French wine world stars in Rich List

France’s top 500 rich list includes 50 people involved in its wine industry.

According to Challenges, a national current affairs and economic magazine, owners of estates in Bordeaux, Cognac and Champagne are the wealthiest in the country.

Bernard Arnault, chairman and controlling shareholder of the luxury goods empire LVMH is currently France’s second richest man, worth more than €14.5bn.

LVMH owns wine estates including Krug, Château d’Yquem and Cheval Blanc but Arnault’s fortune has fallen by 20% in the last 12 months.

Owner of first growth property Château Latour, Francois Pinault, is close behind in sixth place despite his assets falling 32% in value in the past year to €4.9bn.

Many wine estate owners in the rich list have made their fortunes in other industries from cured meats (Michel Reybier, Cos d’Estournel) to fashion (Wertheimer family, owners of Chanel and Château Canon & Rauzan Segla).

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Written by Rebecca Gibb

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Rebecca Gibb MW is a wine journalist and editor who has also founded Bamboozled games, ‘the world’s first wine and spirit puzzle makers’. Having spent six years living in New Zealand, she has recently returned to her native north-east England. While in New Zealand, she became a Master of Wine, graduating top of her class and winning the Madame Bollinger medal for excellence in tasting. A former winner of both the UK’s young wine writer of the year and the Louis Roederer Emerging Wine Writer, her first book The Wines of New Zealand was published in 2018. She also runs wine events and has her own consultancy business The Drinks Project. She was a judge at the 2019 Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA).