Although in his previous life, Xia Yu knew that Romanée Conti Winery only produced 600 bottles of wine in 1945, but he didn't know how many were really left before he bought it, but he didn't expect that there would be 420 bottles!

This vintage is not only of very high quality, but also very scarce, and the fact that it has been out of production for six consecutive years has added to its rarity and legend.

Even if the 1945 vintage is not the best, there are other factors alone that make it worth speculating!

Thinking of the future generations, a bottle of Romanée Conti in 1945 was auctioned for 3.86 million yuan in 2018, and now this batch of 420 bottles of wine is hyped well in later generations, and they can be worth two or three hundred million US dollars.

In the end, the list ended in 1978, and the number of bottles stored was 6,589 bottles, and the harvest and brewing time was October 22.

Xia Yu remembers that the quality of Romanée Conti wine in later generations is extremely high, and the world's evaluation of this year's wine is also very high.

Xia Yu asked André Nobre: "Old Nobre, is the wine of the seventies the best quality in 1978?"

André Nobre nodded and said: "Boss, the weather in the seventies was generally bad, 1978 was the best year of the decade, the cold weather in the spring and early summer of that year caused the vines to bloom late, and it was not until August that the weather improved, fortunately the weather was good throughout the autumn, so that the grapes could fully ripen, but the harvest was also delayed a lot, from October 16th to October 22nd. ”

"Although it took more than 10 years for the wine to ferment and settle down, the quality of the 1978 vintage was excellent, not the best in the history of the winery, but it was also the peak. ”

"yes, I see!"

Xia Yu smiled, then closed the register, and said to André Nobray: "Take me to see the wine that has been stored for one or two hundred years, and the batch from 1945." ”

"Okay!"

After speaking, Andre Nobre left the registration room with Xia Yu.

At lunch after watching, Xia Yu also opened the oldest 1754 vintage wine he brought out, and everyone present shared some of it, which surprised Curtis Dubois very much, where did he drink this wine of more than 200 years?

He couldn't help but secretly say that it was really worth coming over with the boss this time.

Everyone tastes this wine with care, because the most taboo thing about old wine is constantly shaking the glass, which will greatly affect the taste of the wine.

In particular, the winemaker André Nobre tasted this bottle of wine with a pilgrimage mentality, as if this bottle of wine was his faith, which moved Xia Yu.

This should be the belief inherited by a top winemaker's family!

However, it has to be said that the wine that is qualified to be stored for 228 years is definitely the best quality, otherwise it would not have been left until now.

After more than 200 years of precipitation, it is difficult to say whether the taste of the wine has passed its peak, but the mouth is smooth and soft, the taste is quite full, and the finish is long, the depth is quite excellent, Xia Yu feels that the taste is much better than that of Lafite in 1787!

After lunch, Xia Yu left André Nobre behind and gave him an order that all the wines before 1900 should be kept tightly sealed, and no one should be allowed to take a bottle without his order.

Then the 1945 batch was no longer for sale.

He will arrange people to be responsible for how to operate.

When leaving, Xia Yu took out a list of some wines he wanted to take with him, and asked André Nobre to pack them in boxes, and after a while he would send someone to take them away by civilian helicopter.

The 1,000 bottles on this list will be shipped to London, Paris, San Francisco and Hong Kong in four batches, with 600 bottles destined for Hong Kong.

Because the most feared thing about aged wine is shaking, Xia Yu plans to transport it by air throughout the whole process, even if the distance from Burgundy to Paris is transported by civilian helicopter.

For this batch of wine, a little shipping is nothing!

Two days after his return, George Berkeley reported to him that Château Latour had been bought for £120 million.

For Château Latour, Xia Yu's attitude is even more different, because compared with the average annual output of 6,000 bottles of Château Latour, the annual output of Château Latour is as high as 200,000 bottles, which is suitable for the lower high-end market of Romanée Conti.

Therefore, Château Latour will be the main force for selling high-end red wines.

Therefore, Xia Yu asked George Berkeley to transfer all the shares of Château Latour to the French Bright Fund, and then immediately informed Alain Chevalier to merge Château Latour into the LVMH group.

As a wine giant, LVMH not only needs to occupy a dominant position in the mid-range market, but also needs to have high-quality wines to enhance the brand value.

I still remember that in 1998, under the leadership of Bernard Arnold, LVMH Group invested in Château Cheval Cheval at a high price, and although Château Cheval Cheval is also one of the top ten famous wineries in France, it is still slightly inferior to Château Latour.

Besides, the difference between simply owning a stake and owning a top-tier estate is huge!

Although it is a merger, Château Latour is still produced independently, but in terms of sales and operations, it will be merged into the company.

Therefore, it is undoubtedly very simple to merge from equity in advance.

Although the Vuitton family could no longer interfere with LVMH's decision-making, Alain Chevalier respected them and convened an interim board of directors.

Although the pure stock merger will once again reduce its shareholding ratio, considering that it has lost its management rights, the Vuitton family also supports the merger of top high-quality assets such as Château Latour into the group.

After that, the Bright Fund came up with the purchase contract, and the value of Château Latour was calculated according to the purchase price.

£120 million, or 1,292 million francs at real-time exchange rates.

LVMH acquired Château Latour by way of a pure issuance of additional shares, with an original value of 8.8 billion francs and a total share capital of 100 million shares, with a single share value of 88 francs.

Therefore, the company issued 14.7 million new shares to the Bright Fund, and the entire equity of Château Latour was transferred from the Bright Fund to the LVMH Group, and the value of the LVMH Group soared to 192 million francs, finally breaking through the 10 billion mark!

After the completion of the merger and acquisition through the private placement, the total share capital of LVMH Group is 114.7 million shares, and Bright Fund holds 105.23 million shares of LVMH Group, accounting for 91.74% of the total share capital, an increase of 1.21%.

The Vuitton family's shareholding fell from 8.9 percent to 7.76 percent.

The hidden Henry Rijamir's shareholding was reduced from 0.568 percent to 0.495 percent.

After the acquisition of Château Latour, Xia Yu still felt that LVMH needed to continue to strengthen.

It just so happened that Bright Fund's acquisition of the Busack Group was going very well.

By the time of Wednesday, February 24, when the strike of the Busack group intensified.

The market capitalization of the Busack Group fell to around 310 million francs.

Bright Fund, a major shareholder with a 5 percent stake, suddenly began to buy shares in the stock market on a large scale, without any concealment.

By the time the news spread, the Bright Fund had already taken a large amount of equity and increased its shareholding to 7.5 percent.

The share price of the Busack Group also began to rise, and by the end of the afternoon it had risen by 26.4 per cent from its opening price in the morning, a significant increase, and its market value had been fixed at 392 million francs.

But just as many shareholders and certain institutions were analyzing the purpose of the Bright Fund's actions, those who were still staying on the Paris Stock Exchange were shocked by a sudden news.

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