U.S. acquisitions of top European wineries on the rise

Was just reflecting today on the several investments in or acquisitions of top European wineries made by individuals from the U.S. in recent years. Of course it’s not unusual for properties to change hands in the major European wine regions, but it seems to me that acquisitions by U.S.-based investors have been on the rise of late. I started making a brief list of the wineries and new owners just for my own edification – I’m sure I’ve forgotten several so I’m curious what other folks might add:

Vietti (Barolo) – Kyle Krause (Kum and Go convenience stores)
Cerbaiona (Brunello) – Gary Raischel (venture capitalist)
Bonneau du Martray (Burgundy) – Stan Kroenke (Screaming Eagle, Arsenal football club)
Chateau de Pommard (Burgundy) – Michael Baum (Splunk analytic software)
Domaine Louis Boillot (Burgundy) – Mark O’Connell (Multi-Service commercial payment systems)

Which have I forgotten?

What do folks make of this trend, if anything?

Also lots of American wineries owned by non-Americans, so I don’t see this as much news.

Exchange rates are as favorable for US dollars as they’ve been in a long time. Not much to be surprised about IMO.

Bingo! Plus a very sluggish European economy at a time that the US economy has been chugging along reasonably.

How many of these involved succession/generational issues? That was part of the story at Vietti, as I recall. Those situations pop up in Europe with family-run wineries regardless of exchange rates and economic trends.

It’s usually only news when Asians buy wineries or other assets. Countries like USA and France have tons of assets with foreign ownership, mostly from USA, Canada and Europe, in amounts which dwarf ownership by Chinese and Japanese.

But it’s always cause for alarm when “Chinese buy a Bordeaux Chateau” or “Chinese are buying up California real estate” or “Japanese are buying LA office buildings.”

Human nature, I guess.

Or outright xenophobia.

I would like to buy a winery in France…maybe in the south…I like the one in that Russell Crowe movie - A Good Year.
Provencal villa,Chateau La Canorgue,villa in Good Year movie (18)[1].jpg

Cool if you do it, just don’t give Charlie Fu and Victor Hong any ideas.

Didn’t Gallo buy Las Rocas a few years ago?

Not recent or anything, but it’s an interesting piece of history (to me at least) that Jean Laplanche, a psychoanalyst and academic, could’ve run a place like this. Today, the idea of a professor owning and operating a Burgundy vineyard–maybe any vineyard–seems impossible, like ancient history.