French anger over Burgundy wineyard sale to China tycoon

The sale of a top Burgundy winery to a Chinese businessman has been slammed by local winemakers, who generally pass down properties from generation to generation. The row coincides with a wine-based trade dispute between China and the EU.

The sale of the Chateau de Gevrey-Chambertin, a listed 12th-century building which has two hectares (five acres) of vineyards in one of Burgundy's top appellations, has already been attacked by local winemakers who had failed in their own bid to buy the estate.

"These winemakers should have been given some help from the government to preserve this national treasure for the country," said  France's far-right Front National (FN) vice-president Florian Philippot.

Jean-Michel Guillon, the president of the Gevrey-Chambertin, said: "The owners wanted 7 million and they sold it for eight."

"I hope this is not the start of a wave of foreign investors moving into Burgundy," he continued.

Jean-Claude Robert, the mayor of Gevrey-Chambertin, revealed that the Chinese buyer of the chateau was a Burgundy enthusiast who had engaged the wine-maker of nearby Domaine Rousseau to take charge of production on the estate.

"Like everyone else I would have preferred a French buyer but the good thing is that it will still be a local who is making the wine," he said.

"The wine will return to the top level which was not the case under the previous owners."

The row over the Chinese acquisition of a French estate has coincided with a wine-based trade dispute between Beijing and the European Union.

China is currently considering whether to impose restrictions on wine imports from Europe after complaining that subsidies offered to EU producers were unfairly damaging its own fledgling domestic wine industry.

The EU, which sold an estimated billion euros ($1.2 billion) worth of wine to China last year, has attacked the move as protectionist.