02/06/2017
About Rive Gauche Wines
Who are we?
Rive Gauche Wines is a supplier of wine to the international trade. We are an independent négociant company, based in Bordeaux and founded in 2011 by Ben Kennedy, who has over 20 years’ experience in the wine business. After 15 years with top firms in London, supplying Fine Wine to all levels of the UK trade (from Tesco right up to the Royal cellars), and trading to wine professionals across Europe, Ben moved to Bordeaux in 2008 to be nearer the production end. He ran a négociant house belonging to a well-known Belgian winemaking family for two years and then created his own business.
Rive Gauche Wines specialises in sourcing top-quality wines from little-known producers, actively searching for talented, serious winemakers and supporting them in their export development. While we are based in Bordeaux, capital of the wine world, our interest and experience takes us further afield to other French regions and into Spain, where we are equally keen to share our exciting new discoveries with you. Most of the wines we offer are very low production and are not available through other channels, which allows correct margins for our customers and ensures you can offer excellent value-for-money to yours, without the threat of local competition.
Why work with Rive Gauche Wines?
Bordeaux is often regarded as a wine for the rich and is rightly famous for the luxury image of the Grands Crus Classés, but fewer consumers can afford these prices nowadays. For those who do want to buy parcels of top claret we have good access and are happy to oblige, but this is not our primary focus.
The region also produces a wealth of undiscovered, excellent value-for-money wines that have trouble making it on the international market. Even for professionals, for every famous château name you know, there are ten that you don’t. This is our core market and there is so much to discover.
The image of Bordeaux around the world can be greatly enhanced by introducing new, quality products and offering greater variety, and the same is true of our other regions. Our wines are carefully selected for a discerning consumer keen to explore and learn, but with a more realistic budget. This mid-market sector is growing in strength in many countries. We are a small company keen to over-perform on quality and service, and as our wines are not widely available this allows you to develop loyalty through your sales network and build reliable ongoing business, without the inconvenience of direct local competition, while earning correct margins.
The press is full of articles telling us that consumers around the world are drinking less wine, but that they are paying more for it. This isn’t because producers are putting their prices up or retailers are getting greedy, it’s because the consumer is learning and developing and becoming more engaged with the product. They are looking for better quality and a depth of interest that commercial brands cannot offer.
Consumers also want a more honest product, something authentic with a story that does not leave a mark on the planet. European wines for European consumers, genuine interesting products for genuine interesting people. This is what your customers are looking for and this is what we offer.
