ased in Autun, in southern Burgundy (Saône-et-Loire), Benoît Laly has won France’s 2026 Best Wine Merchant competition. Founded by the professional wine merchant organisation SCP in 2014, as of this year, the biennial competition is organised by Cavistes & Co magazine. Laly competed against 40 fellow wine merchants in the final stages, after an initial online selection, followed by semi-finals involving 15 candidates and a final contested by eight. Jean-Philippe Leroy from the Vinothentik store in Chabeuil (Drôme) and Olivier Marotte from De La Vigne à L’Olivier in Lambesc (Bouches-du-Rhône) were runners-up, completing the podium alongside the manager of Cave Laly.

Through the competition, the organisers aim to highlight the role played by wine merchants in introducing the public to wines and spirits as well as their wider contribution to the industry. “The skills, knowledge and expertise of wine merchants, whether independent, franchised or part of a chain”, are showcased by the competition’s organisers to raise the profession’s profile. Candidates were assessed through questionnaires to test their knowledge, blind tastings, a quick-fire quiz and mystery shopping tests involving in-store sales scenarios. After winning the competition on 26 October, Laly explained that he had “caught the wine bug as a child because I come from a line of six winegrowers and three generations of negociants, many of whom became wine merchants in the 1990s”. He took over the family business, a local institution founded by his grandfather in 1947. He first entered the competition in 2022, took silver in 2024 and has now claimed the title.

Vitisphere