A 1,000-Euro Investment in French Wine Repays Bonds With Booze

  • Bordeaux entrepreneur’s wine-making investment site goes live
  • Says producers need money and are opening up to crowd-funding

wine grapes

Photographer: Alessia Pierdomenico/Bloomberg

French wine-makers are looking for new investors, and for 1,000 euros ($1,111) they’ll let anyone in.

Bordeaux-based entrepreneur Maxime Debure says producers in his famous wine-making region, and others like it, need money and they are opening up to raising it online from private investors with smaller tickets. The 38-year-old oenologist quit a job running two Bordelais chateaus to create a crowd-funding website, called Wine-Funding, that lets anyone buy a stake in wine domains that are just starting, renovating or expanding.