bordeaux wine

New Wine Deal Has Chinese Government Investing Directly In Bordeaux

Filed under: Wine

China isn't just collecting Bordeaux wine, Chinese investors are buying land and wineries in Bordeaux. Decanter reports that Philippe Raoux, owner of Chateau d'Arsac in Margaux and wine tourism complex La Winery, sold his Lalande-de-Pomerol estate, Chateau Viaud, to Cofco, a company 100% owned by the Chinese government. According to the article the deal followed three years of negotiations.

The sale was part of a larger business deal, Cofco will also distribute Chateau d'Arsac in China, along with other Bordeaux wines from Raoux's merchant business. The company will also bring Raoux's Signe Œnologique (wine star sign) concept to China to use in wine education. Raoux's son Pierre has moved to Beijing to work with the company to create a Bordeaux branded wine aimed specifically at the Chinese market.

Several Chinese companies and families have invested in Bordeaux in the last several years but recently the partnerships have more of a reciprocal nature. As we reported back in 2009, Chateau Lafite Rothschild formed a partnership with CITIC, China's largest state-owned investment company, to develop a winery on the peninsula of Penglai in Shandong province, an area said to be China's Bordeaux.

Interest in wine in China has risen dramatically over the past few years and with its large population and spending power that interest is only expected to increase.

Tags: bordeaux, bordeaux wine, chateau de viaud, china, cofco

In China Selling Empty Bottles of Chateau Lafite Rotschild Is A Booming Business

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

We already knew that Chateau Lafite Rothschild was hot in China but apparently the Bordeaux is so popular that counterfeiters have been scavenging the empty bottles to refill them. The Telegraph reports on the shadowy and lucrative world of China's bottle dealers. The article quotes one dealer who offers the equivalent of over $400 for a good vintage bottle of Lafite Rothschild in top condition. His firm collected empties from bars and restaurants in Shanghai and Beijing.

Alcohol forgeries have long been a problem in China with premium spirits, such as Maotai being frequently faked. Ice wine is also a popular target for fraud. Wine dealers and fine restaurants are taking precautions, inspecting bottles careful for signs of tampering before buying but some older wines tend to be re-corked making unmasking the refilled bottles even more of a challenge.

Tags: bordeaux, bordeaux wine, chateau lafite rothschild, Chateau Lafite-Rothschild, china, wine fraud

Chateau Lafite Rothschild: Exquisite Wine from Bordeaux

by Carrie Coolidge (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

It's safe to say that Halloween isn't celebrated in Asia with quite the same vigor as it is in the U.S. But this year, the last week of October brought some scary wine prices to Hong Kong: a lot of three bottles of 1869 Chateau Lafite Rothschild went for $698,076, or $232,692 per bottle---setting a new world record for the most expensive bottle of wine sold at auction.

"I happened to have one, from a different source, a few weeks before the auction and it was fabulous," says Jamie Ritchie, CEO and President of Americas and Asia for Sotheby's Wine. "We served it blind and the nearest guess on the age was 1959. What really made these bottles rare is the fact that they came directly from Chateau Lafite's cellars and were the oldest wines in the auction---you cannot get better provenance than that."

That provenance has been a part of Chateau Lafite for hundreds of years, part of the reason it's the winner of the Luxist Editors' Choice award for best in wine. Lafite's current incarnation dates back to 1868, when Baron James de Rothschild---a patriarch of the famous European banking family of the same name---purchased the Lafite estate, which had already been producing wine for at least a century.

Tags: awards-main, best wine, bordeaux, bordeaux wine, chateau lafite, chateau lafite rothschild, Chateau Lafite-Rothschild, Jamie Ritchie, luxist-awards, sothebys, winners-wine, winners-wines

Continue reading “Chateau Lafite Rothschild: Exquisite Wine from Bordeaux”

La Soiree des Grands Crus

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining, Wine, Events

A group of young chateau owners from Bordeaux are descending on New York City on January 27 for a unique wine event. For La Soiree des Grands Crus, 82 Mercer will be transformed into a modern wine cellar for the night where guests can taste 29 Grand Cru Classé wines and mingle with 17 proprietors representing 23 Bordeaux estates. The event will include the Breitling Grand Cru Challenge, a blind tasting for guests. Get your palate ready, the winner will receive a Breitling Chronomat B01 watch (worth more than $7690). Prizes also include about $20,000 worth of incredible Bordeaux, including some magnums and double magnums. Other lifestyle brands including Hugo Boss and Born will also be on hand and Patissier and Chocolatier Francois Payard of FPBNYC will create chocolate pairings for the evening, one for each of six Bordeaux appellations. Tickets are $185 per person.

