Evan Osnos, well renowned wine guru of the New Yorker, writes about China’s sudden romance with wine. The notion of getting rich by selling wine in China has a long history, which is marked almost entirely by failure.
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Prospects have sharply improved since the days of the Baron, and, today, China is one of the world’s fastest-growing wine markets. (Chinese buyers are consuming so much that they are affecting wine prices for some of the most expensive bottles.) In this video, produced by Mengfan Wu, we visit a wine class hosted by Torres China, which is trying to introduce new consumers to an unfamiliar product. We also hear from Don St. Pierre, Jr., the chief executive of A.S.C. Fine Wines, who explains why Chinese consumers sometimes prefer to down their glasses in a single enthusiastic gulp.
HONG KONG — Chinese wine imports have soared more than ten-fold in the past few years but foreign producers hoping to cash in on the boom are warning the market is fickle and not for the faint of heart.
China is on track to import 10 million cases of wine this year, up from 840,000 in 2004, according to the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC).
Wangfujing, Beijing - 2006
Asian wine consumption, excluding Japan, is expected to double from this year to 27 billion US dollars in 2017, the council believes, with much of that growth driven by Hong Kong and cash-rich China.
In another sign of the growth of the market, last week’s Hong Kong International Wine and Spirits Fair, the second such annual event, attracted 520 exhibitors from 34 countries — double last year’s number.
“Many people are shocked by the speed of the growth,” said Raymond Yip, the HKTDC’s assistant director. “But there is a lot of pent-up demand for wine.”
The disposable income of an emerging Chinese middle class has grown and many of its members are choosing wine as a healthier alternative to spirits, Yip said.
“People are getting more health conscious and all of a sudden wine has become fashionable,” he added.
But Raymond Signorello, proprietor of Signorello Vineyards in California’s Napa Valley, said he has been struggling to find the right agent to market his premium reds on the mainland.
“It’s kind of a gold rush,” he told AFP from his booth at the fair.
[...] Click here to read the full article from AFP
“When I choose a wine, it should be ripe,” said Palette Vino’s founder and managing director, John Gai, as we tasted two wines at its Dongsi Yitiao location. Swirling the glass thoughtfully he added, “And it should taste ripe and balanced.”
John Gai, founder and managing director at Palette Vino's
For the 41-year-old Beijing native, chef and wine expert, wine appreciation is an education that need not be expensive.
And it is this idea that forms the foundation of his two Beijing-based businesses: Palette Wines, a wine wholesale and distribution company, and Palette Vino, bistros he opened to bring affordable foreign wines and his passion for fine dining together.
Palette Wines, the main importer for Palette Vino restaurants, is how Gai manages to keep prices reasonable.
“Seventy percent of our wines we import ourselves,” he said. “We negotiate the lowest price from producers, vineyards and agents and then ship them to China, where we manage that cost as well.”
Just how Gai got his passion for wines and fine dining has been an odyssey, and spans the entire Eurasian continent.
In 1992, after a job opening a Chinese restaurant in Hungary fell through, he took the time to travel around the Baltic States and fell in love with Talinn, Estonia’s capital city.
“It was a beautiful, medieval city,” he recalled.
“It was right after it gained its independence from the Soviet Union, so I saw an opportunity to open the first Chinese restaurant in all the Baltic States,” he said.
However, it was only when Gai returned to Beijing in 1996 that he started managing the CourtYard hutong restaurant and became closely involved with wines.
Two years later in 1998 he met members of the Zonin family, who run Italy’s largest privately owned vineyard and winemaking business, at a Beijing wine exhibition and they took him on as their manager for China.
“It was my job to look for the importers and distributors for the company, analyzing local market trends and reporting it back to the family,” he said.
“I also helped train the staff to know about wines.”
In September 2002 he founded Palette Wines, a name suggested by a close friend to impart a rich variety of flavors and colors.
Until recently Palette Wines sold exclusively to hotels, companies and private customers.
But in 2005, it opened the first Palette Vino restaurant and wine bar in Shunyi district near Pinnacle Plaza, then a second in Central Park (a retail wine store), and by the end of 2008 another in Dongsi Yitiao.
