Welcome to France!

Recognising that vineyard investments require specific expertise, services and transaction management, Michael Baynes co-founded Vineyards-Bordeaux to serve the Bordeaux vineyard market in 2008.

Having earned a degree in Land Management from Reading University, Michael completed his masters in Land Economy from Cambridge University before entering the sophisticated commercial real estate market of central London. Michael then completed the prestigious real estate qualification from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and worked for over six years with the publicly-listed real estate investment and development company, Speyhawk PLC and its subsidiary Hawk Development Management.

Building on this project management and commercial real estate background, he independently completed several small development projects in London before co-launching his investment and development company, Oxford-Spectrum LLC, in Southern California where he holds a full Broker’s license and is a member of the National Association of Realtors providing consultancy advice to his US clients. Over 13 years he built up his businesses in the USA which to date have completed over 30 developments, owns 750 storage units as well as a significant industrial park in Orange County with over 70 office, retail and industrial tenants.

Michael’s commercial real estate expertise has been a foundation of his leadership in vineyard transactions in France since 2008 where he holds a “Carte Professionnelle (French real estate license). As an expert in his field his is often invited to speak internationally on the Bordeaux vineyard market and in addition he teaches the MBA students at INSEEC Bordeaux on the subject of vineyard transactions.

Today, under Michael’s direction together with executive partner Karin Maxwell, Vineyards-Bordeaux is a market leader in the successful execution of complex vineyard purchases including vineyard asset transactions and mergers and acquisitions of vineyard company shares.