酿酒工作将交给埃里克·鲁索管理,他将租下土地、打理葡萄园,同时把三分之一的产量交给吴志诚。预计这个葡萄园一年的产量在一万瓶到1.2万瓶之间。
图为吉夫瑞·香白丹(Chateau de Gevrey-Chambertin)酒庄外景。据吉夫瑞·香白丹酿酒商联合会主席让-米切尔·吉永(Jean-Michel Guillon)说,这座建于12世纪的酒庄于今年早些时候以出人意料的800万欧元卖给了来自澳门的博彩业大亨。
在法国爆发不满以来他首次接受媒体采访时,吴志诚表示收购这个葡萄园是一笔充满情感的投资。吴志诚在富豪何鸿燊创办的酒店与赌场运营商澳门博彩控股有限公司(SJM Holdings Ltd.)担任营运总裁。图为吉夫瑞·香白丹酒庄内景。
吴志诚在一份声明中说,该酒庄的翻修工作将由备受尊敬的法国建筑师拉波特(Christian Laporte)操刀。拉波特尤为擅长修复历史建筑,与此同时,所有翻修方案都将经过该地区专于保护项目的公司批准。
卖方的律师、波尔多顶级酿酒师埃里克·鲁索(Eric Rousseau)和吴志诚在Chez Guy餐厅。吴志诚在早些时候的声明中说:“我极其高兴能请来埃里克,希望他的精湛的技艺和专长能让这个酒庄重新生产出勃艮第最好的葡萄酒。”
图为酿酒师埃里克·鲁索(左)、吉夫瑞·香白丹市长罗伯特(Jean-Claude Robert)和吴志诚合影。吴志诚对葡萄酒的满腔热情促使他与波尔多、勃艮第以及罗讷河谷的许多顶级酿酒师,还有各地声名卓越的葡萄酒批发商及拍卖行建立了紧密而持久的关系。
这座吉夫瑞·香白丹城堡位于法国东部,带有2.3公顷的葡萄园。
酿酒工作将交给埃里克·鲁索管理,他将租下土地、打理葡萄园,同时把三分之一的产量交给吴志诚。预计这个葡萄园一年的产量在一万瓶到1.2万瓶之间。
图为吉夫瑞·香白丹(Chateau de Gevrey-Chambertin)酒庄外景。据吉夫瑞·香白丹酿酒商联合会主席让-米切尔·吉永(Jean-Michel Guillon)说,这座建于12世纪的酒庄于今年早些时候以出人意料的800万欧元卖给了来自澳门的博彩业大亨。
Louis Ng, the Macau casino executive who faced a vitriolic backlash in France after he bought a vineyard in Burgundy, says the reaction was 'beyond expectations' and is pledging to pour at least 8 million ($10 million) into the estate to restore it to its former glory.
Mr. Ng, a multimillionaire, says he is determined to pacify his new neighbors. In his first interview with the media since the furor erupted in France last week, the chief operating officer of SJM Holdings Ltd., the hotels and casino company founded by tycoon Stanley Ho, said the purchase was an 'emotional investment.'
The 60-year-old Mr. Ng is the leader and largest shareholder of a group of six Hong Kong investors who in May paid 8 million for Chateau de Gevrey-Chambertin, a run-down 12th-century residence along with 2.3 hectares of vines. A well-known collector among the region's wine lovers, Mr. Ng─who owns 2.3% of SJM Holdings, a stake valued at US$263 million─estimates he owns 250,000 bottles spread among several industrial warehouses in Macau and employs four people to handle his collection.
The deal was completed quietly in May. But when the French media uncovered the Chinese oenophile to be the buyer last week, a backlash ensued in France, with many local farmers and politicians calling on the government to intervene, fearing that wealthy foreign investors would push out the small, artisanal winemakers in the region.
'Now, I have remedial work. I just want to appease my neighbors,' said Mr. Ng over lunch, between sips of a 2003 Drouhin Montrachet Marquis de Laguiche, a Burgundy white wine that is among his favorites. 'We don't see this as a moneymaking vehicle,' he said. 'I don't have a business plan.'
Mr. Ng said he intends to spend 8 million on the renovations of the property and has employed a French architect who specializes in historical preservation. Work on the chateau, with about 10,800 square feet of space, could take as long as three years, Mr. Ng said. He added that he hopes to spend parts of his summer at the mansion after it is redone.
Even French politicians are weighing in on the purchase. French Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg, who is from Burgundy, says he is happy to welcome outsiders to the region, where he was for years an elected representative.
'I'm in favor of foreign investment in French agriculture and winemaking, because it helps them shine around the world,' Mr. Mountebourg said. For the minister, whose government has pledged to reverse France's nonenergy trade deficit within five years, such investments could also prove helpful from a policy front.
But some local winemakers in France aren't so thrilled with the arrival of a rich outsider. Jean-Michel Guillon, a winemaker who led a group who tried to buy the property for 5 million, is staunchly opposed to the deal, calling on government to intervene. 'You can't buy land in China as a foreigner,' Mr. Guillon said. 'It's logical for us to do the same here in France.'
Mr. Guillon insists that the opposition is about economics, not ethnicity. He fears an influx of foreign capital will drive up the price of vineyards and make it difficult for him to pay the transfer tax when he passes his own to his children. The French government bases the transfer tax on the average price of the previous year's real-estate transactions.
Jean-Marie Fourrier, another winemaker in the same village as Mr. Ng's Burgundy estate, said he is also concerned about a spike in vineyard prices. Sixty years ago, a farmer could pay off the price of acquiring a vineyard from the proceeds of one harvest, he said. These days, the same land requires 50 years of work to pay it off. 'A lot of younger people don't want to be paying the bank for all of their life,' he said.
Other observers contend that Mr. Ng vastly overpaid for the estate, saying it grows mediocre vines in a middling location.
'It's not that the Chinese have stolen from the French, but the French seem to be ripping off the Chinese,' said Jasper Morris, a Burgundy wine critic and buyer for Berry Bros. & Rudd in London. 'It's not a great property. I wonder why there's such a fuss.'
He added that a restoration of the chateau, which he says is in 'very bad condition,' would be 'a credit to him and the village.'
The winemaking will be left to Eric Rousseau, a top Burgundian winemaker, who will lease the land and tend to the vines while giving Mr. Ng one-third of the production, expected to be between 10,000 and 12,000 bottles a year.
In Hong Kong's wine circles, Mr. Ng's new venture is making news. Vincent Cheung, a retired Hong Kong lawyer and a wine collector since the 1980s, called Mr. Ng 'one of the biggest collectors in Asia' with 'very sophisticated tastes.' He called Mr. Ng's purchase a 'clever move because it's so rare to have a chateau on your property in Burgundy.' Wine estates with large-scale living quarters are much more likely to be found than in the Bordeaux region than in Burgundy.
Mr. Ng said Hong Kong's wealthiest are congratulating him on the purchase. 'The rich tycoons are calling me,' he said. 'They all say, 'Wow, what a smart buy.' '
JASON CHOW
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