Paul Boutinot
Custodian
His father, a Frenchman who escaped the German army marching on St Malo in 1940, opened a restaurant in Stockport, following the end of hostilities. It was based on the French model of mother front-of-the-house and kids peeling potatoes as soon as they’re old enough. But Paul was not keen, and fell into the wine trade after a less than brilliant scholastic career.
Following a classic apprenticeship in the wine trade in the early 1970s, Paul launched his own wine import business in the UK in 1980. All these years later, it is still one of the leaders in the fine wine sector. Paul has built a thriving business doing things differently from his competitors. His private investment in Waterkloof is, therefore, not that of the archetypical foreign-based lifestyle investor, but rather as a hands-on dedicated entrepreneur-cum-winemaker. It is his outspoken desire to produce truly fine wines, consistently with a defining sense of origin from Waterkloof.
