MENU goes East - Vinexpo Hong Kong

And then it was time to pack away the holiday clothes and get to work. Vinexpo started on Tuesday 24th May and ran for three days. We were there to find out what we could about the Chinese market. It is still pretty inscrutable. The Chinese people, especially the young, upwardly mobile, are interested but know very little about wine. The fashion for buying trophy wines has passed they tell us, no longer are the bottles of top international wines displayed on their mantle shelves, never to be drunk. They fear fake wines, preferring to buy from people they know. Importing is easy, selling is not. Did you know that China grows lots of grapes, but only 10% of them are wine grapes. And wine grapes are grown almost all over this vast country. They even have their own varietals

The entrance to the impressive Convention Centre

Much of the land surrounding the Convention Centre has been reclaimed and there is massive new building going on around it

Exhibitors and other attendees starting to arrive from the underground METRO. You walk miles and miles in these tunnels to get to the stations

The show opened with a traditional Lion dance. A resting lion

There was lots of drum and gong banging, whistles and shouts to accompany the Lion dance

Cutting the tape to open Vinexpo Hong Kong 2016: Vinexpo Chairman Xavier de Eizaguirre, Representatives of Mr Anthony Lau, Executive Director of the Hong Kong Tourism Board, Vinexpo CEO Guillaume Deglise

A barrage of photographers; John had found a much better position!

Vinexpo is open. We were a little disconcerted by the fact that, although the opening, to which we had an official invitation was scheduled for 9am and we arrived at 8 to get settled into the media centre, all media were barred from entry until 9.30, while delegates were allowed in. We could see absolutely no sense in this decision and it stayed that way for the entire show. Which meant that we would have missed some of the earlier presentations, conferences and seminars. But we protested and Anne Cusson, Vinexpo Communications Director, let us in early. There was no explanation. This has never happened to us at VinExpo Bordeaux

Hurray!

Off to see the South African stands. We were woefully under represented, so little Government (National and Local) money is given to support our efforts to promote our wine in China (and other export markets) and only the brave and wealthy larger farms and organisations can afford to go. And the wine industry is the third largest contributor to the fiscus. Australia next door had at least six times the space. As did little Portugal and many other small countries

We loved Robinson and Sinclair's mural of Table Mountain, it certainly attracted attention

La Motte/Leopard’s Leap had their own stand and seemed to be doing very good business. Hein Koegelenberg was busy with negotiations right through the show at his seat in the corner

Guy Kedian on the WOSA Stand, representing Stellenbosch Vineyards

Labels especially for the Chinese market

Wines of South Africa ran a competition for distributors of South African wine. It was won by Northeast Wines & Spirits Ltd. Here at the presentation are, from left to right: Harriet Parker (Northeast Wines & Spirits), Dean Aslin (Northeast Wines & Spirits), Michaela Stander (Wines of South Africa), Betsy Haynes (Northeast Wines & Spirits)

Lynne chatting to writer Robert Joseph, whom we keep meeting at different VinExpos

The entrance to the Press Centre, our base for the duration

So nice to meet the usual friendly faces! Niël Groenewald of DGB, masquerading as Kenneth Lee

The impressive Argentine stands

Off to our first press conference. The award to the Asian Wine Personality of 2016 VinExpo

The Award went to sister and brother creative team Sin and Yuko Kibayashi who produce The Drops of God (神の雫 Kami no Shizuku) which is a Japanese Manga comic series about wine. They produce it under the pseudonym Tadashi Agi, with artwork by Shu Okimoto. All the wines that appear in the comic are authentic

Dian Joubert of Diemersfontein swapping notes with a Chilean friend

A quick taste and look at some Chilean wines from the Punti Ferrer estate. The owner, Antonio Punti, and his colleagues were staying at our hotel and had invited us to come and taste on their stand. The Sauvignon Blanc was tropical with buttery chardonnay notes and lightly wooded

The Punti Ferrer Gran Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon was juicy, lightly wooded with soft tannins and warm alcohol

An impressive label for an impressive wine. Profundo from Valle Secreto, full of perfume of violets and roses, cooked plums, sweet and juicy, but needs time.  So interesting to taste the competition for the market. The wines are very different from ours in style

The concourse; you walk miles to get to seminars and conferences. The main wine exhibition areas were on two levels, one and three

Spirits were also represented and we stopped for a quick dram with Andrew Heald of Fisher's Gin and Graham Taylor of Glasgow Whisky

Off to another Press conference, where Penfolds announced that they will sell a wine in barrels, and hold it for the owners as it matures. This is aimed at the high spending Asian market. We found it quite amusing that none of this wine was offered for tasting. So you have to take it on their recommendation that the wine is worth buying. We cannot offer an opinion. But it might give some of our wine makers some inspiration

The closed bottle. It is called Magill Cellar 3 and is a limited edition made from Barossa Shiraz and Coonawarra Cabernet. Similar to but not the same as Penfolds iconic Grange

This is what you can buy for 198000 Australian Dollars, says Penfolds chief winemaker Peter Gago. It works out at 336 bottles, about $589 (± R6670) each

We liked the informality and simplicity of the Greek stand. No Euros to waste

Sigalas wines from Santorini which we tasted when we were there last year

Ken Moroi of Vranken Pommery, Japan showed us

Pommery on ice for the Asian market. Not sure this would go down well in Europe. Might for the millennials in South Africa though...