Tags: bordeaux, bordeaux wine, new york city events, wine, wine event

Andrew Lloyd Webber Puts Wine Up For Sale In Hong Kong

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine, Auctions

Many wine collectors are sending their collections to Asia to sell to take advantage of the growing appetite for French wine there. Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber plans to sell off part of his cellar at a Sotheby's auction to take place in Hong Kong on January 22. "I am very happy that Sotheby's is bringing part of my precious wine collection to Hong Kong, particularly given that many wine connoisseurs are now in Asia," he said.

Part of Webber's cellar was sold in London by Sotheby's back in 1997 and took in $6.1 million. The current sale will include lots of 10 cases of the first growths on the 2005 vintage, Petrus 2000, Cheval Blanc 1982, Domaine de la Romanee Conti La Tache, and Domaine Leflaive. Many of the older wines have been cellared at Sydmonton Court, his 16th century home in Berkshire. Newer wines have been kept in professional storage. The sale is estimated to bring in between $2.8 to $4.1 million.

The Andrew Lloyd Webber wine collection represents the first half of a two-day sale that will also feature more wine from Henning Thoresen's Bordeaux Winebank 2000 Collection.

Tags: andrew lloyd webber, bordeaux, bordeaux wine, Bordeaux Winebank, Sothebys International Realty, Wii, wine auction

Sotheby's Wine Auction Achieves Record Results

by Carrie Coolidge (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine, Auctions

Jamie Ritchie, auctioneer, presiding over a Sotheby's wine auction.

Sotheby's auction of fine and rare wines including the 2000 Collection on behalf of Bordeaux Winebank on November 13, was a huge success, signaling that the 2000 vintage is living up to its expectations.

Sotheby's sold all but two of the lots for a grand total of $5.4 million, well over the pre-sale estimate of $3.2 million to $4.6 million (estimates do not include the buyer's premium). Bordeaux Winebank's "2000" Collection set six wine auction records.

According to Sotheby's, there was also strong demand for wine from a number of other collections with strong prices for all of the First Growths as well as Burgandy, resulting in 64% of the sold lots achieving prices over the high estimate.

Online bidders were particularly active, with 15% of the lots sold to collectors bidding over the Internet. Nearly half of the lots offered received online bids and 55 people logged onto bid live online, which was the highest ever level of online participation in a Sotheby's Wine auction.

"We were delighted by the success of the sale---the highest value various owner wine sale ever held at Sotheby's New York," says Sotheby's Jamie Ritchie (above), Head of Wine, North America and a Luxist Awards Expert Panelist.

Gallery: Sotheby's Bordeaux Winebank 2000 Collection Auction

Tags: auction, awards-main, bordeaux wine, Bordeaux Winebank, chateau lafite, Chateau Lafite-Rothschild, chateau mouton rothschild, Chateau Petrus, Henning Thoresen, luxist-awards, Petrus, Sothebys, wine

Continue reading “Sotheby's Wine Auction Achieves Record Results”

Wine 'Superlot' Sells For $320,000

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine, Auctions

One bidder at Skinner's recent wine sale on November 2 basically bought a wine cellar's worth of wine in one swoop of the auction paddle. The Bordeaux wine 'superlot' was comprised of 50 cases of wine including 10 cases of Chateau Haut Brion 1995-2004; 10 cases Chateau Lafite Rothschild 1995-2004; 10 cases of Chateau Latour 1995-2004; 10 cases of Chateau Margaux 1995-2004 and 10 cases of Chateau Mouton Rothschild 1995-2004. The first growth Bordeaux are basically the blue chip stocks of the wine world making this an easy investment for someone interested in filling a wine cellar very quickly with some of the most famous brands. The estimate for the lot was $200,000-300,000. It sold for $320,000.

