This is the news that is shaking the wine planet and causing a lot of ink to flow in recent days. Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce site Alibaba, has just bought the Château des Sours, located in Saint-Quentin-de-Baron, in Entre-Deux-Mers. After first trying to get their hands on a Bordeaux trading company — topic still relevant —, Jack Ma finally set his sights on this property.
Jack Ma is a former English teacher who made his fortune setting up Alibaba in 1999. Kien Leong Lee, a Malaysian from 40 years living in Singapore, was immediately appointed as the new manager of this Société Civile d'Exploitation Agricole. The amount of the transaction has not been disclosed., but the new company is still capitalized to the tune of 2,5 M€.
Wines less than 10 € the bottle
Jack Ma has just acquired a vineyard of 80 hectares producing annually 500’000 bottles, its store selling the wines of the property and its 18th century building. The Château des Sours does not enjoy a particular notoriety with wines in the price range below 10 € the bottle. This vineyard also produces a sparkling rosé mainly exported to Great Britain. He pledged in December to preserve the jobs of 18 Château employees with Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) Bordeaux. Sours had been bought in 2004 par Martin Krajewski, former partner in a headhunting firm in the City of London, and converted to wine. He threw in the towel for lack of profitability.
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| Credit Château des Sours |
Jack Ma – china's second fortune
His successor, China's second fortune and its few 23 billions of dollars, would seek to support its strategy of setting up in Bordeaux with a local trading house “capable of supplying large volumes, presumably for its e-commerce sites”, indicates the local daily Sud Ouest.
In all, 120 Bordeaux properties without great reputation — either close to 1,5 % of the surface of the vineyard — fell into the hands of Chinese and Hong Kong investors. The acquisition by Jack Ma confirms the willingness of Chinese investors in the Bordeaux region to acquire wine estates with high production and equipped with a beautiful old castle. The long-term objective of this acquisition is to export all the wines produced in China.
Jean-Nicolas Mouretin
Read also :
- Wine: Chinese billionaire Jack Ma buys two Bordeaux vineyards
- China - Should we be afraid of Chinese wine ?
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