The Rothschilds are growing their wine empire—again.
The famed banking family spent a whopping US$99 million (HK$770.5 million) when buying Domaine William Fèvre from the Pinault clan, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. The deal was announced last year and finalised in January, but the price wasn’t divulged back then. Now it’s been revealed in financial filings.
Domaine William Fèvre is situated in the Chablis region of France, which produces highly regarded Grand Cru wines such as Bougros, Les Clos, and Vaudésir, Bloomberg noted. Before Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) took over the vineyards, they were under the control of the Pinaults’ Artémis Domaines. While the Rothschilds have long been important in the world of Bordeaux—they own the first growth Château Lafite Rothschild—the acquisition allows them to move into Chablis, where they haven’t historically had as strong of a presence.
“Chablis benefits from the renown of Burgundy while having much larger vineyards that can produce bigger volumes per estate,” Sébastien Jacquemont, a representative in the region for the real-estate agency Vinea Transaction, told Bloomberg. (Domain William Fèvre sits on 173 acres of land, for example.)
The Rothschild family has been in the winemaking biz for more than a century, with Baron James de Rothschild acquiring Château Lafite in 1868, Bloomberg wrote. Currently, former journalist Saskia de Rothschild is at the head of Domaines Barons de Rothschild, which has expanded across Bordeaux and into the south of France, Argentina, China, and Chile.
“I love Burgundy wines,” Saskia de Rothschild said in January, according to Bloomberg. “Over the last few years, we have developed a real love of white wines.”
As for the Pinaults—the family that owns the luxury conglomerate Kering—they’ve been offloading some of their wine businesses in recent years. Along with the sale of Domaine William Fèvre, Artémis Domaines has sold off Champagne Henriot, Bloomberg noted. However, the family still controls the first growth Château Latour in Bordeaux and Clos de Tart in Burgundy, for which François-Henri Pinault shelled out some US$245 million (HK$1.9 billion) in 2017.
While trends in the French wine industry have been unpredictable as of late, with Bloomberg citing competition from international wineries and lower consumption in some regions, the Rothschilds are doubling down on their commitment to the country’s winemakers—and for a pretty penny at that.
