(Bordeaux) The Château Lascombes estate, second classified growth of Margaux in Bordeaux, in the south-west of France, has been bought two-thirds by the American billionaire Gaylon Lawrence, announced Wednesday its owner, the Mutuelle d’ insurance of the French health body (MACSF).
Posted at 9:48 a.m.
The latter, which acquired the estate in 2011 from the American investment fund Colony Capital, retains 35.7% of the shares, a source close to the mutual told AFP.
The amount of the sale of the property, which covers 120 hectares of vines in the Margaux appellation and 10 hectares in the Haut-Médoc appellation, has not been specified, but eleven years ago the amount of 200 million euros ($270 million) had circulated for the valuation of the estate.
According to Safer, a company specializing in the sale of rural land, the average price of a hectare in the Margaux appellation is 1.5 million euros ($2 million), and it can climb to 3 million euros ($4 million) according to a specialist interviewed by AFP, a figure which today values the estate between 300 and 400 million euros ($405 million and $540 million).
The MACSF did not want to say anything about the sale price, only ensuring that it had carried out a “very nice operation”.
The estate is one of the largest of the 1855 Crus Classés and produces an average of 350,000 bottles per year.
It has produced a return “greater than 6% per year on average” since its acquisition, the same source pointed out.
The acquirer, Gaylon Lawrence, is an American businessman active in agriculture, real estate, banking, heating and air conditioning in the United States and, since 2018, in viticulture with several acquisitions within the Napa Valley, California’s great wine region.
“Château Lascombes is the largest estate in Margaux […] We are confident in our ability to produce one of the region’s most exceptional wines and […] we will spare no expense to bring it to its full potential,” Carlton McCoy, sommelier who runs Lawrence Wine Estate, said in a statement.
Two weeks ago, another estate, Château Lanessan, which extends over 80 hectares in Haut-Médoc, was transferred to the Australian flag with a majority stake taken by the company Treasury Wine Estates, which is in its fifth acquisition. in the Bordeaux vineyards in three years.