France’s first bonded warehouse ready to open

The first-ever French bonded warehouse will be launched in Bordeaux next week.

Bordeaux City Bond will enable overseas buyers to store their wine tax-free for an unlimited amount of time in a secure, controlled environment.

It has been made possible by a change in the law which is due to announced at Vinexpo next Monday by Jerome Fournel, the director of the French customs service.

The current laws state that no wine can be stored for longer than two years (with one year’s grace period) in a commercial warehouse in France, but this is due to be scrapped, allowing storage for unlimited time under certain conditions.

Bordeaux City Bond will be a private independent company, but has investors from key sections of the wine industry.

The main investors are the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce which has 41%, and Vinexpo which owns 10%.

The other 49% is shared between 12 negociant companies including Maison Sichel and Yvon Mau, and four supply chain companies.

The company will be ready for business from June 22, headed up by Philippe Dunoguier and Jean Claude Lasserre, the former head of customs in Bordeaux.

‘This is not just for storage of Bordeaux wines,’ Dunoguier told decanter.com, ‘but for Bordeaux investors in particular it will provide an excellent guarantee of provenance which is increasingly important when trading wine through auction houses.’

Customers of Bordeaux City Bond can be private individuals from outside of Europe, or wine merchants from anywhere in the world, Europe included.

Written by Jane Anson in Bordeaux