The Vranken Pommery Demoiselle (young lady) is very elegant

We tasted this lovely vintage Champagne Femme by Duval-LeRoy. Made by their head winemaker Sandrine Logette-Jardin, it is an elegant blend of 87% Chardonnay and 13% Pinot Noir with notes of Jasmine, hazelnut and crisp deliciousness

Clément Gardillou, Brand Ambassador, Duval Leroy

Then a quick visit to some very familiar wines from Georges Deboeuf, ably and warmly presented by his grandson, Aurélion Duboeuf, son of Franck Duboeuf

We have in our time, drunk several of these bottles and loved them. The Prestige Pouilly Fuissé, a white Burgundy, was just as expected, a lightly wooded crisp Chardonnay showing the minerality of the terroir and extremely enjoyable

A quick glimpse at a pretty good wine from Pauillac, but the stand was so busy that we did not manage to get a taste

Lynne chatting to charming Henri Bourgeois whose tasting room in Sancerre we last visited in 2002. The wines are superb, a style of Sauvignon Blanc we love

Their elegant and restrained Pouilly Fume has lovely herbal notes and great depth

We introduced Brad Gold CWM to Arnaud Bourgeois and to their wines

Niël Groenewald having fun on the Brampton stand, happy at being able to relax at the end of the show

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2016

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MENU goes East - Vinexpo Hong Kong, The formal tastings and seminars we attended

One of the main reasons for going to a show like VinExpo is to taste different wines, wines we cannot often taste in South Africa. So we attend as many tastings as we can squeeze into the short period, between press conferences and visiting stands

This Masterclass of Saint Emilion, Pomerol and Fronsac wines was run by the Union des Syndicats de Saint-Émilion - Pomerol - Fronsac. There was a charge for the seminars but Media could attend without paying

Setting up the room

This tasting was presented by Jean-François Quenin, Président du Conseil des Vins de Saint-Émilion 

The wines we tasted. They were all of the 2012 vintage and some are still very young. We particularly liked and scored highly, the Château Trianon Saint Emilion Grand Cru - an intense food wine. Lynne’s description says "a wine which coats the mouth in smooth fruit and custard". The Château de Pressac Saint Emilion Grand Cru Classé is a wine to last with intense fruit and vanilla wood; soft sweet and spicy notes, hiding a bit but will show soon. The Château Plince Pomerol and the St George Saint Emilion Château Calon also impressed

The wine servers were very good

We then did something very interesting. A Tea tasting of the very special Puer tea. It has its own appellation controlée!

The presenter taught us all a lot about the tea; the red, high in acidity soil, how it is grown and how it should be served. We tasted raw Puer tea; fresh and refreshing with notes of tangerine and bitter gourd and cooked artichoke. This tea can age for 50 years and will keep changing

There were several people on the dais making pots of tea for us to taste. We also tasted the cooked 3 year old (from Mount Kun Mai) Puer tea, which is artificially fermented for 60 days; it has no astringency. It's blended, dark orange and grassy on the nose and palate, with no bitterness. Very refreshing; they said that this is the tea for connoisseurs and is a highly regulated luxury. The only Puer served in restaurants as it is consistent

Then to the very informative China market Conference. Don St Pierre Jr, chief executive and co-owner of Vinfolio, the Californian fine wine trader and cellaring business (Former co-founder and owner of ASC fine wines Hong Kong), was the convenor. From left to right are Frantz Hotton – Managing Director of Pernod Ricard HK/Macao; Judy Chan, co-owner of Grace Vineyard, a family-owned vineyard in China; Robert Foye – Managing Director of TWE (Treasury Wine Estates); Chris Tung – Chief Marketing Officer of Alibaba Group, Bruno Baudry – Chief Executive Officer of ASC Fine Wines. Xavier Pignel-Dupont, Greater China – Asia Pacific Director of Castel Frères SAS, was also on the stage but out of sight. All the others are represented by Alibaba, but not Castel Frères SAS

If you are interested you can download the report: http://www.vinexpohongkong.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/CR-China-Market-Conference1.pdf

What emerged from the conference was how little the Chinese market knows about wine. Lynne asked the obvious questions: What were they all doing to educate the market? It seems they are increasing their marketing. But we think someone does need to start providing good wine education and that will give that person or company the edge in selling wine in China and the East. Sponsors needed for WSET?

