One of the first Asian investors to buy a Bordeaux wine estate, Peter Kwok, has expanded his empire with the purchase of Château Tourans in St Emilion.
Image: Château Tourans, Credit: Vins St Emilion
Hong Kong entrepreneur Peter Kwok has bought 12.6 hectare (ha) grand cru estate Château Tourans in the St Emilion commune of Saint Etienne de Lisse from Dutch businessman Petrus Wolter. Financial details were not disclosed.
Kwok plans to combine the new property with his existing Château Tour Saint Christophe, to bring the vineyard surface for the estate’s first wine up to 20 hectares, all from the limestone plateau.
Director Jean-Christophe Meyrou told DecanterChina.com that the purchase was the result of a two year search for the right terroir.
‘We bought Tourans because it has similar terroir to Tour Saint Christophe. Currently we have 8ha in production and 11ha potential – with 9ha entirely on the limestone plateau.
‘The rest is clay limestone that we use for the second wine, but this size does not give us enough scope to build a significant distribution through Bordeaux négociants. The new purchase will bring our limestone terroir up to around 20 hectares, from vines in excellent condition and well maintained.’
The vines from Château Tourans will be included with those of Tour Saint Christophe from the 2015 vintage, as a pre-sale agreement meant that Meyrou’s team, led by technical director Jerome Aguirre, had already been in charge of pruning and harvesting the grapes.
Kwok, who lives in Hong Kong but was born in Vietnam, became one of the first Asian investors in Bordeaux in 1997 with the purchase of Château Haut-Brisson.
He now owns 40 hectares of vines with Châteaux Tour Saint Christophe, Haut-Brisson and Tourans in St Emilion, plus Enclos Tourmaline and La Patache in Pomerol, and Enclos de Viaud in Lalande de Pomerol.
Translated by Nina Fan Feng / 冯帆
All rights reserved by Future plc. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of Decanter.
Only Official Media Partners (see About us) of DecanterChina.com may republish part of the content from the site without prior permission under strict Terms & Conditions. Contact china@decanter.com to learn about how to become an Official Media Partner of DecanterChina.com.
Comments
Submit