Sunday, November 21, 2010

Hong Kong International Wine and Spirits Fair

The Bettane & Desseauve Grand Tasting in Hong Kong was perhaps our best show.
Anyway, we should see the impact in 3 or 6 months, but between our clients who took this opportunity to come and see us and extend their range from our portfolio, and Ramuntxo who was in charge of presenting our Thunevin-Calvet with our selection from the Roussillon: Constance, Dentelles, Hugo and 3 Marie (we forgot again the Maury!). The wines from the Roussillon are adapted to the Chinese palate: soft tannins, velvety and sweetness provided by the Sun ... Too bad Bordeaux is not featured on the label because luckily for me, Bordeaux remain the "reference".
Lafite and Carruades de Lafite open many doors to all their colleagues and for us who are not so far apart, as soon as curiosity is sparked by understandable words such as small volume, exclusive, the story of garagists, Valandraud and especially Bad Boy work well. We had meals with clients, met colleagues negociants or winemakers unexpectedly, had a great Chinese meal at the Shangri-La with an excellent Pape Clement 2002 and an ambitious Fronsac, Aria 2002 served with a fine crab dish.

The auction organized by Acker Merral yielded again incredible prices for some icons bought by wealthy Chinese who love nothing less than having the best as, I think, was the case for the U.S. market not so long ago, in the years 80-85 when the dollar was so strong against the franc (500,000 dollars? euros? 3 Lafite 1869!)
Do we realize how lucky we are? We need to understand and respect our customers who learn so quickly the written and unwritten rules of our wine business.
For your information, it was the same for the Fête du Vin (Bordeaux celebrates wine style) which attracted 111,388 visitors in Hong Kong the previous week !

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