BORDEAUX, France (AFP) — The sale of a little known Bordeaux chateau, Latour-Laguens, to the Longhai International Trading Company Ltd, has put the Chinese in pole position, ahead of both the Russians and the Indians, in terms of Bordeaux chateau ownership.
The deal, announced Tuesday, to buy the 60-hectare chateau for an undisclosed sum, which was signed January 24, looks to be the first ever French wine estate purchase by Chinese buyers.
"It is a real Walt Disney kind of chateau, about 500 years old, and the name Latour makes you think of one of the first class growth wines of the Medoc," said Daniel Carmagnat, director of the Bordeaux property agency A2Z, which sold the property.
The chateau, 30 hectares of which is planted with mainly red wine vines, is in the town of Saint-Martin-du-Puy about 50 kilometres southeast of Bordeaux. It produces about 160,000 bottles a year, Carmagnat said.
"They want to renovate the chateau, to do up the rooms and to make this their company's flagship in the Bordeaux area," said Carmagnat.
"This is essentially a prestige purchase," added Thomas Jullien, director of marketing for Asia at the Bordeaux Wine Board (Conseil interprofessionnel des vins de Bordeaux, CIVB).
"It is a marketing tool in the portfolio of this major group," Jullien said, adding that to his knowledge it was the first time a Chinese investor had bought a chateau in the Bordeaux area.
"We have known about the Chinese interest since last summer, but there is also interest from Singapore and Russia," said Herve Olivier, head of SAFER, the French government's local property regulator. "But we don't see many things turn into concrete purchases," he said.
The Chinese buyers, who spent the last few months looking for a property in the region, particularly in Saint Emilion, a more prestigious Bordeaux wine growing area, seem to have picked up not only a charming chateau, but a bargain as well.
The price per hectare in the Entre deux Mers part of Bordeaux, so named because it lies between the Dordogne and Garonne rivers, is currently at its lowest, said Carmagnat, citing figures in the region of between 18 and 20,000 euro per hectare.
At the other end of the scale, the three hectare Chateau Bellevue in nearby Saint Emilion, sold last year for 10 million euro.
It is not the prestige of the area which attracted the Chinese investors, claimed local paper, Sud Ouest, Tuesday, but rather the fact of gaining a foothold in one of the best known wine-growing areas in the world.
The sale price includes, along with the vine area, the 600 metre square chateau, storage buildings and winemaking cellars.
The Longhai group, which is currently building a "Wine Palace" which will include a teaching museum that will demonstrate all aspects of winemaking, has its headquarters in Qingdao, between Beijing and Shanghai.
China, which experienced double digit economic growth over the last five years, is drinking increasing amounts of Bordeaux wine.
Exports to China from the region have increased by 100 percent and the country currently consumes 1.8 percent of all exported Bordeaux, with a particular demand for top brands.
In China, many rich entrepreneurs look to demonstrate their wealth, and by drinking a grand cru they show their good taste and affluence, plus a certain amount of refinement, said Jullien.
To date, no Indian buyers have been successful in Bordeaux, and the Russians, who have been much in evidence over the last two years, have been criticized for their money oriented approach to chateau buying, which, sources in Bordeaux say, has hampered their attempts.
The Japanese on the other hand, in the form of drinks group, Suntory, have owned the Bordeaux chateau, Lagrange, in Saint Julien, since 1983.
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