My Article: New Top First Growth According to Macau

(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.