The next tasting was organised by Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve

The wines we tasted. To be honest, we did not find any gems among them

The tasting was well attended 

and led by Thierry Desseauve, assisted by sommelier Jean-Marc Nolant

Then to a fascinating tasting: Decanter's Discovering Wine Regions in China with Professor Li Demei

It is a vast country with many different temperature zones...

... wine comes from many. They have the largest vineyards in the world, 90% are eating grapes, 10% wine. The wines do not easily compete because of climate

Interesting statistics on wine prices. China drinks all the wine it produces and has to import lots more. A lesson for our wine marketers is the prices charged by Australian producers, who are selling into the premium category

And then a tasting of some Chinese wines. To be frank, they were not great. It is a young emerging wine industry (for wines that emulate those made in the rest of the world). They need lots of practice, direction and guidance. They cannot follow European wine growing laws and practices as they are two difficult, we were told. Our highest score was 15 for the first, a Chardonnay from Tiansai, Skyline of Gobi, Xinjiang 2013 - over wooded but with delicate limes, lemons and loquats, sweet fruit with nice smoke on the end, quite elegant; and the last wine. Kanaan Winery Pretty Pony from Ningxia 2013, a 90% Cabernet, 10% Merlot blend with good cassis and curry leaves on the nose, cassis fruit long flavours with liquorice wood and soft grippy tannins on the palate. But many were bitter, tannic and over wooded.

Then we separated to take part in two different tastings

John to this one

With these wines

The Bettane + Desseauve tastings had tables arranged round the periphery of the room, making pouring easy and giving everyone an unobstructed view while, of course keeping the attendance right for a two bottle tasting.

2009 was a great vintage in France, as it was in South Africa. 

Michel Bettane, whom we last saw when he judged at this year's Old Mutual Trophy, led the tasting.

A good start to the tasting was the Louis Roederer Brut Premier 2009. It was bready with apple pie flavour, quite delicious, but let down by a very quiet mousse. We found this in all the Champagnes we tasted at the show and suspect that the glasses were not being properly rinsed

The Alsace Riesling from Léon Beyer was disappointing with terpenes masking any other flavours. Michel Bettane said the quality compared to South African and Australian Rieslings. John scored it 15. The reds were all good and scored in the region of 17 but the standout wine was the Château Coutet Sauternes which was rich and full with honey, light granadilla with lovely fat texture and a long mineral honey finish. It scored 18

Lynne was intrigued to learn of the Feminalise tasting and registered

Only women tasted and each woman had different wines to taste from her companions. She tasted 14 wines blind, using a completely unfamiliar description and scoring system. 

She still cannot understand why only women are approached. Are we excluded from other tastings? Is it to promote women in the industry? Are they trying to prove we have better palates? They gather statistics, how are they used. See their web site here. www.feminalise.com  

It was a very good experience and the wines were very varied in quality . All were French. She tasted 4 Champagnes, scores: two 12's (!) and two 15's. An Entre deux Mers 17; Three Bordeaux blancs 17;15;17. A really awful, possibly faulty Graves 12; A Cote de Blaye 14; a Cotes de Bordeaux Blaye, superb at 18; an excellent Lussac St Emilion 18; and her favourite wine of VinExpo a St Emilion Grand Cru, which she later discovered was the Clos des Prince scored 19. An ordinaire Pacherenc de Vic Bilh 13; and an absolutely dead Coteaux D'Ancenis Malvoisie lamentable scored only 10. Notes say pale, no character, no body, no wine, surely faulty

Stéphanie Brisson of Feminalise. She is at the Hospice de Beaune

Another tasting, this time of New Wave Champagnes. It was very well attended by the Chinese; they are showing lots of interest in Champagne

This is the inside of the interesting tasting glass, made in Thailand by Lucaris, which was used for all the formal tastings at VinExpo. The inside of the glass has this raised swirl pattern, presumably to assist in enhancing the flavour and aroma of the wine

Jean-Claude Fourmon, President of Joseph Perrier in Châlons-en-Champagne spoke about the philosophy of his family owned firm

Six to taste at a time. There were 9 in the flight.. What is the new wave about? We could not detect any difference in movement or style. We like Philipponnat's Clos de Goisses, a great expression of Pinot Noir to go with food and especially red meat, the Mailly Grand Cru Blanc de noir was Tart Tatin in a glass and would match so well with that and other desserts. And the Amour de Deutz Millesime 2006 was still lively and perfumed, it has granny smith apples and lean limes, chalky, fresh and long

Thierry Desseauve talking about the Taittinger Comtes 2006

The Champagnes we tasted. Many were aged

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