Chateau Loudenne to be sold to Chinese Baijiu group

Chinese Baijiu group Moutai will purchase cru bourgeois property Chateau Loudenne, according to reports.

The previous owners of Loudenne – the site of one of the oldest cru bourgeois wines, which was originally built in the 17th century – reportedly entered into sales negotiations with Huaili Zhong, head of Moutai's wine business, in December last year.

‘The final sale is expected to occur within the next few days,’ it is reported.

A chateau representative, who did not want to be named, told Decanter.com the current owners, the Lafragette family, will issue a statement ‘within the next few days’.

‘The statement is imminent,’ the chateau representative said, but would not comment further.

Calls to Paris-based chateau manager Florence Lafragette went unanswered.

The sprawling 132ha estate, a Medoc Cru Bourgeois, has developed a wine tourism activity, including bed and breakfast accommodation. Its vineyards comprise 48ha of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot and 12ha of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon.

Moutai, a Chinese company based in the southern province of Guizhou, specialises in Chinese alcohols, but has a growing wine division. In a private agreement dated 12 April, it had already set up a holding company for Chateau Loudenne with a capital of €5m.

This latest acquisition brings the number of Bordeaux properties purchased ‘in recent years’ by Chinese investors to 50, French newspaper SudOuest calculates.

Jean-Paul Lafragette bought Loudenne in 2000 for a sum said to be in the region of £6m ($9.6m), Decanter.com reported at the time. The Moutai group had previously bought Chateau Dallau in Fronsac in 2012.

- Follow us on Weibo @Decanter醇鉴 -