“Crazy, insane, stratospheric, overpriced, ridiculous, shocking” were just some of the words used by merchants, collectors and other insiders in reaction to the record-breaking prices fetched by Lafite Rothschild bottles from the Sotheby auction held in late October 2010.

I personally won’t waste my time debating with them on whether or not there is a logic behind this phenomenon to fuel speculation around future prices of Lafite or any other of its closest peers like Latour, Mouton, Haut Brion or Margaux (most of them have already sent their best ambassadors for that purpose, like the young Thibault Pontallier for Margaux); however, I would simply draw a parallel between this event and what happened for this same Chateau back in 2006.

Around that time, nobody in Europe or the US understood why Lafite over a very short period of time (less than 3 months) commanded much higher prices than other First Growths or equivalent French wines. There were rumors that all this was dictated by some obscure forces from the East, centralized around Hong Kong, Singapore or possibly China. What the merchants, negociants and observers of Sotheby’s auctions thought was, “Great opportunity for us, let’s sell as much Lafite as possible to the Chinese! By the time they realize they’ve paid too high a price, we’ll have already unloaded such a quantity that we can decrease prices back down to lower/normal levels.” Well, they all lived to regret it since Lafite prices have never really retreated from that moment, not even with the mega-financial crisis that bankrupted Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and AIG. In fact, on the contrary, they kept going up and up to the disbelief of those in the industry.

I am no expert in behavioral trends in China but I would certainly not underestimate what happened in October by calling it an epiphenomenon triggered by some isolated case of some nouveau riche Chinese showing-off his wealth and getting caught up in auction fever. This is something that the East learned faster than the West with respect to traditions like wine – it has become a “must-have” beyond trophy, social success or wealth. By paying an apparent overprice, this Asian buyer has simply secured a cultural asset that could tomorrow disappear forever because, in Asia, wines – no matter how expensive – are bought to be drunk. This is also a lesson I have learned from advising our clients at Bacchus & Century. If you can demonstrate all of the unique qualities of a particular bottle, combined with the scarcity effect due to diverse reasons like specific vintage, micro-production and restricted cuvee, chances are high that the Asian client will front-run the Westerner who’s usually slower to react and appreciates its value.

This article is written by Rene Wong, Wine Advisor at Bacchus & Century, shop 2 , 30-32 Wyndham Street, Lang Kwai Fong, Hong Kong. Tel:6681 1825. www.bacchuscentury.hk

For neophytes just starting out on their initiation journey into the world of wine, it’s exciting to discover that, like life, there are many different stages to explore from youth to adolescence to maturity.

Seasoned wine lovers of course will know from experience that real wine appreciation takes patience, an education of mind and, of course, the senses. The one downside to this growth can be that the more you to learn to appreciate wine, the more appealing older and more mature wines become…and the younger wines considerably less so. However, the journey itself is a path to discovery, so learn to savour every moment.

1. Youth (of wine and drinkers)

Young wines express themselves primarily through fruity notes; as you will agree if you are a fan of Beaujolais Nouveau which can be summarized each year by its banana, raspberry and cherry flavors. As appealing as this can be to younger drinkers, the disadvantage is that these wines only show a partial and as yet unachieved aspect of their full potential. Take note: wine is NOT a fruit juice!

2. Adolescence (of wine and drinkers)

Slightly older wines add an extra layer, with floral flavors or plant fragrances adding to the fruity tones. For example, expect to taste violet, lime tree, honeysuckle or box tree. What you will take from this stage is that, all of a sudden, several doors open and close to a multi-dimension reality of the divine possibilities of wine…leaving you, the drinker, more freedom to decide which door you’d like to re-enter in the future and re-focus those heightened senses on.

3. Maturity (of wine and drinkers)

Mature wine is where it really all happens. As the name implies, these wines have reached their optimum potential during aging and exhibit a pleasing combination of aromas, flavors and bouquet. The wine can finally be at ease to reveal both its mineral and earthy touch: silex, oil, truffle, forest leaves. Now, you know that the journey is complete and, like Alice herself, you have been fully projected into the Wonderland of Wine. Enjoy it.

