Two centuries of history
The story of Maison Collin-Bourisset is the story of Mâcon wine merchant associations dating back to the 19th century. The first began in 1821 but the Maison really began to flourish in the 1830s. The wines were sold widely and began to impose their presence in Paris.
In 1862, a descendant of the original founders moved to Crêches-sur-Saône, where a train station had been built. The Maison continued its development.
In the 1880s, the Collin name appeared for the first time thanks to Pierre-Eugène Collin, a papermaker and merchant in Mâcon. In 1880 he moved to Crêches to take over his father-in-law’s business. On the back of a strong reputation forged by several generations of merchants, the business was then selling its wines in Northern France and Belgium and built partnerships with other Swiss wine merchants.
Henri Collin, Pierre-Eugène’s oldest son, was ready to take over the business from his father. Following in the footsteps of his ancestors, he left for York, England at a very young age in 1890 as a merchant’s assistant to conquer new markets.
For his part, Louis Bourisset came from a local family in Crêches-sur-Saône and founded his own winery.
In 1902, Henri Collin returned from England and formed a partnership with Louis Bourisset. And so Maison COLLIN & BOURISSET as we know it today was formed.
Henri Collin and Louis Bourisset moved their business even closer to the Crêches train station and quickly developed their exports. Henri Collin and Louis Bourisset signed up to fight in the first World War. On their return, Louis Bourisset progressively took over the company.
In 1921, Louis Bourisset set off for Canada which had just repealed prohibition. He became the first French wine exporter to Québec and the "Québec Liquor Commission" ordered 10, 000 cases of Burgundy wine.
In 1922, he bought a vineyard in Romanèche-Thorins in the Moulin-à-Vent appellation. From 1922, Louis Bourisset was the only company director. Henri Collin had no heirs and had stepped away from the business.
Throughout the 1920s, exports flourished and Collin-Bourisset wines were sold in Belgium, the United Kingdom, Japan, Scandinavia and even China… In 1926, Louis Bourisset exclusively received all the grapes, production and sales business from Les Hospices de Romanèche-Thorins.
At the same time at Crèches, wines were aged, stored, bottled and labelled by hand before being transported by truck, train then boat to various customers.
At the death of Louis Bourisset in 1959, his son Paul Bourisset took over the company for the next 20 years. Collin-Bourisset was then exporting to Belgium, Québec and Japan as well as Norway, Holland, Great Britain, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, the United States, Martinique, Mexico and the Ivory Coast.
In 1979, with no family member to take over the business, Maison Jean Loron invested in the company.
After 193 wonderful years in the historic buildings at Crêches sur Saône, in 2014 a new page was written in the company’s history.
Collin-Bourisset became a partner with Maison Jean Loron and wonderful synergies were made possible. It also was an opportunity for Collin-Bourisset to become closer to the vineyards themselves.
