We Are the Largest Wine Producer in France

Collective experience and expertise in one cooperative

Fifty years ago, seven French growers pooled their slender resources in Corbières to make red wines. In this rugged Cathar country between Narbonne and Toulouse, a wine cooperative was born.

Vintage by vintage, more growers reached out to join what has become Vinadeis, the No. 1 wine cooperative group in France. That’s 1,600 growers and 700 employees working on 42,000 acres of vines, 45 estates, and 13 vinification centers to make 28 million cases of wine for France, the United States and 134 other export destinations.

Working
Hard
Together

In France, more than half of all grape growers are members of cooperatives.

One grape variety from one terroir may get completely different winery attention than the same native grape from another parcel in the same vineyard. Work in the field, harvest, winemaking, blending styles and needs are unique to the vineyard and the brand. That’s what makes the taste!

To make good wine on a large scale, it takes patience, teamwork and speed. High-tech fermentation and blending tanks, all kinds of barrel sizes and constant vineyard soil analyses, even the right bottle top, are essential, especially with the ever-increasing Vinadeis vineyards. Beyond that, there is the practical cooperative sharing of expertise, bargaining and marketing power and innovation.

Bertrand
Girard

CEO Vinadeis

Born in his family’s Cognac vineyards, Bertrand Girard left home to travel the world and discovered his heart remained in the vineyard. In the process, he founded a French wine import company in China, taught strategy to MBA students and managed the Asian and global marketing arm of the largest French wine marketing group. Along the way, he became proficient in English, Spanish and Mandarin.

"Vinadeis is at the very source of wine with a unique vineyard, a beautiful 'garden' of 42,000 acres, three times bigger than Manhattan (14,478 acres) under a bountiful sun, bordering the Mediterranean Sea but also nestling in the foothills of the Pyrenees, surrounding the city of Carcassonne, hidden in the heart of the Corbières, winding along the Canal du Midi. We also have vines in terrific terroir pockets in Bordeaux."

Frédéric
Alcouffe

Buying Manager and Winemaker

After obtaining an agricultural engineering diploma and then a national oenology diploma, Frédéric Alcouffe worked in Bordeaux for nearly 10 years, looking after the selection and purchasing of wines in France and abroad for different wine merchants in Bordeaux (William Pitters, André Quancard, Oenoalliance) and then in the Languedoc (Moncigale). He joined the Vinadeis group in 2012, taking charge of the Wine division.

"We work with our growers to help them extract the best from their vineyards.

There are usually several of us at the tastings. The more we are, chances of obtaining good results are greater. Vinadeis is a very interesting organization where the shareholders are winegrowers: a collective of large wineries producing big brands and also small, family-run estates practicing organic and biodynamic viticulture.

For each wine, a very strict production protocol is defined in agreement with the growers. This protocol covers different phases: harvest (grape variety, age of the vines, yield, sun exposure...); vinification (processing of the grapes when collected and taken to the cellar, vinification technique, custom blending, temperature control); and ageing (choice of oak, micro-oxygenation, maturing...)"

What's in
the glass?

Le Val is our garden-vineyards, the most beautiful varietal wine selection of our winegrowers.

Grapes are selected in the vineyards of Aquitaine, the Languedoc Mediterranean basin and the Rhône Valley for good quality at every price level–from Sunday night pizza wine to fine Bordeaux and Grand Cru.

There are varietal and appellation wines from châteaux and domaines, from small- and large-parcel co-op growers and from organic and biodynamic vineyards. A growing number of winegrowers are joining so look for your wine choices to increase. Every wine is sustainable and traceable from the vines to the bottle. It’s the promise only Vinadeis growers can–and do–make for every grape at such a large volume.

You’ll like these growers’ wines in your glass.