Grand Cru Imports has forged strong and lasting relationships in the French wine world. In particular, Bordeaux, Champagne, Burgundy, Alsace and the Languedoc. We’ve also spent a considerable amount of time in Tuscany, cultivating relationships with top producers.

Stephan von Neipperg
Château d’Aiguilhe
Côtes de Castillon, Bordeaux, France

Tell us about the history of Château d'Aiguilhe. Château D’Aiguilhe is a ruin, unfortunately. It’s good for me as the ruins are less expensive than big châteaux and for a small farmer like me, a small poor farm, the ruin is better. The history is going back, we know in the 13th century, they're still making wine back then, so nothing new.

Clotilde Chauvet
Champagne Marc Chauvet
Rilly la Montagne, Champagne, France

What are the soils and climate like in Rilly la Montagne. The climate is changing so we do have to adapt our winemaking, and also the decision of picking earlier than it's ever been riping, much more than it's ever been. On the terroir side of it, we're really on chalk and limestone, that's really helping us to do the wine want to achieve because it's when it comes to chalk, the wine behind that is always quite lean, with a lot of finesse and quite tight.

Xavier & Caroline Perromat
Château de Cérons
AOC Cérons, Bordeaux, France

Do you have a mentor in your career? If so, who is he/she and what was his/her influence? There is one person, a friend, who affected me a lot, who is now dead. He was Paul Pontallier, the director of Château Margaux. He brought me along on a life-changing trip to Chile which I will never forget.

Jean-Luc Zell
Château D’Agassasc
Haut-Médoc,Bordeaux, France

Did you go through formal training or did you learn on the job? I had the chance to have parents who were working in the restaurant industry and grandparents who were farmers, and because I have been in contact with farming/agriculture since my youngest age, and with the restaurant industry thanks to my parents, it brought me into wine on one hand, and into winemaking on the other hand. And I think these two elements brought me to wine, in one hand the desire to taste products, having been educated and taught by my parents about the quality of French wines, and in the other hand the love for agriculture through my grandfather. These are the two facets/sides that brought me to winemaking and to wine, naturally.

Tristan Luquot
Château Cruzeau
Saint-Émillion, Bordeaux, France

What’s your philosophy? We at Chateau Cruzeau try to maintain a certain level of quality, in that we would like to position our wines as connoisseur wines and not wines for the general public that please everyone. We love the fact that we have people coming back to us because they are used to our quality of work. There is a saying in English that doesn’t really exist in French and that represents well what we are trying to do here: We don’t make wine, we craft wine.

Valerie Dubourg
Château Nicot
Entre-Deux-Mers, Bordeaux, France

What is your earliest memory of wine? When I was still little, I would say that I fell into wine because we have a very long history with the vineyard and been winemakers for 4 generations now. It is an honour for me to continue with the family business.

What is the most rewarding part of your career? For me, the most rewarding part is selling the wine and being the last step of the winemaker’s journey with each vintage. The business side is the most rewarding; to be in front of your customers, explaining to them why we make wine and to explain to them what they are drinking, that’s the best recognition, and especially when they appreciate it, that’s when we have the desire to do even more, even better. 

Florent Genty
Domaine Delon
Pomerol, Bordeaux, France

Where are you at for the 2019 harvest? Today is September 17th and we will start harvesting tomorrow in the morning. We will start with the oldest plots of Merlot, as you know, Léoville-Las Cases has pretty old vines aged 50 to 55 years old on average. We have the chance to get very old plots of Merlot producing much less, but very high quality.

Jean-François Delon
Château Segur de Cabanac &
Château Moulin de la Rose
Saint-Estephe & Saint-Julien, Bordeaux, France

Tell us about how you got into wine and a little bit about your family history. I am the 7th generation of winemakers. My grandparents, great grandparents, were winemakers in more prestigious properties, notably Leoville-Las Cases, Phelan Segur, Patache d’Aux, and now, with the divisions, we come up with two properties, Château Moulin de La Rose and Château Ségur de Cabanac. 

Stephane Moulinier
Domaine Moulinier
Saint-Chinian Languedoc, France

Tell us about the future of Domaine Moulinier. I have a daughter who is 20 years old and one thing is for sure, just like my father, I won’t push her to become a winemaker. My father is still in the business too, so for now I’m not worried. I trust that things will come naturally, but I believe that there will be the 7th generation of winemakers.