February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN — One of the top wine-producing estates in France’s Bordeaux region — the Chateau de Fieuzal — has been bought by industrialist and chairman of Allied Irish Banks Lochlann Quinn for £36 million.
Quinn, who is a co-founder of the Louth-based electronic appliance company Glen Dimplex, and a brother of Labor Party leader Ruairi Quinn, follows in a centuries-long tradition of Irish people establishing themselves in the French wine trade.
The French bank group Groupe Banques Populaires has owned the chateau since 1994, and the vineyard has been extended and the neighboring chateau of Haut-Gardere acquired.
Founded by the Fieuzal family in the 1800s, the chateau was also owned by a consul to Pope Leo XIII. Later, the Ricard family of Pernod Ricard fame were also involved.
Situated at Leognan, nine miles south of Bordeaux, the chateau produces one of the best known Graves wines, with an annual output of 155,000 bottles of red and 48,000 bottles of white.
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It employs 35 and is making a profit. Quinn has said he regards it as an investment that he hopes his grandchild will have.
Quinn, 58, owns 26 percent of Glen Dimplex and was reported in the Sunday Times Rich List as being the 33rd richest man in Ireland, with a fortune of £125 million.
He also has a share in the luxurious Merrion Hotel in Dublin and has been a generous benefactor of his alma mater, UCD.
He had a small stake in the Dublin wine merchants Findlaters.