NewsColony

‘I bought a winery and it caused a US-French row’ NewsColony Image copyright Famille Carabello-Baum Image caption Michael Baum with a barrel of grapes The BBC’s weekly The Boss series profiles different business leaders from around the world. This week we speak to Michael Baum, US software multimillionaire and vineyard owner. When American tech entrepreneur Michael Baum bought a prestigious winery in France’s Burgundy region it caused a trans-Atlantic spat. “[French newspaper] Le Figaro covered the announcement on its website, and there were about 2,500 comments on the article,” says Michael, 57. “You could split the comments right down the middle. Half of them were ‘damn foreigners stealing our heritage’. the other half were ‘if it wasn’t for Americans you’d all be eating sauerkraut right now’. “So you can say it was pretty divisive.” This was back in 2014, when Michael purchased Chateau de Pommard and its 25 hectares (62 acres) of vines for an undisclosed sum in the many ...