The former owner of Château de la Salle, Blaye charges his Chinese buyers Zhongai, a company based in Dalian, China with bad business dealings. The Chinese company has infuriated the French owner by doing little since buying the wine estate, including not keeping up the vineyards or getting ready for the approaching harvest. Two months after the deal closed, the house remains shuttered and no manager has been hired. The two employees of the winery turn up but there is no money to put diesel in the tractor. “No one from Zhongai have ever visited the property,” said Patrick Etineau. “I put my heart into making a good wine and I never would have sold them the Château had I known they would act like this.” They also had the audacity to threaten to expand into neighboring vineyards and dump all the production into the vats without any selection for quality, diluting any notion of terroir.
