What Direct Châteaux does

Direct Châteaux SAS is a privately held French software company founded in 2021 in Bordeaux by brothers Guillaume and Nicolas Saillan. The company operates the Direct Châteaux® web-based platform, which enables French wine châteaux to sell wine directly to private consumers worldwide through an integrated suite combining counter (point-of-sale) mode for on-site tastings, a configurable international e-commerce storefront (available in public or wine-club modes), a logistics and customs management module covering 55+ countries, and a simplified back-office. Its core technical components include a bottle-level duty and customs cost calculator accurate to the centime, a QR-code presentoir system for visitor self-service, and a zero-document shipment workflow covering collection, packaging, customs clearance, door-to-door delivery, and tracking. A core, non-publicised partnership with a premium transport carrier provides negotiated international shipping rates that anchor the platform's cost competitiveness.

Direct Châteaux generates revenue through a combination of one-time initial setup/configuration fees and recurring monthly subscriptions, with pricing modular and tailored to each château's size and needs via bespoke quoting. The go-to-market is direct enterprise sales: the company acquires wine estates through its own website (contact and quote-request forms), trade-show presence, and outbound outreach, supported by inside sales via phone and email. Its customer base is concentrated in the French wine industry — 15+ named châteaux are publicly listed as references, including Bordeaux classified and family estates such as Château Branaire Ducru, Château Ferrand, Maison Cardinale, Château Latour Martillac, Château Le Dôme, Château Bouscaut, and Château de Pressac.

The company is bootstrapped with no external funding, parent entity, or disclosed revenue. It operates with 1–10 employees from a single headquarters in Cenon, France, and is currently expanding commercial capacity through active sales hiring on the Flatchr job board. Distribution is entirely direct — no resellers, integrators, or marketplace channels are used — and the platform's value proposition rests on removing the operational and administrative complexity of international direct-to-consumer wine shipping for estates that lack dedicated export infrastructure.

Name

Direct Châteaux

Legal name

SAS DIRECT CHATEAUX

Website

https://directchateaux.pro

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Direct Châteaux is a French vertical SaaS company that provides wine châteaux with an integrated platform for direct-to-consumer wine sales, combining counter POS, international e-commerce storefront, customs/duty calculation, and door-to-door logistics across 55+ countries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Wine Industry Software (Winery Direct-to-Consumer Sales Platform)

akta.pro primary industry

Point-of-Sale (POS) & On-Property Commerce (THALACAI)

akta.pro secondary industries

Wineries & Vineyards (Tasting Rooms) (THAFALAE), International DTC & Brand.com (Global Shipping) (CRAFAJAB)

Keywords

• Direct-to-consumer wine
• Wine e-commerce software
• Customs duty calculator
• Wine shipping platform
• Vineyard POS system

Headquarters

HQ city

Cenon

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Initial Setup/Configuration Fees: One-time creation fees for custom configuration of the Direct Châteaux® solution, including integration into the château's ecosystem and setup of all key tools, enabling immediate operational performance upon launch.
2. Monthly Subscription: Recurring monthly subscription providing access to the full platform, ongoing customer support, and regular updates — notably customs rules and tax tables for over 55 countries. Pricing is tiered and modulable based on the château's capacity and needs.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Direct Châteaux® is a web-based professional software platform that enables wine châteaux and vineyards to sell wine directly to international private consumers. The platform integrates in-person counter sales (POS), an international e-commerce storefront, logistics coordination, customs/duty calculation, and a simplified back-office into a single solution, supporting duty-cleared wine shipments to more than 55 countries. It is sold as a subscription with one-time setup fees to wine producers in France.

Product overview

Direct Châteaux® is a unified software platform for wine producers that combines in-person counter sales mode, international e-commerce store, logistics management, and automated customs clearance into a single integrated solution. The platform consists of multiple interconnected modules: Mode comptoir for instant in-person quotations, Site e-Commerce for year-round online sales, Solution logistique for international shipping to 55+ countries with customs clearance, Cotation automatique for instant pricing, Back-Office simplifié for sales management, Gestion administrative for zero-document operations, and a QR Code system for visitor self-service. The solution is offered through a flexible pricing structure with initial setup fees and monthly subscriptions, and includes dedicated assistance for business development.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Direct Châteaux® Software Platform Web-based professional software platform that enables French wine châteaux and vineyards to sell wine directly to private consumers worldwide, covering in-person counter sales, an international e-commerce storefront, logistics coordination, customs clearance, and door-to-door delivery to over 55 countries. Sold as a monthly subscription with a one-time setup fee.

Quantifiable outcome

• Reduces order processing time by 50% (cut in half)
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers15 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Premium Transport Carrier (unnamed)coreTechnology or IntegrationDirect Châteaux® has established a partnership with a premium transport carrier enabling negotiated shipping rates for wine shipments to over 55 countries. This partnership provides châteaux with competitive delivery pricing and reliable service quality, forming a core part of the value proposition by reducing shipping costs for end customers and improving price acceptance.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• Tock: Reservation and experience platform used by wineries for tasting bookings. Adjacent in enabling visitor monetization at tasting rooms but does not handle shipping, customs, or e-commerce.
• Sovos ShipCompliant: Wine and alcohol shipping compliance software for managing tax filings and reporting across US jurisdictions. Directly comparable to the customs/duty compliance component of Direct Châteaux but focused on US regulatory filings rather than end-to-end DTC commerce.

Direct peers

• Commerce7: Cloud-based e-commerce, POS, and wine club platform for wineries and breweries. Competes head-to-head with Direct Châteaux in the wine DTC software category, with overlapping modules for online sales, in-venue checkout, and shipping.
• eCellar: Wine-specific DTC platform offering e-commerce, POS, reservations, and wine club management for wineries. Directly comparable feature set targeting the same winery customer with international direct-to-consumer focus.
• WineDirect: Leading wine DTC e-commerce and POS platform serving wineries with online stores, club management, and shipping integrations. Most directly comparable competitor in the winery-direct-to-consumer SaaS category, though primarily focused on the US market.
• Vinoshipper: Wine shipping compliance and logistics platform helping wineries manage direct-to-consumer shipping across US states. Directly comparable to Direct Châteaux's logistics/customs layer for wineries selling to consumers across regulated jurisdictions.
• VinSuite: Wine-specific e-commerce and DTC platform offering POS, online store, and compliance tools for wineries. Closely comparable product positioning as a vertical SaaS solution for direct wine sales.

Broad incumbents

• Shopify: General-purpose e-commerce and POS platform widely adopted by small wineries for online stores. Overlaps with Direct Châteaux's e-commerce and POS modules but lacks built-in international wine duty/customs calculation.
• Square (Block): Payments and POS provider commonly used by tasting rooms for in-person checkout. Overlaps with Direct Châteaux's counter sales mode but does not provide wine-specific shipping, customs, or e-commerce verticals.
• Salesforce Commerce Cloud: Enterprise e-commerce platform that can be configured for winery DTC operations. Overlaps as a broad alternative but is far more expensive and complex, and requires integration to achieve the wine-specific duty/customs capability Direct Châteaux offers natively.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/direct-chateaux

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Direct Châteaux