These days, when Bibi Graetz visits Bordeaux and bumps into négociants who once distributed his wines, the conversations can get uncomfortable. Some are angry. Some are just strange. A few still insist they want to keep trying.
“My answer is usually, let’s drink a glass of Bordeaux,” says Graetz when talking to us during Vinexpo Asia in Hong Kong, with the kind of smile that suggests he means it as a peace offering, not a provocation.
It has been quite a journey to get here. Seven years ago, Graetz became one of the most closely watched success stories in La Place de Bordeaux’s push beyond Bordeaux – the ancient, extraordinarily powerful network of merchants and négociants that has long served as the global distribution machine for the world’s most coveted wines.
His entry into the system catapulted Bibi Graetz from a niche Tuscan producer into a globally recognised fine wine brand. Sales of his two flagship wines – Testamatta and Colore – went from a few thousands to around 200,000 bottles.
He calls it “100 times” growth. “We had a really amazing journey together in the US and Italy and all the markets,” he says. “Really shocking.”
And then, just as dramatically, it all came apart.
A Brand Built on Ancient Vines and Family Land
Before La Place, before the critic scores and the collectors, there was simply a family with land in Tuscany.
The Graetz family is a family of artists who happen to own vineyards overlooking Florence. For most of that time, the grapes were made into wine for the table nothing more. It was only in 2000 that Bibi Graetz formally took over, began treating the vineyards seriously, and released the estate’s first commercial vintage.
The wines, drawn from old Sangiovese vines planted across terraced hillside plots, quickly attracted attention. Critics noticed. Collectors followed. By the time Graetz started contemplating a move into La Place, he had spent five years preparing for it: building the brand, assembling a team, and developing the mindset required for a leap of that scale.
“I already had the mindset that I wanted to expand,” he says. “I wanted to bring my brand to another level.”
Once inside the system, the winery committed fully. Five full-time staff were assigned to manage the La Place operation. Around 800 samples were dispatched each year to buyers around the world. Production volumes climbed to meet surging demand. By almost any measure, the early years of the partnership were a triumph.
The Moment the System Stopped Working
Growth, however, has a ceiling. And when Bibi Graetz hit its, the landing was hard.
Graetz is careful not to frame what happened next as a simple failure of La Place. He acknowledges the logic: when you scale from 10,000 to 200,000 bottles in five years, a period of stabilisation is almost inevitable. “It’s quite natural that there is a moment of stability,” he says.
But what followed wasn’t stability. Sales collapsed by as much as 90%, he revealed.
After years of reflection, Graetz says he came to understand why.
La Place de Bordeaux was built, over centuries, to serve château brands that grow slowly, predictably, and carry the weight of long institutional history. It was not designed to manage a relatively young Italian producer that had scaled explosively and needed the kind of active brand stewardship that protects long-term value.
“They don’t know how to manage that,” he argues, “because they never managed a situation like that.”
But the deeper problem, in Graetz’s analysis, is structural hardwired into the DNA of the Bordeaux merchant system itself.
“Their DNA Is Just to Give the Wine to Everybody”
To understand what went wrong, Graetz says, you have to understand how La Place actually operates.
The system works by distributing wine simultaneously across a vast web of buyers: restaurants, retailers, merchants, online sellers, importers. Many players. Many markets. Maximum reach.
For a Bordeaux château with centuries of brand equity and a list that sells itself, this approach works brilliantly. But for a brand that still needs active market development, a brand where someone needs to open bottles, train staff, host dinners, and convince consumers to pay attention, the model has a critical flaw.
“The DNA of La Place is just to give the wine to everybody. At the same level,” Graetz says. “Everyone can access it. But not everyone has the ability or incentive to build the brand.”
What happens instead, he argues, is that inventory accumulates throughout the supply chain. With too many players chasing the same customers and no one with enough margin to justify investing, the path of least resistance becomes discounting. And discounting, in fine wine, is where reputations go to die.
“They are just looking for opportunities,” he says of La Place’s merchants. “Whatever the opportunity is, it just goes boom, boom, boom. It’s a super-effective way of doing business. But you’re not protecting the brands. And it doesn’t work like that.”
Starting Over, One Distributor at a Time
Today, Bibi Graetz is rebuilding quietly, selectively, and with a clear philosophy guiding every decision.
The new strategy is almost the inverse of the La Place model. Where the Bordeaux system prioritised breadth, Graetz now prioritises depth, he says. Fewer distributors. More margin for each. And a hard requirement that every partner has enough profitability to actually invest in the brand.
“They don’t need to sell 1,000 bottles each,” he says. “Maybe they only need to sell 60 bottles and do what they should actually do: spread the brand. And suddenly, we’re there again.”
The results, at least in some markets, are already showing. The United Kingdom is now the winery’s single largest market, with Berry Bros. & Rudd handling distribution. The United States, which had contracted sharply after an importer change, is recovering under a new partner. Norway, Switzerland and Denmark remain reliable anchors.
On the morning of our interview, Graetz had just received confirmation from one of Australia’s leading importers that they would begin carrying his wines.
“It’s amazing,” he says, “because it’s a really tough moment in the wine market and we are still on track.”
In Greater China, the winery continues to work with Hong Kong-based Omtis Fine Wines, while the search for a mainland China partner, which Graetz describes as one of his highest current priorities continues.
Grateful, Despite Everything
For all his criticism of the system, Graetz is not bitter about what La Place put him through. The journey, he says, was worth it, even the painful parts.
“I realised that regardless of what happened over the last couple of years, I should raise a glass to Bordeaux for everything we managed to do together.”
La Place opened markets. It built international recognition. It transformed Bibi Graetz from an admired Italian cult wine into a brand with genuine global reach.
“Because if the brand is where it is now, it’s also thanks to the work they did with it.”
But the next chapter, he is clear, will be written differently. The distribution will be leaner. The partners will be fewer. The margins will be real enough to matter.
With additional writing and contribution from Morris Cai
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