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Our story
Our story started 60 years ago, when our great uncle, Maurice PION, began his career as a wine merchant serving the restaurant owners of north-eastern France. In the early 1950s, such wine merchants were a rare novelty. Our ancestor's stature, charisma and cheeky Burgundian humour allowed him to make a lasting impression among those he met, as a great wine professional, an outstanding taster and a keen gourmet. At the time, France's devastated vineyards were still slowly recovering from the Second World War and few independent estates distributed their own wines, often preferring to sell in bulk to the large merchants of Burgundy. But Maurice's knowledge and familiarity with wines and men provided him with access to the best estates of the time, such as Domaine de la Romanée Conti and BOLLINGER Champagne, and to accompany the birth of modern winegrowing and the distribution of its wines to a few passionate restaurant owners in the process of creating modern gastronomy.
In 1963, his nephew, Henri Pion, joined a few years later by his brothers and brother-in-law, founded an agency whose conquering of new prestigious estates and clients has built the PION reputation.
In the 1970s, PION also launched the lucrative activity of directly selling wines from great Bordeaux châteaux, whose renewed fame ensured dynamic sales in eastern France. The Borie family estates, Château Ducru-Beaucailloux and Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Gasqueton, Château Calon-Ségur and Château du Tertre, Cuvelier, Château Leoville Poyferré, and so many others still remember the great conviction and devotion of the Pion family in promoting their wines among the finest restaurants of the time.
In 1975, Maurice stepped down to enjoy his well-earned retirement, leaving the company in the hands of his 4 nephews, who shared amongst themselves 14 separate departments managed by a single administrative structure.
During the 1980s, the company expanded its range of wines, and each nephew's activities diversified and became more geographically anchored. In 1984, Henri Pion left his brothers, bought some storage cellars and offices in Beaune, and continued his activity with the help of two secretaries.
In 1986, Olivier Pion, with his oenological degree in hand, joined his father, Henri Pion, and began to learn his trade out in the field, principally in Alsace, where distribution mandates for independent estates exploded with the expansion of on-site bottling. Together, they would accompany the market's profound transformation and the birth of a real passion for wine on the part of both professionals and private individuals.
In 1987, Pion became a Bordeaux wine merchant, thereby gaining direct access to a vast range of essential Grands Crus Classés and Crus Bourgeois wines, bought and sold as futures or as available bottles. The wines were stocked and distributed from the storage cellars in Beaune, whose structure allowed for the activity's smooth development.
In 1995, after spending a dozen years working for a technical glass-maker, Christian Pion joined the small team and began his own in-the-field training.
From this point forward, the company SARL PION VIN enjoyed regular growth through restructuring and by extending its distribution to new wine regions, such as the southwest of France, the Languedoc Roussillon and the Rhône region.
In 1997, Henri Pion retired, handing the reins to his two sons, Olivier and Christian.
With the arrival of Don Krsinar, they created an export department and developed the company's sales to the Anglo-Saxon countries, as well as structuring distribution in France via a network of partners.
They also developed their portfolio of foreign wines, by importing a range of rigorously selected wines from Spain and Italy, as well as from the New World and South Africa.
In 2003, Pion built and moved into its new offices located at Les Champs Lins, an industrial estate in Meursault. At the same time and in association with Olivier Leflaive, a 3,500-sqm "Logistics Pool" building was built, so as to control the storage and preparation of its clients' complex orders.
2009 marked the arrival of Régis CIMMATI, in charge of developing the company's exports to the Asian countries.
In 2010, office space was increased twofold to allow for the development of PION's commercial activity both at home and abroad.