Peter Kwok expands his St Emilion holdings

One of the first Asian investors to buy a Bordeaux wine estate, Peter Kwok, has expanded his empire with the purchase of Château Tourans in St Emilion.

Hong Kong entrepreneur Peter Kwok has bought 12.6 hectare (ha) grand cru estate Château Tourans in the St Emilion commune of Saint Etienne de Lisse from Dutch businessman Petrus Wolter. Financial details were not disclosed.

Kwok plans to combine the new property with his existing Château Tour Saint Christophe, to bring the vineyard surface for the estate’s first wine up to 20 hectares, all from the limestone plateau.

Director Jean-Christophe Meyrou told Decanter.com that the purchase was the result of a two year search for the right terroir.

‘We bought Tourans because it has similar terroir to Tour Saint Christophe. Currently we have 8ha in production and 11ha potential – with 9ha entirely on the limestone plateau.

‘The rest is clay limestone that we use for the second wine, but this size does not give us enough scope to build a significant distribution through Bordeaux négociants. The new purchase will bring our limestone terroir up to around 20 hectares, from vines in excellent condition and well maintained.’

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The vines from Chateau Tourans will be included with those of Tour Saint Christophe from the 2015 vintage, as a pre-sale agreement meant that Meyrou’s team, led by technical director Jerome Aguirre, had already been in charge of pruning and harvesting the grapes.

Kwok, who lives in Hong Kong but was born in Vietnam, became one of the first Asian investors in Bordeaux in 1997 with the purchase of Chateau Haut-Brisson.

He now owns 40 hectares of vines with Chateaux Tour Saint Christophe, Haut-Brisson and Tourans in St Emilion, plus Enclos Tourmaline and La Patache in Pomerol, and Enclos de Viaud in Lalande de Pomerol.