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.
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Wines of the New World have stolen the spotlight at this years Decanter World Wine Awards in Covent Garden, London. Of the 24 international trophies, 15 went to New World, 9 to the old world.
“Chile has proven itself a producer of some of the finest Sauvignon, Riesling, Pinot Noir and Cabernet blends in the world,” writes Adam Lechmere of Decanter.com.
Other highlights from the event include:
International Trophies for Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Pinot Noir and Bordeaux Varietals all went to Chile at a glittering dinner in the Floral Hall at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.
The trophy for best Sauvignon Blanc Over £10 went to Undurraga’s TH from San Antonio, which judges described as ‘Crisp, herbal, grassy and zesty, appealing elegant and expressive.’
Cono Sur’s Riesling won the Under £10 in that category, for its Bio Bio Valley Reserva 2008, with its ‘racy nose of lime, honey, grapefuit and ripe peach with hints of mineral and kerosene’.
And for the fourth time in the past five years the Red Single Varietal trophy Under £10 went to an Argentinian Malbec: this year, the Malbec aka Rodolfo Sadler from Opi Sadler in Mendoza.
French wine exports will decline at least 20 percent this year as wholesalers become reticent to restock during the recession and consumers drink less in bars and restaurants, industry executives said today.
Sales are suffering in the U.S., U.K. and Japan, Claude de Jouvencel, head of France’s Federation of Wine Exporters and chief operating officer of Grand Marnier, said after the signing of an agreement with the French customs office and the Finance Ministry to assist winemakers with obtaining
medium-term loans. Champagne makers will also see a 20 percent decline in sales by volume this year, according to Yves Dumont, the non-executive chairman of Grand Siecle producer Laurent-Perrier SA.
“High-end wines are suffering the most,” de Jouvencel said in an interview. “Next year will remain difficult, but we may see a little growth since the stock will be readjusted.”
Revenue is falling in Russia where many wholesalers, unable to get credit, have fallen behind with payments, de Jouvencel said. Growth in China has been reduced by half, while sales are stagnating in France, he added.
LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, the maker of Dom Perignon, said in April that champagne sales by volume plunged 35 percent in the first quarter as drinkers chose to economize with cheaper sparkling wines.
The customs office has pledged to provide fiscal data on individual winemakers as an additional guarantee to banks.
“Some winemakers have had trouble financing their day-to- day operations because banks would give them only one-year loans,” Jerome Fournel, the director of the French Customs Office, said in an interview. “This will help them get the financing they need against their wine stock.”
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