VINEXPO Report

OK, it's a week later. I've taken my pills, caught up on a bit of sleep, given up on the inbox, written the reports and followed up with new contacts so I'm ready to have my say on VINEXPO Asia-Pacific 2010.

Although at times it may seem like some form of ancient sleep-deprivation torture the week is a great opportunity to catch up with old friends and make a lot of new ones. Industry professionals get to feel special as everyone fights over them and importers, like us, get to make their clients feel special. It's also a good opportunity to get a glimpse (or taste) of what the future is in the industry, all be it a distinctively northern hemisphere view.

So what did we learn?

• The French are very serious about keeping their number 1 position in Asia but spent as much time watching the Chilean stand as they did their own
• The Chileans are very serious about taking the number 1 position from the French yet didn't look at their stands at all
• Chinese will still offer blank cheques to "Select" Chateaux
• "Select" Chateaux will still take blank cheques 
• When the first growths release En Primeur you will have to sell your house to buy any
• The Australians and New Zealanders prefer to have their own shows and we will see them in November
• Wine makers WILL whore themselves to get into China and the Chinese know it
• A massive bag of marketing dollars can buy success as shown by the Italians
• Germany and Spain are not the flavour of the month 
• The Chinese are fiercely patriotic when it comes to their own wine
• The market is very slowly opening up to white wine 
• European wine makers have spent millions of dollars on market research into China and have then ignored it and are going their own way - with little success.

Make no mistake this event was aimed squarely at the Chinese market and a quick glimpse around would tell you that it showed little reflection of what is happening in the rest of the Asia-Pacific region or even Hong Kong for that matter.

On the wine side our producers came up with some great 07's and a few barrel samples that were showing some real promise.

VINEXPO Asia-Pacific will be hailed a success for the most part and I know for our company it was. However I do wonder about the lovely German lady who sat at her stand for 3 days looking for an importer of fizzy Non-alcoholic fruit juice and didn't open 1 bottle. Maybe not so successful for her.

Dean

PS: My highlight was a 1998 Montrachet Grand Cru from Domain Jacques Prieur - but that's a story for another day