Wine Makers for the International Wine & Spirits Fair November 4,5,6

With the HKTDC International Wine & Spirits Fair being held in November comes an opportunity to have some of the wine industry's talented wine makers and owners come to Hong Kong. We are pleased to introduce them to you.

Unfortunately Edouard has found out that he needs to have a minor operation at this time so he can not attend. However we will still have his wines available for tasting during the event.

We will be having many dinners and tastings outside of the fair that will give you a chance to get to know and experience the passion that these wine makers have for making great wines.

Stay tuned for more details.

If you would really like to attend a particular event send us an email to marketing@saveurs.com.hk and we will let you know as soon as the events are confirmed. 

WIN WITH WINE - Tuesday July 6th

We have joined with our friends at ipac to present a fun evening that explores wine, the industry in Asia and the benefits of investing in wine.

Presented by Lee Watson and Melanie Nutbeam it is an informative evening that will end in a wine tasting that will compare old & new world wines plus the difference vintages make. 

You must register for this evening by clicking HERE. 

We look forward to seeing you there.  

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