Hong Kong ‘natural partner of Burgundy’

BIVB’s recent Bourgogne Week held in Hong Kong revealed that Hong Kong remains “a natural partner” of Burgundy, according to spokesperson and winemaker, Amaury Devillard.

BIVB spokesperson, Amaury Devillard

Highlighting the 2013 and recently released 2014 vintage, Hong Kong’s first ‘One Day for Bourgogne Wines’ tasting hosted at the Renaissance Harbour View Hotel introduced over 50 Burgundy domaines and more than 100 wines represented by Hong Kong’s top Burgundy specialists.

It was the first time the trade had managed to get their hands on the 2014 vintage which was hailed as “excellent with all the markings of a great year,” according to Amaury Devillard, BIVB spokesperson and representative of Domaines de Devillard in Mercurey.

“The whites show beautifully, they are fantastic at their best, combining acidity with concentration, precision with fruit weight,” he said. “The reds are attractive and full of fruit, likely to afford lots of drinking pleasure. No doubt that 2014 is a vintage that the consumers will love.”

During the walkaround tasting, 2014 was compared to the notoriously tricky vintage of 2013 which saw the lowest yields of Burgundy in the last 13 years and delayed harvesting due to cold and rainy conditions and hail at the end of June.

Nevertheless, Devillard proclaimed it as “extraordinary, with some magnificent results…the low yields and late harvest produced some exceptional wines blessed with intense flavour and rich aromas, foretelling astonishing richness and diversity with ageing,” he said.

Hong Kong’s first ever Bourgogne Week hosted by the BIVB also held a Bourgogne Wines Club masterclass for sommeliers focusing on Pernand-Vergelesses, hosted by the drinks business HK’s publisher, Ivy Ng and genteelly wrapped up with a Chablis tasting in the sumptuous surrounds of the French Consulate on The Peak.

Hong Kong is the fifth largest export market in terms of value for Bourgogne wines and saw the strongest growth in 2015; up 19% by volume and 65% in terms of revenue from 2014 which translates to 986,000 bottles and a total of €39.4 million (HK$337 million).

Still red and rosé wines claim half of all volumes exported, while whites dropped to 49% with Burgundy’s sparkling jewel, Cremant de Bourgogne creeping in at 1%.

Hong Kong’s first Bourgogne Week attracted huge interest and its trade and consumer events

“Hong Kong is a natural partner of Burgundy,” said Devillard. “It has been a steady and constant relationship for many years. Now many young people travel, visit Burgundy and even study at our French universities. They come back armed with an excellent grasp of our wines and knowledgeable palates. They are rediscovering Bourgogne wines.”

Japan currently wears the crown as Burgundy’s largest export market in Asia, claiming 13% of total volume though it was hit hard recently by economic woes and Burgundy’s overall drop in volume. Nevertheless, with Tokyo hosting the Olympic Games in 2020 and Japan’s government trying to target 20 million tourists by then, it is hoped that this surge will Japan’s overall market will pick up.

Furthermore with China, normally a giant consumer of French wine currently in 12th place, occupying only 2% market share by volume and 2% by value, Burgundy will continue to look towards Hong Kong as a main driver in Asia for its wines.

Jean-François Bordet, President of the Chablis Commission of BIVB, added: “Hong Kong offers great opportunities of development to Bourgogne wines. The market is dynamic, mature, with highly sophisticated wine lovers. It was obvious for the producers and merchants that if we were to create a Bourgogne Week elsewhere than in the UK, which is our second market, it had to be in Hong Kong.”