About Us
Our Heritage
BWI is a UK wine merchant, established in 1998 by Bordeaux expert Andy Lench. Andy‘s talent for spotting great wine at good prices allowed him to develop Bordeaux Wine Locators, an enormously successful business importing wines from Bordeaux and other classic regions into the USA.
Andy founded BWI as a UK-based sister company to Bordeaux Wine Locators. BWI was set up to offer wine opportunities for private clients who seek to buy, collect, consume and generally invest in fine Bordeaux wine, as well as other fine wines from around the world.
In 2003 Andy recruited his brother and fellow Bordeaux enthusiast Robert Lench as BWI’s Managing Director. Rob had spent 30 years working in the financial services industry. He has overseen significant growth at BWI, and turnover has increased at an average annual rate of 20% since his appointment.
In 2007 Andy realised his dream to set down deeper roots in Bordeaux, with the purchase of Château Carignan, in the Cadillac-Côtes de Bordeaux. This historic Château is both a beautiful base for visiting BWI staff and clients, and also the producer of over performing red and white Bordeaux.
In 2011 Andy and his family established a retail operation in Olympia, Washington, under the name Grand Vin Merchants. This growing company is enjoying continued success, combining the importing strengths of Bordeaux Wine Locators with a team of wine professionals and hospitality specialists whose collective experience is several decades old and spans the breadth of professions in the world of fine wine.
In October 2011, following continued growth in fine wine sales to the Far East, BWI Hong Kong was established. After a successful first year of trading the Hong Kong team has expanded its operational team to meet growing demand.