Chinese buying Bordeaux vineyards

What started as a trickle might turn in to a full on flow! In the past 12 months at least 3 Chateaux in Bordeaux have changed hands to Chinese buyers.
The emphasis seems to be that it is better to control the production at source rather than just buying through the established trade.
This is excellent for the Bordeaux region as any inward investors should be welcome. The Irish, Scottish, Americans and English have very strong links with Bordeaux and have either owned or currently own many top Chateaux.

My only slight hesitation is that this latest purchase of Chateau Laulan Ducos by Richard Shen Donjun (a Chinese diamond tycoon) has revealed that Mr Shen plans to stop selling the estate's wines in all markets and solely supply wine to China. This would not be great for established markets and is a worrying trend if we suddenly see Cru Bourgeois wines or Cru Classe wines disappear.
This was reported in the Sunday Telegraph today but more extensively written about on Alex Hall's excellent website Vineyard Intelligence a while ago. This proves the world of blogs and tweets is some way ahead of the old style newspapers!
The question is who will sell next to the Chinese? Will a more well known Cru Classe estate entertain the wealthy people from the East? We shall see.

Andrew Lloyd Webber Wine Sale-Result

Well the market in Hong Kong for fine wine certainly remains buoyant.
The sale of a large amount of Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber's wine cellar raised $HK43.3 million ($5.6 million or £3.5 million).
The highest prices were 12 bottles of Chateau Petrus 1982 ($HK 605,000 = £48,000), which was 26 per cent more than the high estimate. The second highest lot was 12 bottles of Chateau Lafite Rothschild 1982 ($HK459,800= £37,000)
“I hope the new owners enjoy my wines as much as I have and look forward to reacquainting myself with them in restaurants all over China when Cats starts its national tour in Mandarin,” Lloyd Webber, 62, said in a statement from Sothebys.

Chateau Lafite Sothebys Hong Kong auction,

If there needed to be confirmation that Chateau Lafite has become one of the most sought after wines in the World, then the auction by Sothebys last Friday in Hong Kong was truly impressive.

The auction attracted some of the keenest Chinese buyers.

In the table are some of the prices achieved at the auction courtesy of LivEX. It is staggering to think that the 2009 was only released from the Chateau 4 months ago and is now being sold at over 5 times the en primeur price. The wine is still in barrel!!
It will be interesting to see whether these prices are a 'one off', due to the publicity/promotion for the auction, or whether they sent a new level for the Chateau Lafite pricing.
Later in the auction 3 bottles of 1869 Chateau Lafite sold for HK$1.815 million each (£147K). Now I could buy a house for that price! Will the bubble burst?

Chateau Lafite 2008

Very interesting developments from Chateau Lafite Rothschild. Their wine has been at the forefront of speculation and investment from the emerging fine wine drinking markets of China and Asia. This has pushed the prices significantly higher for their undoubtedly excellent First Growth wine from Pauillac. I have certainly noticed many Chinese people gawking at the gates of Chateau Lafite Rothschild when I visit the Chateau to taste the wine as part of www.bellawinetours.com

The Rothschilds have recently invested in a 25 hectare vineyard project on the Penglai peninsula in Shandong province of China. This area 800 km south of Shanghai could be very interesting for future wines.

The latest devolopment from Chateau Lafite Rothschild is to feature the Chinese figure 8 on their 2008 wine. This has immediately shaken the fine wine market, as earlier this week there was an incredible 10% rise in the price in one day. The bubble of fine wine has certainly not burst.....yet!

There is also an interesting article here in Decanter Magazine.