Olivier Baenninger

Olivier has Canadian & International experience in sales management and business development in the fine wine industry. He is a graduate of McGill and is fluent in English, French, and Mandarin Chinese.

It was at the beginning of his six-week winemaking stint in France in 2007, making wine at top Northern Rhône winery Alain Graillot, that Olivier’s passion for wine was awoken :  Parker had just been to Graillot’s to do one of his legendary 120-bottle tastings the morning Olivier arrived, and that evening, the winery staff were generously served wines that cost more than most people’s monthly salary, convincing Olivier that his enthusiasm was not misplaced and that he was in the right business!

In late 2007, Olivier moved to Beijing, China for four years very successfully selling wines to the booming Western fine-dining scene, a high-net worth private clientele (at wine dinners), and to retail stores and wholesalers. It took large dose of passion, vision and cultural fine-tuning to translate his own passion about wine to the Chinese market, but having found such a captive audience made it a treat for Olivier to appear on a Chinese TV chat-show about wine, play a part in a wine-documentary filmed in China, do many staff trainings at on premise accounts and organise press events for wine-makers.

In 2011, Olivier moved to Vancouver with his wife, Tao Tao, and two daughters, Sophia & Jasmine. Now firmly settled in BC, Olivier is striving to bring you wines with the gauge of quality and honesty that he is accustomed to dealing with.