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My Article: New Top First Growth According to Macau

Friday, January 21, 2011

(LOS ANGELES, JAN. 21, 2011) Back in Los Angeles and thinking about some of my experiences in Hong Kong this trip. One just popped into my head this afternoon: It was when I took a day trip to Macau with a wine merchant friend from HK. It’s easy because there’s an hour-long jet foil between HK and the gambling center. Macau’s gambling revenues now easily eclipse Las Vegas. Most of the gamblers are from China.

I had lunch with some food and beverage directors of the various casinos at the Horizons restaurant in the City of Dreams casino. The restaurant was excellent. Apparently, the name is going to change soon, but the food is really upscale French, emphasizing three or four well-chosen ingredients. I really enjoyed one dish that was a tiny sliver of sautéed foie gras, with snails and mushrooms in a black truffle sauce. I thought it went well with the creamy and minerally 2007 Shaw & Smith Chardonnay M3 Adelaide Hills.

But one of the subjects of conversation sticks in my mind. I asked everyone at the table which first growth Bordeaux would follow Chateau Lafite-Rothschild as the most sought after wine from high rollers who come to their respective establishments. I was sure it might be Latour or Margaux; both are really hitting it hard in China at the moment. Margaux even has an office in Hong Kong with the son of wine director Paul Pontallier working the market.

They all answered that it would be “Carruades de Lafite,” the second wine of Lafite. I honestly couldn’t tell if they were joking. But the second wine of Lafite now sells for more than many of the super seconds. I found a magnum of the 2006 Carraudes in the Hong Kong airport duty-free shop that was selling for almost double the 2000 Palmer. They were $14,300 HK ($1,835) and $7,880HK ($1,012) respectively.

Not sure what to say. But the Chinese attraction to Lafite certainly is feverish.

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4 thoughts on “My Article: New Top First Growth According to Macau”

  1. kimeuge says:
    Monday, January 24, 2011 at 2:41 am
    It's getting harder and harder to open older bottles of Lafite with the skyrocketing prices. Seemed less of a problem when they were $100-$150 each.
  2. tp096255 says:
    Wednesday, January 26, 2011 at 2:11 am
    Freakish. I just had dinner with my parents and friends from NY last night and they were dumbfounded by the discretionary spending on wine in HK. My father just came back from a 6-week tour in the area and noted dramatic improvements in the quality of life. Even 2000 miles into China's interior, there are brand new superhighways. No wonder why these folks are taking over the fine wine market!
  3. wendong says:
    Friday, February 11, 2011 at 12:17 am
    This will change, and has already started. Over the last a year or so, I have worked with two top UK merchants in China and organized about 10 wine tasting dinners in various Chinese cities (including a Latour vertical tasting dinner with Frederic Engerer in Beijing in late Oct 2010 and a Margaux vertical tasting dinner with Paul Pontallier and his son Thibault in Beijing around mid Dec 2010). I think you would notice soon that the Chinese top end consumers are fast learners. They will (if not already) quickly learn to appreciate all the top chateaus and the difference between a Grand Vin and the so called "little brother" of a First Growth. Lafite is still by far the top dog in terms of price and brand awareness, but the gap is being reduced.
  4. wendong says:
    Friday, February 11, 2011 at 12:23 am
    And, to be clear, the HK airport Duty Free is a misleading "duty free", because there is no duty for wine in HK anymore. The prices of wine you buy at HK airport is easily 100% more than what you can buy through a UK merchant, and 50-70% more than what you can buy at a HK wine retail shop. Quite a rip off! Only because the Chinese consumers don't know... yet. The whole world of fine wine trade is taking advantage of the new rich yet unsophisticated Chinese consumers. Plenty of people try to import Bordeaux cheap wine (less than a few euro a bottle) and package them as prestigious and exclusive expensive wine and sell them at 100-200 euro a bottle.