Charles Thomas, Sales Director of Cos d'Estournel and Domaines Reybier.

Why a highly structured sales force matters…

For this first episode, Caroline Meesemaecker sat down with Charles Thomas, Sales Director of Cos d'Estournel and Domaines Reybier, to talk about how estates build commercial strength.

Cos d'Estournel is now on the finest tables in the world. Is that part of your strategy, and how did you build it?

"It has been a Cos strategy for a long time. We have a fairly visionary owner who wanted to go beyond the Place de Bordeaux in terms of distribution - still going through the Place, but also paying attention to what happens next, working closely with the négociants who matter to us and who showcase our wines well.

We've also had a sales team dedicated to this for almost 10 years. It focuses on the key strategic regions - the United States, which builds brands, and Asia, an important market for us, especially Shanghai. One person now covers Singapore and the South Pacific islands as well.

And we don't forget our dear Europe. We have a Europe sales manager based here, with a strong presence in England and France, often covering the Southeast, the Southwest, Paris, the Alps, and increasingly Burgundy and Alsace. People think about exports, but you have to be present on your home market, too.

As for being on the world's finest tables - I think we're there. Nothing is ever perfect, but it's a goal we keep pushing toward. We're lucky to have Wine Services helping us identify those tables: who's on them, who isn't, and how we can strengthen our presence."

How did the idea of structuring a field team - with a direct line to the vineyard - take shape at Cos d'Estournel?

"You mentioned wines from outside Bordeaux - the Italians, the Super Tuscans, some of which increasingly go through the Place de Bordeaux. There are also the Napa wines, some of which use the Place for everything outside the U.S., notably Asia and sometimes Europe, to get wider reach.

For Bordeaux, this is fairly recent. Estates used to rely on the Bordeaux trade, especially for the primeurs. Thanks to influential critics, they sold to négociants who then did the work - but owners didn't really watch what happened next.

For nearly 15 or 20 years now, some estates with the means have traveled more than the négociants to make sure their brand is well represented in the markets. That drive to know your consumer, or at least your markets, is quite new in Bordeaux - and it's a shift that's only just beginning.

That's why we chose to put people in the field nearly 10 years ago. The goal is to work hand in hand with local distribution - never to bypass the négociant, distributor, or importer, but to collaborate so our wines reach the points of sale we target, with their logistics and sales power. A lot is changing in Bordeaux, and it involves certain négociants too - those increasingly present on the ground, in Japan, China, and the United States, where the work is painstaking and some négociants have remarkable teams in place."

Looking ahead, what are the big challenges for your commercial development - in markets, network, or distribution systems?

"I sense that négociants will be more and more selective with their partner estates, and vice versa. Estates will choose their négociants more carefully, with the idea of building a real book of business. That's becoming crucial, especially for the primeurs.

For me, that's clearly the future of the trade: in the end, I don't think distributors and négociants will settle for being simple intermediaries - except perhaps a few brokers here and there. What will count is a shorter chain: fewer partners, but trade and distribution partners genuinely invested in working our wines, in close collaboration.

There's also the downstream side. We're far from done. Look at the restaurants opening - in Bordeaux alone, there was little here ten years ago, and today it's completely changed. Other cities are following, and there's real potential to grow our presence in fast-expanding countries.

The idea is to make our wines even more present - on restaurant tables, at wine shops, with consumers. I really think we're at the start of a new, far more professional era taking shape in Bordeaux. And négociants are sharing more statistical data, which wasn't always in their culture. With those tools, we can fine-tune our presence based on what works. We used to see things in one dimension; now we see them in three."