La Mano Vignobles & Terroirs
L’Union, France
Just outside Toulouse, in the town of L'Union, La Mano is a working neighbourhood wine cave — part retail shop and tasting bar, part wine club, part global export house. It's run by Mathias Noguera and Bénédicte Moche, who've been partners in the French wine trade since 2005.
Mathias's path started with an internship in South Africa, working alongside a Bordeaux export consultant, before he went on to become export manager at Vignobles et Terroirs de France — a négoce house he later bought outright and folded into what is now La Mano. It's a rare full-circle story: he now owns the very company where he once learned the trade.
That dual identity — local wine shop and international exporter — shapes everything La Mano does. The Collection Privée line reflects the same instinct that drives their in-store selection: approachable, well-made wines chosen with a shopkeeper's palate rather than a spreadsheet.
Loire Valley, France