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November 30, 2012

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Home » Business » Real Estate

Chinese inks landmark purchase of chateau

Source: AFP | November 30, 2012, Friday | Print Edition

A CHINESE industrialist has sealed the landmark purchase of Chateau Bellefont-Belcier, a leading estate in France's prestigious Saint Emilion wine-making area, sources involved in the sale said yesterday.

The property is the first of its rank - Grand Cru Classe (classified growth) - to be acquired in what has been a wave of Chinese investment in the Bordeaux region.

The new owner is a 45-year-old industrialist with assets in the iron sector who has already diversified into the wine importing business. He met the chateau's employees on November 23 and has since returned to China.

Chinese investors have acquired around 30 lower-ranked properties in Bordeaux, the larger region that includes Saint Emilion, in the last two years, and this year has seen China become the region's biggest export market in terms of volume.

So far, Chinese investment has not been controversial in a region with a long tradition of foreign ownership of wine estates.

In contrast, the acquisition by a Chinese buyer of Chateau Gevrey-Chambertin in Burgundy earlier this year triggered a major row, with local wine makers and far-right politicians claiming the country's heritage was being sold.

"This is a first (for Bordeaux), we'll see how people react," said Herve Olivier, regional director of SAFER, the government agency that oversees rural land development.

Georges Haushalter, the president of the Bordeax Wine Council, does not expect a backlash. "We have the Japanese at Chateau Beychevelle and Chateau Lagrange, and no one reacts against them," he said. "They have done a very good job."

Bellefont-Belcier, which had been on the market for a number of years, has 13 hectares of vines and total land of 20 hectares. A source close to the deal said the final price was between 1.5 million and 2 million euros (US$1.9 million and US$2.6 million) per hectare of vines.

The sale had been in negotiation for a number of months, but the price was not finalized until after the announcement in September of a once-in-a-decade re-classification of Saint Emilion wines, which confirmed the estate's Grand Cru status.

"The classification played an enormous role," said a spokesman for Franck Lagorce Conseil, the agency which negotiated the deal. Without the classification, "the price would not have been the same."

Olivier said another 10 chateaux could be sold to Chinese buyers by the end of this year.
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