French winemakers alarmed as vineyards sold to foreigners

== BoozWheez – Updates the World == Please subscribe for regular updates ….. French winemakers and nationalists are concerned that the county’s finest vineyards are being sold out to foreign companies. Wine is the epitome of French culture, pride, and prestige. But some say the country’s national identity is now threatened by foreigners hunting for vineyards all across the country. A chateau with just a two-hectare vineyard in French Bourgogne region, home to one of the world’s most famous wines, made headlines after it was purchased by a Chinese entrepreneur. The former owners, pushed by financial troubles, were forced to sell their family business – and the buyer made an offer twice the market value. This worried many people. In the hysteria that followed, the Front National, France’s far-right party, slammed the deal as “emblematic of the danger threatening French heritage”. With much bigger chateaus already owned by Japanese and Russians just next door, such a reaction to this particular sale could be taken as an echo of the so-called “peril jaune” or “yellow peril” in the 60s, the paranoia of Asian world dominance – political, economic and demographic – that seems to be making a comeback these days. But there’s no smoke without fire. Michel, the owner of 30 hectares of Chardonnay grapes, producing 250000 of bottles per year, says there is a problem. But it’s not that foreigners buy French family vineyards, but that the owners have to sell them. “Taxes are very high …