Palette Wines claims the largest South African wine portfolio in Beijing, using nine different vineyards and each with two or three different wines, plus extensive Spanish, Italian and Australian portfolios.
But his diverse selection is being overlooked by inexperienced and wealthy taste buds.
“Some people drink names, not wine,” he said declaratively.
“They just don’t know enough, which is why the industry of importing wines into China tends to be big business.”
Gai said the costs of wine are dropping in developed markets such as the US and parts of Europe, Holland and Germany.
“It seems costs became more reasonable over time because it became more competitive, and people would not accept these high prices,” he said.
“This trend has not really reached big hotels and restaurants here.
Despite his best efforts to keep the cost of wines available at his bistros low, Gai’s business struggles to expand beyond Beijing. Gai admits he has had a tough year.
“I think, for now, finance is a big issue,” he said.
“It really depends on how we look at this as a long-term investment and whether or not we copy it to another location.”
To show off some “absolutely, very delicious” Spanish wines, reasonably priced from suppliers between 200 and 300 yuan, Gai served up a bottle of Abrego 2006, made from Tempranillo grapes found in Castilla, Spain (200 yuan).
With its low tanning, caramel and prune accents with a medium body, it demands to be served all by itself.
“The grapes were picked at the right time,” he remarked.
“This vineyard picks them at night and quickly transports them to the winery, and the barrels are medium-toasted oak so as not to overpower.”
His full bodied and rich personal insights are evidently present in every bottle he sells.
(CNBC) – Hong Kong may eventually overtake New York and London as the world’s largest wine market, with experts saying the territory could generate $65 million in wine auction revenues in 2009, or about 25% of the global total. CNBC’s Emily Chan reports.
After partnering with France during this year’s show, the 3-day Hong Kong International Wine & Spirits Fair that concluded successfully last week, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council which organises the show has announced that Australia will be the partner country next year.
An agreement between the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade) and the HKTDC was signed last week, following the number of exhibitors taking part this year. Australia was the country with the largest representation at the show with 65 participants.
Fred Lam, executive director of the HKTDC, said: “It seems fitting that when it comes to announcing our partner country for next year we are passing the baton from the Old World to the New World,” France was the partner country during the second edition.
Australia is Hong Kong’s fourth-largest supplier of wine and the value of imports from Australia to Hong Kong between January and September this year increased by 22% compared with the same period last year, according to Drinks Business.
India also showed a decent presence with ten wineries present- Sula, Grover, Indage, UB, Vintage, Big Banyan, d’Ori, Deccan Plateau, Renaissance, and Empire. Mrs. V. Kotwal, CEO of the Indian Grape Processing Board which organised the producers, was very satisfied with the response and hopes that next year will see a bigger participation at the show. The constant stream of people at the Indian stand was quite encouraging.
A group of importers had also visited the show under the banner of Indian Wine Academy and most were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the show, the seminars, amount of wineries present and the business possibilities that came up.
Next year’s Fair will be a big test of the prowess as the Vinexpo Hong Kong also lands up during the same year.
For all the toothsome crabs and delicate siu mai that make Hong Kong one of the world’s best places to eat, until recently wine was largely enjoyed more as a marker of status than as a complement to a meal. Wine programs and shops in the city’s main district catered to local tycoons and expatriates with a taste for Bordeaux and expense accounts to match.
But venues for wine—shops, tasting bars and even a winery—now flourish in the city, thanks to a happy convergence of factors that includes reduced taxes and a government mandate declaring 2009 “Food & Wine Year”. Auction houses are clamoring to sell fine Bordeaux, Burgundies and Barolos and ever more restaurants are hosting dinners with wine makers flown in for the occasion. Tasting events, trade shows and oenology courses abound. A recent Sotheby’s auction of two American-owned wine collections raised $7.9 million, almost 30% more than estimated.
Still, many of the best and most interesting sites are tucked away, often a short taxi ride out of central Hong Kong.
Click here to access the complete article from the WSJ
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