[via Paul Fraser Collectibles]

Tags: auction, bordeaux, bordeaux wine, chateau haut-brion, chateau lafite, chateau latour, chateau margaux, chateau mouton rothschild, superlot, wine

Chateau Haut-Brion's Prince Robert of Luxembourg's Latest Venture

by Carrie Coolidge (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

Prince Robert of Luxembourg, managing director of Domaine Clarence Dillon

Prince Robert of Luxembourg, the 42 year old managing director of Domaine Clarence Dillon, oversees, and owns along with his family, two of the most prestigious Premier Grand Cru estates in Bordeaux: Chateau Haut-Brion and Chateau La Mission Haut-Brion. The Prince sat down with Luxist to discuss his strategy to expand his family's business by producing a more affordable wine on a larger scale. His newest creation is "Clarendelle", which he hopes will be the first super premium-branded Bordeaux wine.

Named in honor of his maternal great-grandfather, Clarence Dillon, a New York banker who bought Chateau Haut-Brion in 1935, Clarendelle is offered at a lower price point than the wines produced by the Prince's well known estates---$15 to $25 a bottle compared to well over $300 a bottle for Chateau Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion. Domaine Clarence Dillon is able to accomplish that by buying wine from dozens of other Bordeaux winemakers and blending it together. Only a small portion of the wine comes from the Domaine Clarence Dillon estates.

Gallery: Domaine Clarence Dillion

Luxist: Tell us why you are buying wine from other Bordeaux winemakers, rather than grapes?

Prince Robert: There's a great advantage to buying wine, rather than grapes. Buying wine gives us more quality control because we already have a finished product. We are not buying grapes because we would not know how they will evolve. The wines that are purchased for Clarendelle, represents the same grape varietals used for the Chateau Haut-Brion and Chateau La Mission Haut-Brion wines.

Tags: bordeaux, bordeaux wine, Chateau Haut-Brion, Clarence Dillon Wines, Clarendelle, Haut-Brion, La Mission Haut-Brion, luxist-awards, Prince Robert, Prince Robert of Luxembourg, wine

Continue reading “Chateau Haut-Brion's Prince Robert of Luxembourg's Latest Venture”

Chateau Lafite Rothschild Wins the Readers' Choice Award for Best International Red Wine

by Carrie Coolidge (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

Chateau Lafite Rothschild is nominated for Best International Red Wine.

With a history dating back centuries and a claim to the most expensive bottle of wine ever sold, Chateau Lafite Rothschild is a fitting winner for the Luxist Awards' Readers' Choice Award in the best international red wine category.

In 1787, scarcely ten years after some ambitious colonists declared a new country across the Atlantic, a small French winery called Chateau Lafite produced a very special bottle. Little did the resident oenologist know that nearly 200 years later, the bottle would sell for 105,000 pounds – roughly $160,000 – setting the mark for price that has stood since 1985.

When Baron James de Rothschild, a patriarch of the famous European banking family, purchased Chateau Lafite in 1868, it was perhaps a sign of a good investment recognized. But the Baron never saw his purchase bear fruit – he passed away just three months later, leaving the renamed Chateau Lafite-Rothschild estate to his three sons.

Gallery: Chateau Lafite Rothschild

Over a century later, Chateau Lafite Rothschild remains one of the world's most esteemed wine estates, producing some 35,000 cases per year. Much like the record-setting bottle from 1787, even the most recent vintages continue to rapidly appreciate in value – the 2008 Lafite Rothschild was valued at 1,500 pounds upon its release, but bottle prices more than doubled within two weeks. Baron James would be proud.

Tags: awards-main, bordeaux, bordeaux wine, chateau lafite, Chateau Lafite-Rothschild, Luxist-Awards, red wine, wine, winner-wine, winners-wine, winners-wines

Robert Parker's $2,000 Wine Tasting

by Tracy Chait (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

Oenophiles mark your calendars for October 23: wine mystic Robert Parker will host an exclusive tasting featuring

Bordeaux wines from 2005, what Parker says is "the greatest vintage produced during my thirty year career." For $2,000 per person ($1,000 of which is a charitable donation toward Culinary Institute scholarships), tasters will sample 18 wines, including all five of the Premiers Grand Crus from the Left Bank, which are currently priced at $75,000 a case.

Check out Robert Parker's website to learn more about the wines he favors and to search over 100,000 tasting notes from Parker's extensive database.

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Tags: bordeaux, bordeaux wine, BordeauxWine, culinary institute, CulinaryInstitute, robert parker, RobertParker, tasting, wine, wine tasting, WineTasting

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