The traditional route to market for over 70% of Bordeaux wine is via ‘La Place de Bordeaux’ an historic but still efficient, system that sends Bordeaux wines from 5000 properties to over 170 countries through a network of 90 courtiers (brokers) and 300 negociants (merchants). That’s over 300 million bottles, for a value of almost 3 billion euros. It’s a huge and efficient machine.