Our story & our project
INITIO, is first of all a friendship story started in 2014, when we were still Business School students in Bordeaux. Coming from different backgrounds and radically different trainings, it is through the oenology association of our school that we got to know each other. Our common passion for wine allowed us to quickly get closer and build this solid friendship which is the fondation of this project.
During our senior year in our Master’s Degree, an entrepreneurship contest was set up. We saw the opportunity to work on an idea that kept crossing our minds for quite a while: creating a wine brand, not only young, but also modern and easy to reach, remaining really close to the wine grower and to the soil. How many times did we hear around us: “I don’t know if I like wine, because I don’t know a single thing about it” or inevitably “I don’t buy wine as it’s too complicated I get lost”…
All those thoughts lead us to drawing INITIO as a bridge bringing closer the wine grower and the consumer, as amateur as he may be. Because after all, why should drinking good wine be so complicated? Our approach met its success as we won the contest facing a jury fully composed of professionals. At that very moment we finally decided, a few months after our graduation, to take this big leap and introduce INITIO to the rest of the world.
INITIO is a reference to the latin expression “Ad Initio”, literally “in the beginning”, and goes straight to the core of our product: the ground, the plant, the grapes, the climate, the man’s hand… in a nutshell, the soil. In this philosophy, behind a simple and clearly identifiable label, we are dedicated to putting the work of the wine grower first by focusing on products that originate for a single property. Each wine is carefully grown and picked as agreed upon through a strong partnership with our wine growers.
From a great wine producer family (the Barton family, oldest wine owner family of the Médoc region), Damien always lived in the wine world. With a wine-growing and oenology diploma, but also a Master’s Degree majored in Marketing from KEDGE Business School, this genuine wine geek handles the most technical aspects of his passion and a certain business approach. He splits his days in two between the INITIO project and running his family properties (Léoville-Barton, Langoa-Barton and Mauvesin-Barton) with his parents and his sister Mélanie.
Long time wine amateur, Benjamin is not destined to a career in oenology. His Business School experience, and his MAI diploma from KEDGE Business School allowed him to discover the worlds of Purchase and Mass Retail. But his desire to sail on entrepreneurship and his friendship with Damien finally lead him to take the leap in the INITIO project and live his passion. Discovering the wine world from the inside, he tries to bring a brand new eye to it, complementary to his friend Damien’s creativity and knowledge.