"I understand that the domaine is now definitely up for sale with the required notice has been lodged with the Mairie de Chacé. It is understood that the price may be as high as 8 million euros, as there are several years of stock. The price means that the buyer will be someone Martin Bouygues, who has been frequently cited as the favourite to purchase Clos Rougeard. "
$8 Million euros is $533,333 per hectare, that’s pretty good. As much as we like the wine, this is Saumur, not Clos de la Roche. I bet this is a huge record for the region.
8 million does not sound right. Mind boggling to compare that only the brand name of Meiomi (no land, no grapes) sold for $380,000,000+ dollars. This just does not sound right.
But they’re not just buying the land, they’re buying the domaine. This would mean inventory, the brand, the rights to sell the wine going forward, and so on. I don’t know whether $8MM is the right figure for that or not, but they certainly bought a lot more than the land.
$310MM, and that was 6 million bottles worth of sales per year.
I hear what you are saying. How much inventory do you think there is? Isn’t production something like 25000-30000 bottles per year? That’s not much, and that’s even less to leave at the Domaine. Plus, with Nady retiring, I know there was concern about the quality going forward. I know what we all think of the wine, but at the end of the day, it’s still Saumur. You aren’t paying Park Avenue prices in Des Moines, IA, no matter how nice you think Des Moines is.
^ yes Ian, but he’s clearly right that dividing the total price by the number of hectares and calling that the land value per hectare is greatly misleading. There are supposedly several years of inventory, as well as the value of the domaine as an entity and a name. In fact, your argument that the land is not as inherently valuable as it would be in Burgundy (depends on which land in Burgundy of course) would suggest that a good portion of the value in this sale is in acquisition of the Domaine, not the land it sits on. It would be interesting to hear what they actually valued the land at, but at this point all the details seem rather sketchy.
I agree with both of you that you aren’t only buying the land, but when I put my “business hat” on, and a strip away all the parts, I have to assess what is truly the only constant. If Nady Foucault is truly stepping aside from winemaking, then the future of the domaine’s name is going to be put in question. Read the thread above, clearly doubt already! So if the quality slips, and the Domaine’s credibility slips, what’s left? Some inventory and the land?
I think the best comparison I can give to this is SQN. Someone said to me once that SQN was worth north of $200 million. I said, only if Manfred is fully involved and still the creative genius behind it. I would make the same argument here. For a wine that is significantly more sought after and significantly more expensive than all their neighbors, the magic comes from the land, and who made it. So if I take half that equation away, what are you buying? More importantly, what are you willing to pay for?
SQN worth over $200 million? Even with Manfred fully involved it is probably off by an order of magnitude, the delusional ravings of a pathetic fanboy inflating his own ego by his association with a luxury good. They don’t do remotely the kind of volume that would be required to justify that kind of valuation, and raising the volume to that level would destroy the caché of the brand.
Already screwed by the Bouygues Family, I did not make the list this year!
I kid about the former, but not about the latter.
It’s funny, I love these wines and have been paying the premium accelerations these last several years with aplomb. Perhaps the only wine were I seemingly did not care where pricing went. But, now that I did not make the cut, I’m not sure that I care, either.
These are singular, defining wines for Loire. I will treasure those that I have for special occasions, but am fine with the wonderful array of high-quality Cab Franc wines now being produced in Loire.
Considering that Kosta Brown sold for $40 mm and they own no vineyards $8 mm is not all that crazy. I can only imagine what the back stock is worth + the land + the value of the brand.
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