About

In the 19th century, the Barbier family owned some 200 hectares of vines in an estate called Château du Martinet. This estate extended into three appellations: Plan de Dieu, Rasteau and Gigondas which are situated in the Vaucluse department of France – roughly between Violès and Sablet. In her famous novel (later televised) Elisabeth Barbier (an aunt) used the Château du Martinet as a setting for her plot using the soubriquet “Les Gens de Mogador”.

Léon Barbier, Georges’ great-grandfather pioneered the bottling process but, in 1880, phylloxera ravaged the vineyards in France so he was obliged to look towards Spain for a future in wine. This was the origin of the negociant winery founded in Tarragona (Catalunya) in the name of his son, René Barbier. In the 1940’s Leon II and René II took the initiative of bottling the first wines from Priorato as well as other quality wines from Catalunya.

The family tradition now continues in Great Britain through Georges and Mary Barbier, well respected wine importers in the UK. We started our company in 1983 with the concept of sourcing wines from small, independent wineries who respect tradition and the environment. This, inevitably, leads to quality wines with a distinctive regional flavour and individuality. As both of us are fluent in French and Spanish, we decided to concentrate on wines from France and Spain as these countries offer a wealth of diversity, not only from the classic areas such as Bordeaux and Rioja but from lesser known areas where real gems can be found!

Our team can offer you in-depth information on all of our products and would be more than happy to discuss your requirements and to advise you of any products that we feel might prove of interest. Although our main business is supplying to middle and top end hotels and restaurants in the UK, we are always delighted to receive private enquiries as we hope that we can share our love of wines with like minded people.

Our daughter Victoria has now come aboard, so the family tradition of service and excellence continues through the new generation.