Tributes have been paid to the wine merchant Georges Duboeuf, known in France as the “king of Beaujolais” for his production and promotion of the famous wine variety.

Duboeuf, who has died aged 86, founded Les Vins Georges Duboeuf, one of the largest wine companies in France, and was almost single-handedly responsible for making Beaujolais nouveau popular.

Duboeuf was born on a small farm near Chaintré, a village in the Pouilly-Fuissé appellation, south-west of Mâcon, where his family, wine makers for three generations, had a few acres of chardonnay vines.

He helped around the vineyard from an early age, turning the hand-operated grape crusher at the age of six and delivering wine to restaurants on his bicycle.

Beaujolais nouveau was at the height of its popularity in the 1980s. The wine is light-bodied and acidic owing to the lack of tannins in the thick-skinned gamay grape, one of the four main varieties grown in Burgundy, and is, unusually, fermented for only a few weeks.

Regional producers had previously made this vin de l’année – annual wine – for local consumption to celebrate the end of the harvest, but with the help of Duboeuf its release each year at 12.01am on the third Thursday of November became the start of a frenzied race to get the first bottles to markets worldwide.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The official launch of the 2019 Beaujolais nouveau in Lyon, France. Photograph: Emmanuel Foudrot/Reuters

Dominique Piron, the president of Inter-Beaujolais, a professional association of Beaujolais producers and promoters, said Duboeuf was ahead of his time.

“He was a big character in the region and was quick to see its potential. He raised the Beaujolais flag around the world,” Piron said. “He had a nose, intuition and was one step ahead of everyone.”

A low point came in 2005 when Les Vins Georges Duboeuf was charged with mixing low-grade wine with better vintages after a bad harvest the previous year. Duboeuf said this had been down to “human error” and pointed out that none of the substandard wine had been sold to customers. After a trial that shocked the wine world, the company was found guilty of fraud and Duboeuf fined €30,000 (£20,800).

Duboeuf had a stroke at his home on Saturday. Since 2018, his wine business, which produces about 30m bottles a year, has been run by his son, Franck. He and his wife, Rolande, also had a daughter, Fabienne.