– By Jim Boyce

According to AFP, it appears Longhai International Trading Company is the first Chinese firm to purchase a Bordeaux winery.

The deal, announced Tuesday, to buy the 60-hectare chateau for an undisclosed sum, which was signed January 24, looks to be the first ever French wine estate purchase by Chinese buyers.

“It is a real Walt Disney kind of chateau, about 500 years old, and the name Latour makes you think of one of the first class growth wines of the Medoc,” said Daniel Carmagnat, director of the Bordeaux property agency A2Z, which sold the property.

Reportedly, the Qingdao-based company will get a 30-hectare operation that produces 160,000 bottles a year.

“This is essentially a prestige purchase,” added Thomas Jullien, director of marketing for Asia at the Bordeaux Wine Board (Conseil interprofessionnel des vins de Bordeaux, CIVB).

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