Winegrowers who choose to outsource the storage of their wine: “the challenge is to maximize our investment”

Mathieu Rollin and Nicolas Seffusatti launched the Cassagne et Vitailles estate in Montpeyroux a few years ago.

For winegrowers, using logistics platforms to store their wine bottles is a definite advantage in terms of organization.

For Mathieu Chatain, the question finally arose at some point. “From the moment our sales reached a certain threshold, we were missing something to be efficient in terms of logistics”, explains the man who runs Château d’Or et de Gueules, an estate of around sixty hectares located in Saint-Gilles, in the Gard, in the Costières de Nîmes appellation.

With 110,000 to 120,000 bottles produced per year, his estate took on a new dimension. Especially since its core target remains primarily individuals, wine merchants and cafés, hotels and restaurants (CHR). "We only sell bottles to a clientele that is 85% French. It was therefore important to be well organized in the order part.

Logistics “either you are comfortable or you are not”

Mathieu Chatain turned to the Plugwine logistics site, based in Mâcon, Burgundy, about ten years ago. With a well-defined strategy: “for orders over 300 bottles, we have chosen to manage internally, it is a block organization, directly on pallets ; below, for smaller quantities and multiple orders, it is Plugwine's mission".

The latter thus manages between 45,000 and 50,000 bottles from the Gard estate. “This choice is correlated with the fact of wanting to sell to the restaurant industry”. His luck is to have a large space where he can store around 80,000 bottles. “Logistics is a related mission, you are either comfortable or you are not”, concludes Mathieu Chatain. Who prefers “Having a collaborator on a tractor rather than spending his time  doing lots of packages".

"A bigger investment to make"

Sébastien Fillon has also chosen the logistics platform to store his bottles. In this case on the Épigone site, in Béziers. At the head of the 15-hectare Le Clos du Serres estate in Saint-Jean-de-la-Blaquière, the man who also presides over the Terrasses du Larzac appellation produces between 50,000 and 60,000 bottles per year.

“When we set up our new winery, the question arose as to whether we should also invest in a warehouse for our wines, he explains. That was a few extra meters and therefore a bigger investment”.Finally, he opts to outsource the storage of bottles. Especially since, as he points out, “preparing orders and waiting for trucks to deliver always takes a lot of time. It blocks us”.

“Focus on our profession as winemakers”

By turning to the Épigone site and services, “not only are these investments that we don't make, but it also simplifies our lives”. As for the cost of such a choice, “it is difficult to evaluate”. “It's complicated to assess how much the time spent on order preparation or shipping can cost when you have 60,000 bottles”.

At the head of the Cassagne et Vitailles estate in Montpeyroux, Mathieu Rollin believes that “the choice to outsource storage allows the winemaker to concentrate on what he knows how to do, on his job”. “This allows the estates to save a position, but above all, to store the production in optimal thermal and hygrometric conditions. And that is a real challenge if we want to sell our wines well and maximize our investment,” he adds.