By love-89.com After more than a decade of fervent buying, many Chinese investors are now selling their Bordeaux vineyards, once hopeful of a sophisticated French lifestyle and promising domestic market returns. However, capital controls in China and other factors have led them to withdraw from the market.
According to reports from AFP, stringent capital controls, a decline in demand for wine across Asia, and an underestimation of the costs of operating French vineyards have all contributed to the exit of these once-eager Chinese buyers.
Back in 2009, Château Latour Laguens became one of the first Bordeaux estates acquired by Chinese companies, which were confident that the vineyard’s wines would yield substantial profits in China.
Since then, over 200 other estates in southwestern France were gradually bought up.
However, many of these vineyards are now seeing their Chinese owners depart. In May of this year, French authorities confiscated nine vineyards owned by Chinese tycoon Qiu Naijie, founder of Haichang Group, which he had acquired in the 2010s. The government alleged he used Chinese state funds for money laundering activities.
In 2022, several wineries with names inspired by Chinese culture, such as Jin Tu, Yu Tu, Da Ling Yang, and Zang Ling Yang, disappeared from the Bordeaux map. After Hong Kong’s SGV Wines group sold these four estates to French investors, the vineyards reverted to their original names.
Real estate expert Li Lijuan explained that many other vineyards are also being sold at low prices. She emphasized that the strict capital controls imposed by Beijing have dealt a blow to a market already struggling due to an oversupply of Bordeaux wines.
“Chinese investors can no longer invest overseas because their funds are trapped in China,” Li stated.