Developments in the fields of winemaking, bottling, storage, marketing and consumption have profoundly changed the wine trade.

• The historic heart of the Bordeaux wine trade, the Quai des Chartrons, has gradually been abandoned in favour of other parts of the Bordeaux region with more space, and presenting greater logistical possibilities (especially as regards road transportation, which has largely overtaken maritime shipments from the Port of Bordeaux).

• Very important investments in modern winemaking, blending, and storage have been made especially as regards temperature control and bottling lines. Furthermore, many businesses have restructured and become more specialised.

• The development of mass distribution has also called for technical adaptation. Only those firms that are capable of meeting extremely strict specifications from demanding customers (in terms of quantity, delivery deadlines, quality, and price) have been able to maintain a presence on this market, which accounts 70-80% of home consumption.

• Château bottling, increasingly sought by consumers and producers as a guarantee of authenticity, has motivated many shippers to become négociants distributeurs or "distributor shippers" for this type of wine that they do not age and bottle in their own cellars. Although the great growths have the means to invest in the appropriate equipment for quality ageing and bottling, this is not always the case at more modest estates. Even though owners of the latter are excellent winemakers, they frequently have neither the time, the money, or the technical know-how to age and bottle their wine ideally. This is why some shippers work closely with them to develop a mutually beneficial partnership in order to share their technical expertise. This technical cooperation can extend not only to bottling wine at the estate by the shipper, or under his supervision, but also to much more upstream activities: some shippers send their oenologists to help or even take over during fermentation.

• Without overlooking their role as "distributor shippers" selling château-bottled wines, other shippers fulfil the more traditional role of négociant-éleveur, buying wines in bulk at the estate (more than 50% of all transactions between winegrowers and the Bordeaux trade are still in bulk). Once they blend and age the wines in their cellars, they bottle them under their own brand name. There are about 300 négociant brands in Bordeaux. These constitute a commitment by shippers to quality products since their name is highly visible. However, a full-fledged brand strategy is extremely expensive, calling for heavy promotional investments that only a few major firms can finance.

• Many Bordeaux shippers still sell wines via so-called traditional distribution networks: independent wholesalers or retailers. Furthermore, some Bordeaux firms are specialised in the on-trade (cafés, hotels, and restaurants), which accounts 30-40% of all Bordeaux wine sales in France.

• Some shippers are also specialised in new forms of marketing such as catalogue sales, or even via the Internet.