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How do you by any land in Burgundy?
It's not as if a sign goes up that the land is for sale
There are the in France
there are what we call "notaires". It's a
not like a notary public it's literally a land attorney
and they do all the land transactions
and very often they do the estate planning. So I liken them more to a
family priest a rabbi: they know where the bodies are buried.
And these notaires are often...
there's some is a monopoly on them. They have set
fees and often they are the officers who
are passed from one generation to the next, and they work with the same
families from one generation to the next, so they know
what's coming up for sale. What one has to do is get hooked in with the notaires
and the accounts to find out if something's available
and I'm constantly talking to people.
This deal we are able to buy the Batard Montrachet and Puligny Montrachet and Chassagne,
ended up it was one of my
professors at the wine school who decided to get out and sell
virtually everything. He got burned out
and I got hooked in through my notaire
and a broker because another deal that I was supposed to have
fell through and we don't know quite know what happened so,
it was my turn. I got the first bite of the apple and I said yes.
So there's this, I don't want to say...
there's this understanding about how deals are done.
When your turn is... when I got my Chassagne Montrachet it was
a transaction that was way too big for me to take but at the end my
attorney came back and said there is one little parcel left, and I jumped on it was a
perfect.
It was our Chassagne Maltroye, so that was just pure dumb luck.
But again it was like "be a nice boy, play nice in the sandbox"
and to a certain degree waiting one's turn, but also being proactive
letting if you will, the gatekeepers know I'm interested
and talking to your bankers about who's having problems and things
like that so it's not a lot different than any other
real estate transaction, but trust me it is hard for
someone in France. It doesn't matter if you're French or American.
It is as difficult, and remember I've been there twenty some years now
I don't wanna say I am part of the old guard
that would be an exaggeration but
I know a lot of people. And I always try to be nice to everybody and
I tend to get my phone calls returned.
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