Hong Kong overtakes NY, London in wine auctions
Hong Kong has overtaken New York and London as the largest wine market for two of world’s biggest auction houses, the firms said Tuesday, highlighting a trend spurred by surging demand from China.
Sotheby’s said its wine auction held in the southern Chinese city over the weekend, together with another one in April, have raised 14.3 million dollars.
The figure surpassed those of New York and London, which respectively recorded sales of 10.5 million dollars from four auctions and of eight million dollars from seven auctions held this year, the auction house told AFP.
Christie’s also said that its recent auction results have also shown that Hong Kong is taking over New York and London as its largest wine market.
“In Sotheby’s first year of selling wine in Asia, Hong Kong has become (its) most important wine centre, ahead of very successful auctions in New York and London,” said Serena Sutcliffe, head of Sotheby’s international wine sales.
“Sotheby’s have exciting plans to build on this momentum to bring to the market top collections in 2010,” she added.
Sotheby’s and its rival Christie’s began to hold regular wine and champagne auctions in Hong Kong after the city’s government abolished duties on wine imports in 2008 in a bid to establish the city as a regional wine hub.
China’s economic boom and growing demand for top French wines has become the key driver of Hong Kong’s wine market, as can be seen from the increasing number of mainland Chinese bidders at the auctions.
At Sotheby’s weekend sales, a Chinese bidder splashed out a record 93,077 dollars for a bottle of 1982 Chateau Petrus Imperial.
Sutcliffe said 99 percent of buyers in the two-day auction were Asian buyers, including those from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines.
The latest auction fetched almost 30 percent more than Sotheby’s estimate of 6.13 million dollars.
David Elswood, head of Christie’s international wine department, said its Hong Kong wine auctions had the highest average lot values among its global sales, at 150,000 dollars per lot.
“Asian buyers are very active not only in Hong Kong, but also in the international wine market,” Elswood told AFP.
This spring, Asian buyers accounted for 61 percent of Christie’s global wine sales in New York, London and Hong Kong, whereas they made up only seven percent of global buyers in 2005, he said.
“Buyers from Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China also grew substantially between last autumn and this spring at our auctions. We expect this trend to continue.”
Asian consumers struggle to grasp traditional Western wine descriptions, says Jeannie Cho Lee MW.
Writing in this month’s Decanter, Cho Lee explains that wine writers need to discover new ways to communicate with Asian wine drinkers, but that it may take two generations to come up with a language that is relevant and meaningful to Asian wine lovers.
The traditional Western language of wine has been subject to inaccurate translations and means little to many Asian consumers, according to Cho Lee.
When it comes to the Asian palate there is a need for more familiar reference points which relate to their cuisine and dining habits.
For example, wine drinkers in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore appreciate the subtle elements in mature fine wines, which share the same restrained characters as some of the most-sought after ingredients in Asia such as sea urchin, Kobe beef and shark’s fin.
Similarly, the tolerance level for tannins varies depending on whether the consumer is a regular drinker of tea or bitter vegetables such as ginseng and radish. For those people, full-bodied tannic red wines are extremely enjoyable.
Cho Lee points out that while wine drinkers in the West may describe a Shiraz as having notes of black pepper, liquorice, game and bacon fat, Asian consumers will refer to Tandoori spice, roasted goose or char siu (barbecued pork).
See the full article in the June issue of Decanter magazine – Subscribe here
WA winemakers are turning to emerging markets in Taiwan, Nepal and South Korea to help the industry through the global economic crisis, as traditional markets in Britain and the US dry up.
Major wine importers from Japan, Nepal, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Thailand toured WA wine regions this week in search of supplies.
The value of Asian markets is rising rapidly, with China and Taiwan buying 54 per cent and 23 per cent more of Australian wine over the past year, while the volume of exports to Nepal is up 97 per cent.
Taiwanese wine importers Shelly Wu and Winston Lin signed a deal last month to import Cullen Wines from Margaret River and said there was a strong market for Australian fine wine in Taiwan but it was overwhelmingly for red varieties. Ms Wu said WA shiraz was popular. “The market for (fine wine) has been developed over the last 20 years but they mostly used to drink French wines. Now there is stronger interest in new world wines,” she said.
“There is strong interest in shiraz from Australia and the cabernet sauvignon is beautiful compared to the European style. We are adding to our portfolio of WA wines because the wine style is very elegant and very approachable to the Taiwanese palate.”
Nepalese wine buyer Amit Agrawal imports wine from the Hunter Valley in NSW and is yet to buy any WA wine.
He said the tiny country’s thriving tourism industry generated demand for fine wine. “Because we like spicy types of food, sauvignon blanc goes well,” he said.
Britain and the US remain by far the biggest wine export markets but their value has fallen 20 per cent and 12 per cent respectively over the past year.
Lisbon, Portugal, 19 May – Portugal exported US$1.6 million in wine to China in 2008, a figure that is expected to rise to US$2 million this year, the brand manager for ViniPortugal, the association for Portuguese wine promotion, said Monday in Lisbon.
According to Márcio Ferreira, for 2009 “prospects are excellent,” for Portuguese sales to Hong Kong, Macau and Shanghai.
A delegation from the Portuguese winemaking sector, including ViniPortugal and 20 producers is currently in Shanghai taking part in one of the world’s most important wine and food fairs, SIAL, after presenting its wines in Hong Kong.
ViniPortugal, an inter-professional association for the promotion of Portuguese wines, in 2009 has a budget of around 200,000 euros for activities to promote Portuguese wines in that area.
Ferreira said that Portuguese wine exports to Macau had seen growth of 90 percent by value, to US$3.5 million, recovering from a fall in 2007.
The producers that are part of the delegation include Sogrape, Aliança, Quinta da Aveleda and Dão Sul. (macauhub)
An Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation report released this weekend states the value of Australian wine exports declined 14% in the year ending April 2009.
The report highlights that despite overall pressure from the global financial crisis, which has strained many traditional export markets, growth in Asian markets remains robust.
The report says that more than half of the industries export decline originated from the United Kingdom. Export growth came from Hong Kong, China and Japan. China recorded the largest growth in value, with a increase of $30 million.
Another trend also highlighted in the report was a move towards lower-prices bulk wine shipments. It seems the greater market is cutting back on higher end wines in exchange for “bang for your buck.”
Good news for South American and other low cost producers making quality wine which tend to struggle to break into Asian markets where consumers are VERY brand consciousness and prefer French, Italian and more recently Australian and Californian wines.
Excepts have been obtained from this ABC-Australia article
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[Source] – AFP
