Provence, Languedoc, the Southern Rhône, Gascony, Burgundy, Beaujolais: these intriguing and diverse winemaking regions in the beautiful south of France have been the inspiration for Boutinot’s success since the company was founded in 1980. In the last three decades we have formed lasting relationships with growers in these regions, put down roots in Cairanne, the home of Domaine Boutinot, and launched innovative wines such as “Le Petit Chat Malin” and “Long Little Dog”.
Boutinot France started back in January 1990. The first office was in the middle of the vines in Julienas; perfectly located to navigate the Beaujolais and Macon regions on the quest to make beautiful wines. Samantha Bailey, who started as a wine enthusiast, was there at the beginning of this adventure. Since then she has grown into our Master Blender and has key responsibilities: building long-standing relationships, tasting, understanding the terroir and appellations, and pushing the boundaries. She is at the heart of the whole process from blending to quality assessment, making sure there is always a Boutinot touch in every cuvée.
This tailoring and tasting approach is Boutinot’s expertise. According to Samantha, “it’s a creation job, like fashion design. We have a base (grapes and great relationships) and we refine it, so people can simply enjoy.”
We are proud to also count Guillaume Letang and Julien Dugas in our winemaking team. Guillaume oversees the South of France and Languedoc, whilst Julien looks after our property in Cairanne. Together they have the local knowledge to source interesting, domaine wines or to select new blends in line with emerging customer tastes. Eric Monnin oversees every aspect of production and makes sure everything our winemakers blend and source is top quality.
We recently relocated our French office to Macon, just 20 minutes from our production hub, also known as our “one stop shop”, where our customers can conveniently collect wines from our French, Spanish and New World portfolio.