CHINA: China's new elite develop a taste for fine wine

Shining wine glasses, smartly dressed waiters, white gloves and the elegantly posed bouquet. In a five star hotel in Beijing, the Prince of Luxembourg recently gave a lecture to some of the newly rich in China on wine tasting -- a new trend among the country's wealthy. BMWs and Gucci handbags are already firm favourites among China's emerging class of newly rich -- now, fine wines are becoming the latest symbol of luxury. But in China, to understand the wine culture is not a priority, not compared to how look you can look with an expensive glass of wine. Zhao Fan, one of the most famous wine critics in China, said wine culture should not be exclusive to the rich. "If we want to promote wine culture in China, my personal belief is that it's not all about teaching (people) how to drink wine and what the rules and manners of drinking wine are. What's most important is to offer consumers more opportunities to drink it instead of shutting the majority out of the door," Zhao said. Prince Robert of Luxembourg, owner of French vineyard Chateau Haut-Brion, came to China on a wine promotional tour. Over 20 fat cats attending a wine tasting session. "But the market is relatively small for us. It's the long term that everyone realises whether it's all of the luxury brands that you have here investing today. They are investing for the long term," the Prince said. Earlier this year, a Chinese man bought carry-on wine and spirits worth a record 23,000 euros (31,180 U.S. Dollars) at a Paris airport's duty-free shop -- including a bottle of epic 1945 Chateau Mouton Rothschild, a red wine costing 13,800 euros. In Beijing, a French vintage was recently sold for more than 70,000 yuan (about 9,600 U.S. Dollars), which is many times more than what the average Chinese person makes in a year. Don St. Pierre, Chairman of the ASC fine wines, has been importing expensive wines to China for over 12 years. ASC Fine Wines started with selling only 30 cases a year in the mid 90's. Now the sale has jumped to 3,000 cases a year. "Along with the why, it's all about a lifestyle thing that's going on in China, all over China, not just in Beijing or Shanghai. It's Gucci bags, Zenga suits and Tiffany diamonds and the list goes on and on. Well, first growth Bordeaux are one of those things that's in tremendous demand. Price doesn't seem to be a big problem. In fact, in some cases, the more expensive, the better," Don St. Pierre, said. For the average Chinese, fine wine is still an extravagance, especially with the proliferation of traditional wine, spirits and beer costing sometimes just cents for a bottle. "I don't drink wine. It's not for people like me. Wine is so expensive that I can't afford it. As least for me, it's too expensive," Guo Wei, 25-year-old magazine editor said. But some bad habits remain, such as mixing wine with coke or even green tea, which was done in the early days of Western wines in China, when quality was an issue. China does make its own wine, including brands like Great Wall and Dynasty, but it lacks the cachet and quality of a good French vintage, experts say.

ITN Source | April 27, 2007

Tags:. .posed. .growth. .especially. .glasses. .gave