French winemakers seeking investors at €1,000 a pop online

French winemakers will let you be a new investor for €1,000. Bordeaux-based entrepreneur, Maxime Debure, says producers in his famous wine-making region need money and are raising it online via small private investments.

The 38-year-old oenologist quit a job running two Bordelais chateaus to create a crowd-funding website, called Wine-Funding, which lets anyone buy a stake in wine domains that are just starting, being renovated, or expanding.

While €1,000 would normally buy you a few bottles of fine wine from some of France’s best-known regions, like Bordeaux, it won’t get you a seat at the shareholder table of its most renowned chateaus.