Through his 30-year career dedicated to great French terroirs, Jean-Pierre Durand, grandson of a winegrower from the Drôme Provençale region, has acquired a comprehensive experience in the wine industry. From production to sales management, his different positions have led him to promote wines, terroirs, and an appreciation of viticulture, to develop long lasting relationships with key opinion leaders (sommeliers, chefs or wine merchants) and to provide strong customer experiences, especially through wine tourism activities.

Starting his professional life in Burgundy, at Clos de Tart as well as Château de Chassagne-Montrachet, Jean-Pierre experienced the necessity to protect soils and terroirs, develop precise and environmentally friendly viticulture methods and to internationally promote these practices.

Jean-Pierre later joined AdVini as the General Manager of Ogier in 2006. There he led the acquisition of a former “Prieuré” estate where the fine wines of Clos de l’Oratoire des Papes are still resting peacefully.

Since July 2020, Jean-Pierre has been a member of AdVini’s Governance Board under the Presidency of Antoine Leccia. Among his duties, he oversees the Strategic Marketing and Communications Department along with the Sustainable Development Division.

As President of AdVini South West and Bordeaux region, Jean-Pierre manages several estates, such as Château Patache d’Aux and Château Liversan (Médoc and Haut Médoc) Château Capet Guillier (Saint-Emilion Grand Cru), Château Mirefleurs and Château Grand Renom (Bordeaux Supérieur). In Bordeaux, he has taken up the challenge of implementing positive steps to preserve the estates’ terroir and biodiversity. Under his leadership, Château Capet-Guillet has now begun the conversion to biodynamic farming methods, with some vines recently planted following the principles of permaculture.

Brian McClintic was a Master Sommelier and a star of the feature-length documentary film trilogy SOMM, SOMM: Into the Bottle, and SOMM3. After 15 years in hospitality, spanning wine destinations such as the Little Nell in Aspen, Brian co-founded Les Marchands Wine Bar & Merchant in Santa Barbara, where he was named “The Wine Guy to Hire” by Departures magazine and among the “40 Under 40 Tastemakers” by Wine Enthusiast.

Bitten by the travel bug in recent years, McClintic left the floor and launched Viticole in 2016, an online wine subscription, focusing on organically farmed custom bottlings that he curates with his favourite winemakers from around the world.

“Truth? I’ve never been a fan of retail wine clubs. They frequently feel like an afterthought, a way to shore up excess inventory. I could never reconcile the notion that to the people giving a retailer their credit card to swipe at will, the retailer would often return that confidence with ‘hmm, what wine do I have enough of here on the shelf that I can fit into the club.’ I mean, a wine club member has basically entrusted you as their compass. Little do they know that the arrow often points south, to a very dusty, cobwebby, dark corner of a staff-only storage room.

I spent the summer of 2016 mulling over false premises, while dishing out sporadic wine offers on Instagram. Inevitably, I’d run into a friend at a bar who would say, ‘Why don’t you make Viticole a wine club?’, to which I’d reply with the script above. And after enough ire had been raised and venom spewed, curmudgeon fatigue set in and the glass began to look half full. I became intrigued with the proposition of creating a wine subscription model that I would be excited to join. By the end of summer, the previous 50-page business plan found its way to the scrapheap and a consumer advocacy crusade began.

Let’s set the records straight. This is an unapologetically selfish crusade of wines that I LOVE and an exploration of why I love the wines I love, as told through custom collaborations with a hand-chosen mercenary platoon of some of the world’s finest organic wine growers, which has taken the mantra to ‘can I love what I love even more?’. Can we push this thing forward? What is possible in terms of quality and with respect to environmental consciousness?

The Viticole Wine Subscription today is the harmony of my personal taste and ecological beliefs. The two are hopelessly linked. Let no stone be unturned. Let no glass be empty. And oh, the places we’ll go…”