On a philosophical note and in conclusion, the funny thing about all of these stages is that the journey just described (which should also be the one followed for any wine tasting) is actually the reverse process to the one that produced the wine in the first place. Here, it all started in the soil or terroir…then grew the vine stock or the plant…then blossomed the flowers which finally became the fruit or grape. So, you could say that by enjoying mature wines we have actually come full circle – just like the circle of life!

This article is written by Rene Wong, Wine Advisor at Bacchus & Century, shop 2 , 30-32 Wyndham Street, Lang Kwai Fong, Tel:6681 1825.

It’s hard to define when wine history really started.

Did it all begin with the Greeks and their wine god Dionysos, or the Romans with Bacchus? Or, did it start in Anno Domini when the Bible depicted wine as the symbol of Christ’s blood?

What seems to be commonly accepted is that it’s a Western creation; nurtured under Western hands and described in Western jargon. If you observe the recent proliferation of courses from French pronunciation of grape varieties to wine and food matching to Western dishes, there seems to be a belief that Asian consumers have to endure painful training and teachings of all the technicalities like their Western counterparts, before they can fully enjoy the drink!

The Robert Parker Phenonemon

Let’s take a look at how Robert Parker became one of the most influential fine wine critics and authorities in the world…an American citizen, Robert Parker hails from Texas and decided to start publishing his detailed tasting notes and ranking system of wines on a 1-100 scale in a newsletter aptly named, The Wine Advocate.

Little did he know that he was soon going to rock the Bordeaux establishment by influencing taste and affecting wine prices and production. He had no formal wine education or qualifications, no sponsor, and he didn’t even have French ancestry in which to persuade wine drinkers of his expertise! All he set out to do was to create a system for rating wines based on his very own personal perception, feeling and taste. And it worked!

Opportunity for an Asian Robert Parker to set the next universal benchmark in wine rating

These days, there are lots of Asian wine critics who challenge his rating system and could well replace him in this part of the world – or at least create the next universal benchmark.

However, my intuition is that whoever it is, he or she needs to take a little bit of risk to re-think wine as if it was a true Asian legacy, and to re-invent a phraseology more aligned towards Asian palates, noses, eyes and minds.

Setting a new wine vocabulary

Since there is no tangible evidence that when one smells blackcurrant, tobacco, vanilla or leather, it is because there is a common chemical substance contained in all these references and what is in your glass, in theory anyone could legitimately re-create a brand new vocabulary as long was there is consistency. And, of course, there’s a lot of work that goes beyond just accurate translation: for example, “Pierre a Fusil” which refers to silex fragrances common in Chablis white Burgundy wine…well, you can understand why we just cannot go in that particular direction.

All in all, there is a real opportunity for the new generation of Asian wine advisors, critics and writers to create their own references from their own history. All they need is to use cultural references, taste and sense in order to make it easier for Asians to understand and relate to their compatriots – rather than using wine jargon created by French academics hundreds of years ago.

This article is written by Rene Wong, Wine Advisor at Bacchus & Century.

• Shop 2 , 30-32 Wyndham Street, Lang Kwai Fong
• Tel:6681 1825

As you might know but will be loathe to admit, the wine world the world over is dominated by men and, unfortunately, Asia is no exception.

From experience, wine buyers are mostly of the male variety and I find it outrageous when the service women receive is automatically far inferior to that of men.  There are many occasions where I have witnessed a salesperson passing off the shop’s latest promotion in an attempt to hurry a female customer or rudely eluding her questions, just to spend more time with male customers.

Furthermore, there is almost no chance of being taken seriously if a woman is to complain about a wine in a top restaurant. Even for Jeannie Cho Lee, Master of Wine, it was not a pleasant experience when she was dismissed by the sommelier of a Michelin-starred establishment as a ‘typical ignorant Asian woman’ and her request to have a bottle of corked wine be replaced, ignored. Instead of checking to see if the bottle of wine was corked, he declared that it was just the wine’s style, without even smelling the wine for cork taint.

