Chinese food giant buys Bordeaux wine estate

A Chinese food and restaurant group has bought Domaine de Bellair on Bordeaux's Right Bank and plans to use the wine to supply its businesses across Asia.

Golden Field, a multinational food and drink company based in China and Taiwan, is the latest in a succession of Asian investors in Bordeaux wine.

A fee for Domaine de Bellair was not revealed.

The 55 hectare estate sells its wine as Château Bel-Air and is located in AOC Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux, where vineyard land cost an average €20,000 per hectare in 2015, according to French land agency Safer.

The deal is part of shift among Asian investors towards more ‘strategic’ purchases, according to Michael Baynes, who helped to broker the deal for Maxwell-Storrie-Baynes – part of Christie’s International Real Estate.

He said that purchasers increasingly ‘have a sales strategy in place before purchase, which makes it easier for both parties’. He estimated that there were now 150 to 160 Chinese-owned Bordeaux châteaux.

Golden Field says it owns more than 4,000 restaurants and food stores, and has a large online presence in China.

A company spokesperson said that the firm specialises in health foods, and that this purchase will assist in guaranteeing quality control by owning the production sources, as is the company’s standard policy for food.

Golden Field Chairman Lu Cheng-Chang said: ‘To own our own Bordeaux vineyard is an exciting step and although we plan to keep the existing wine distribution, we will also export to Japan, Taiwan, China and Southeast Asian countries to make the most of the existing wine distribution networks we have developed there.’

Bellair, or Bel-Air, dates back to 1627 and is planted to 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc.

Editing by Chris Mercer.