Castel Winery

Who We Are
The Castel Winery
CASTEL GROUP was established in Bordeaux, France in 1949 by Founder Pierre Castel and his 8 brothers and sisters. Growing up in the vineyards of Bordeaux, wine was already an integral part of their daily lives. Theirs truly is a family affair. Their driving principle was to share their love of wine and other high-quality products in a way, which fulfills every customer's expectations. With this ethos firmly in mind, in the 50's and the 60's, the Group embarked upon an internal expansion by setting up bottling plants. Keeping intact their special attachment to the internationally acclaimed wine making region of Bordeaux, the Group expanded to other known wine making regions of France like the Loire, the Rhone, Burgundy, Provence, the Languedoc and the South West.

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Later in late 60's and 70's, growth continued with a succession of acquisitions; first of regional, then national and finally international companie trading in wine. In the late 80's; when Castel Group acquired Nicolas, it became the owner of largest chain of specialist wine stores all over Europe. The 90's and the 00' also saw much growth and acquisitions. Such examples are the acquisition of the Societe des Vins de France in 1992 (which was Castel Group's main rival in the wine sector and the second largest wine trader in France), Domaines Virginie in 1999 (exporters of top of the range wines from Languedoc Roussillon), Sautejeau-Bauquin (number 1 in Muscadet) and Friedrich (number one in box wines) in 2007 and Oeno Alliance in Bordeaux which is among the top 10 leaders in the industry in 2008. Meanwhile, Castel Group was also busy establishing a reputation in the beer and soft drinks sector in many parts of Africa. The Group becomes one of the key players in the continent when they acquired BGI (Brasseries et Glacieres Internationales) in 1990. Through hard work, resilience and innovation, and under the guiding hand of Founding President Pierre Castel, today the Group has become the largest wine producer in France and Europe and the third largest wine producer worldwide, and became the owner of the second largest beer and soft drinks business in Africa.