If Hong Kong continues its ambition of becoming the wine hub of Asia, it must first acknowledge that women’s interest in wine is the same as men’s, and create a friendlier and more equal environment in which to deliver quality service. Among the hundreds of new wine shops that have mushroomed recently in Hong Kong, are there any that cater to women? A haven where a woman might take as much pleasure in picking out the right bottle of wine with helpful and knowledgeable staff as, say, they would with clothes, bags and jewelry?

For that, apart from the standard Hong Kong supermarket wine model where hundreds of bottles from all over the world are displayed on shelves or sometimes even on the floor, different styles and genres of wine shops may be needed – shops which are more distinctive, more elegant, more unique or, dare I say, simply more feminine.

• Rene Wong is a Wine Advisor at Bacchus & Century, 30-32 Wyndham Street, Lang Kwai Fong, Tel:6681 1825.

Ever asked yourself why there is so much choice in recent vintages (like 2006, 2007 or 2008) as opposed to older vintages (like before 2000), when most of the recent vintages are not yet mature and older vintages are probably more at their peak?

Well, the naked truth is that wine merchants have a strong interest in moving their new releases in order to make way for next year’s stock. The more wine they sell this year, the bigger the discount wine producers offer for the following year’s wine. The second reason has to with conservation risk; because wine runs a greater risk of being exposed to non-optimal conditions (ie humidity, temperature, human manipulation) over time, the simple fact is the older they get the higher the risk.

So, when you buy an old vintage wine from a wine merchant list, make sure the bottles are in pristine condition and that, during the journey from the UK, US or Europe to Hong Kong, the wine is kept in optimal condition. As there is no guarantee that the wine you bought is in the same condition as it was originally, the risk of you actually buying a bottle of wine that is flawed or has been exposed to unfavorable conditions is something that must be considered.

One other thing to watch out for to ensure the bottle has been moved at a minimum is to read the counter-label carefully – they usually show the number of stops they have made to arrive at the final destination. You may be surprised at how many different ports that bottle of Bordeaux stopped at before arriving in Hong Kong. Again, the rule of thumb here is that the fewer times it has been moved, the lower the risk of something going wrong or negatively affecting the wine.

This article is written by Rene Wong, Wine Advisor at Bacchus & Century, shop 2 , 30-32 Wyndham Street, Lang Kwai Fong, Tel:6681 1825.

With New Year’s Eve just around the corner, picking a good bottle of wine is always a good idea, provided you know what to pick.

Celebration usually marks an event that is dear to us and to our host. Choosing a bottle of vintage wine from the year that is most important to you or the recipient – ie the year that marked the beginning of something special, a new venture, an anniversary etc – is the perfect gift. Bacchus & Century, a new boutique wine shop that’s just opened its doors recently, has 101 consecutive years of French vintage wines from 1900 up to 2000.

These vintage wines will be a time machine to take you and your host back to a certain year to relive those fond memories once again. The ‘Shop’s Guardian’ Eric, my partner with an extensive knowledge of French vintage wine, will guide you in your selection.

Below are some suggestions of occasions that are ideal to mark with a bottle of vintage wine, but the possibilities really are infinite.

For a person:

• birth year
• graduation
• wedding
• year their first child was born

For a company:

• inception
• IPO
• anniversaries
• milestones

And for those of you who are worried that your money might be wasted on an expensive bottle of wine, while the gift recipient may know nothing about wine at all, I can guarantee that the impact is worth the investment. If somebody were to offer me a French vintage wine of my birth year, so many questions would immediately rush to my mind. How does he know my birth year? Where on earth did he get this bottle? I would also probably think that he/she must have paid a lot of money for it, and what else happened on that year? Can I drink it now or should I keep it? But, most importantly, it means that you took the trouble to find out about them. It’s giving them a piece of personal history, one that’s rare and once consumed, not to be found again.

