London sells more French wine to Hong Kong than France does!
Import duties have been abolished and the UK has officially overtaken France as the biggest wine exporter to Hong Kong. This news has surprised a few, but that doesn’t mean Hong Kong has lost its signature taste for fine French wines.
The twist? London is actually a major hub of fine French Wine – and no one would deny Hong Kong’s appetite for Bordeaux. So, despite the fact that the UK is not a major wine-producing region, Hong Kong imports from Britain showed a huge annual increase during the first seven months of 2009:
Imports from Britain showed an annual 146% increase during the first seven months of 2009 to almost US$80 million from Jan-Jul 2009, which was around US 69.5 million for the whole of 2008. UK has increased its share of this wine market from 20% to 33%, while France’s has slipped from over 35% to 31.6% at around US $72 million for the comparable period. The fine, expensive French wines are exported from the UK, explaining the phenomenal increase in dollar value.
Australia, in third place this year, has an 8.7% share totalling US$ 21 million followed by the US, Chile, Switzerland and Italy.
What’s responsible for the steep increase? Abolishing import duties made the fine of course, expensive French wines we love so much coming to Hong Kong duty-free. We call that cause for celebration: let’s make a toast with our favorite Bordeaux – to fatter wallets!
To celebrate the 75th birthday of Australian wine mastermind Wolf Blass, Maxxium is throwing a party with live performance by Asian Jazz sensation, Hanjin Tan. Come and meet Mr.Wolfgang Blass in person who will be present to mark this special occasion. There will be free-flow Wolf Blass wine from their White label and Gold label collection and buffet food the whole night.
Let this video show you how to taste red wine like a pro.
There are 4 key aspects to tasting red wine can be put together as the 4 S’s: See, Smell, Sip and Summarize. This is what professional wine tasters always do and in the video above you can follow some simple guidelines to get the very best out of your next tasting. Which is hopefully tonight since its Friday!
Wine Spectator magazine has a really good website with videos on all aspects of wine, if you haven’t spent time there click here to check it out.
Fine + Rare Wines, UK wine broker has opened their first office in the Far East. Following in the footsteps of other UK wine brokers like Farr Vintners and Berry Brothers & Rudd, it seems that Hong Kong offices are a definite necessity these days if you are dealing wine. Not surprising really, with record breaking auction results being recorded from Hong Kong wine investors, this is the hottest place to be right now.
Moet & Chandon has a super-hot star in their advertising campaign.
Moet & Chandon has upped the stakes for getting noticed in the alcoholic beverage category by getting Scarlet Johannson on board as brand ambassador. Moet & Chandon is part of the LVMH group, the same group that has successfully made top high end luxury labels, brands like Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior into successful and famous worldwide brands.
The campaign features a very glamorous looking Scarlett Johannsson. Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott shot pictures of Scarlett in a series of smoldering hot poses. Its not hard to take a good picture of Scarlett but we have to hand it to these guys, Scarlett looks amazing!
The Italian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, together with the Italian restaurant Cinecittá and La Cascina (Bel Vino), is organizing a “Piedmont wine pairing dinner” on Tuesday, 10 March 2009.
This will be a night to discover Piedmont’s best in terms of wine and cuisine. Direct from Turin, capital city of Piedmont region, Mr.Enzo Zafarano and Mr.Domenico Conta, owners of the two wineries I Columbé and Malgrà, will be present for the night.
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