The other Vinexpo - a’buzzing
May 29, 2008

Above: Events unfolding at Vinexpo 2008, in Hong Kong. Images courtesy of Cheers (CN).

You may wonder why there have been so few releases of the 2007 bordeaux this week (only Evangile, a cool £850 a dozen at J&B)– or if you operate in or around the wine trade, you may wonder why things have been so quiet. The answer lies in the Far East. Practically everyone who is anyone in Bordeaux has been in Hong Kong at the fifth Vinexpo Asia-Pacific which has just finished.

It was officially opened on Tuesday by fine wine connoisseur Henry Tang Ying-yen, GBS, JP, Chief Secretary for Administration, HKSARG (who kindly provided me with my second best- ever taste of Cheval Blanc 1947 – news of the best yet to come) and Anne Marie Idrac, French Secretary for Foreign Trade.

Asia is seen as so important to the French fine wine business that the French government is wheeling out its officials too! The pair were accompanied by Frederick Ma Si-hang, JP, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, HKSARG and Dominique Hériard Dubreuil the chair of the exhibition, which nicely keeps the money flowing in to its Bordeaux-based organizers in the years when there is no Vinexpo in Bordeaux..

The organizers claim that this year’s expo broke all records with 8,500 visitors representing an increase of almost 24% in visitor numbers over the last one in 2006.  An estimated 59% of visitors were foreigners, from 28 Asian countries led by China and followed by Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Singapore plus a small percentage from such overseas markets as USA and UK. An estimated 41% of visitors were from Hong Kong and Macau.

This does no harm to the Hong Kong government’s intention to establish Hong Kong as the hub of the Asian fine wine market, although there will be a big competition for numbers from Hong Kong’s own international wine show planned, at rather short notice after the slashing of wine import duty in HK, for August 2008 as reported earlier.

The Bordeaux-owned exhibition was apparently covered by more than 340 television, radio, newspaper and magazine journalists from all over Asia as well as journalists from Europe and the United States.

Vinexpo 2008 occupied the entire main hall of Hong Kong’s Exhibition Centre with 692 exhibitors from 32 countries including China, Australia, US, South America, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Korea, New Zealand, Netherlands, Romania, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Macedonia and Moldova. (Sounds just as wide a spread as the London International Wine trade Fair last week…)

Mme Hériard Dubreuil’s closing remarks were only very slightly condescending: “The general consensus amongst our exhibitors this year showed that they were extremely impressed with the quality of the professional contacts they have made, as well as the noticeable improvement in their knowledge and appreciation of wine and spirits. We firmly believe that this will help stimulate growth of the industry in the region and ultimately benefit the consumer.” Not forgetting the French wine trade, of course.

On Saturday, Acker Merrall & Condit host the first American-run fine wine auction in Hong Kong and I hear that Acker’s human dynamo John Kapon has been entertaining potential bidders with a lavishness uncommon even in HK for almost two weeks.

其他 vinexpo -a ‘buzzing
2008年5月29日

您可能不知道，為什麼有這麼少發布的2007波爾多在本星期（只樂王吉爾堡，酷£ 850十的J ＆ b ）款中-或者，如果您在經營或周圍的葡萄酒貿易，您可能不知為何事情已如此安靜。答案就在於在遠東地區。幾乎每個人都誰是任何人在波爾多已經在香港舉行的第五次vinexpo亞太地區，其中剛剛結束。

這是正式啟用星期二是由優良的葡萄酒鑑賞家唐英年， GBS ， JP出席，政務司司長，香港特區政府（誰好心為我提供了我的第二個有史以來最高的滋味cheval勃朗峰1947年-的消息，最好的還在後頭）和安妮瑪麗idrac ，法語司對外貿易。

亞洲被視為是如此的重要，法國高檔葡萄酒業務，法國政府是轉運其官員也！兩人的陪同下，由馬時亨，太平紳士，司商業和經濟的發展，香港特區政府與多米尼克hériard dubreuil主持會議，這次展覽，很好的保持了金錢的流動，在其波爾多基於組織者在未來幾年，當有沒有vinexpo在波爾多..

組織者聲稱，今年的博覽會打破了以往所有的紀錄，與8500旅客代表增加了幾乎24 ％的遊客數目在過去一，在2006年。據估計，有59 ％的遊客是外國人，從28日的亞洲國家為首的中國和其次是韓國，台灣，日本和新加坡，另加一個很小的百分比從這些海外市場作為美國和英國。據估計，百分之四十一的旅客分別來自香港和澳門。

這並沒有損害香港政府的用意是建立香港作為樞紐，亞洲的優良葡萄酒市場，雖然會有一個大的競爭，號碼從香港本身的國際酒展計劃，在相當短的通知後，削減葡萄酒的進口稅在香港，為2008年8月，作為此前報導。

波爾多國有展覽顯然是所涵蓋的340多個電視，電台，報紙和雜誌的記者來自全國各地的亞洲，以及作為記者從歐洲和美國。

Vinexpo 2008年佔領了整個大廳，香港的展覽中心，與692參展商來自32個國家，包括中國，澳大利亞，美國，南美，英國，法國，西班牙，意大利，葡萄牙，德國，韓國，新西蘭，荷蘭，羅馬尼亞，保加利亞，瑞士，馬其頓和摩爾多瓦。 （聽起來就像廣泛的傳播，作為倫敦國際葡萄酒貿易洽談會上週… … ）

夫人hériard dubreuil的閉幕詞中，只有很輕微condescending ： “一般的共識當中，我們的參展商，今年表明，他們極為深刻的印象與品質的專業接觸他們所提出的，以及為顯著改善，在他們的知識和讚賞葡萄酒和烈酒。我們堅信，這將有助於刺激經濟增長的行業在該地區，並最終造福於消費者“ 。不要忘記法國葡萄酒貿易，當然。

上週六， acker merrall ＆康迪特主辦第一屆美中運轉良好，葡萄酒拍賣會在香港和我聽到acker的人力發電機約翰卡蓬已娛樂潛在投標人與lavishness罕見，即使在香港，為將近兩個星期。

Source & Credits: Jancis Robinson (UK).