• Rene Wong is a Wine Advisor at Bacchus & Century, 30-32 Wyndham Street, LangKwai Fong, Tel:66811825, where they are ready to help you usher in the new year.
  

As a French expatriate in Hong Kong for 5 years now, I have observed the beginning of the wine business from back in 2004 when interest for wine was still in embryonic stages, and wine tax was astronomical compared to today. Since then, thankfully this tax has been abolished and wine is now a popular subject of discussion and, of course, consumption. However, some things have not changed and I would like to highlight some common pitfalls I have come across for your benefit.

In my early days in Hong Kong, I was amazed by the plethora of choices available for second wines or second labels in the market. For neophytes, these wines are made from lower quality grape that famous Bordeaux Chateau cannot take the risk to use for their flagship first label or Grand vin.

Knowing this economical reality, in theory it should be obvious to everyone that there is a world of difference between the quality of the first and the second wines, but here in Hong Kong many are still unaware of the quality difference and buy blindly based on the prestige of the house’s name.

I cannot count the number of times I have heard dodgy wine sales representatives claiming that a “Carruades de Lafite 2002” is a much better buy than the “Chateau Lafite Rothschild 2002,” just because it is from the same Chateau. This is a false claim. Let me explain -  just because the bottle carries the label “Lafite” does not mean that the value of the wine is the same. One thing to note is that second wines often do not have the word “Château” in their name, but they frequently sport some other part of their winery’s name to add name recognition.

They are, however, entitled to use the same appellation as the Grand Vin as they originate from the same place. The Carruades de Lafite 2002 actually costs only a third of the first wine and can be drunk straight away. Whereas, according to Robert Parker, you would have to wait another 10 years for the first wine to reach its peak.

So, the lesson to learn here is that, rather than learning how to pronounce the name on the label it is more important to learn what the label means, unless of course you don’t mind paying an unnecessary high price for a lower quality bottle of wine.

• Rene Wong is a Wine Advisor at Bacchus & Century, 30-32 Wyndham Street, LangKwai Fong, Tel:66811825, where they do not sell second wines.

Bacchus & Century opens its doors this weekend, to what may be the first luxury wine boutique of its kind in the world.

The brainchild of two Hong Kong Chinese French partners, Eric Liu (photo below) and Rene Wong whose passion for French wine have led them to accumulate more than 10,000 bottles of French vintage wine over the years. Bacchus & Century is the accomplishment of twenty years of intense research, perseverance on specifically French vintage wines. On the opening day, they have in one place, 101 consecutive years of French vintage wines from 1900 AD to 2000, all 3,000 bottles stored in their Lang Kwai Fong boutique’s cellar.

Their decision to open Bacchus & Century is to make available their treasures, (100 years of vintage French wines, hence the name Bacchus & Century) to the discerning wine lover in Hong Kong.  What Bacchus & Century offers is a completely bespoke service unlike what you’ll find in Hong Kong or anywhere else in the world.

The wine boutique is dressed like a boudoir of collectible items except the only item collected is of the drinkable rare kind. A consultation with Eric, the “shop’s guardian” will ensure that you discover the perfect bottle to match your taste, occasion, budget (price starts at HK$1000) and determine the bottle that is right and meaningful for you.

They only carry the rarest, finest wine, champagne and spirits – so you’ll definitely find bottles of the most prestigious ‘maisons’; Lafite Rothschild, Mouton Rothschild, Latour, Haut Brion, Margaux, Cheval Blanc, Ausone, Petrus and Domaine de la Romanee Conti.  If you are looking for a table wine for a barbecue, this is not the place to go.

Want to impress your boss who’s a wine connoisseur or find the vintage the year your dad was born? Make an appointment with Eric, he knows his stuff and you’ll discover something rare and special, not so easily found anywhere else… not a bad proposition we think.

Bacchus & Century

• Shop 3, G/F, 32 Wyndham Street, Central, Hong Kong.
• Tel:6681 1825