigalGuigal, formally Établissements Guigal, is a winery and négociant business situated in Ampuis in the northern part of the Rhône region in France. Guigal produces wine from appellations across the Rhône region, but is particularly noted for their Côte-Rôtie wines and played a pioneering role in...
and Jaboulet in the
RhôneThe Rhône wine region in Southern France is situated in the Rhône river valley and produces numerous wines under various Appellation d'origine contrôlée designations...
.