Drinks Business Asian Awards 2017: profiling the winners

Following our announcement of the winners of our first Drinks Business Asian Awards last Friday, we now bring to you the full report on the awards including each winner and the behind-the-scene judging with our expert panel of professionals.  

Recipients group photo (from left to right): Barry Galloway of Treasury Wine Estates, Lisa Delcambre of Links Concept, Sarah Heller MW, Amanda Longworth of Berry Bros & Rudd Asia, Ivy Ng, publisher of the drinks business Hong Kong, Melissa Sae-Lee of The Flying Winemaker, Aline Bao of COFCO Wine & Wine, Castle Li of COFCO Wine & Wine, Linden Wilkie of The Fine Wine Experience, Eric Desgouttes of Kerry Wines, Mike Wu of The Fine Wine Experience, Sabrina Hosford of Cru Asia, Michaela Stander of Wines of South Africa and Chris Thompson of Elite Wines Vietnam

Hosted by the drinks business editor-in-chief Patrick Schmitt MW on 9 November during the Hong Kong International Wine & Spirits Wine Fair, the awards ceremony at Renaissance Harbour View Hotel Hong Kong was attended by around 100 guests eager to hear the announcement of the 12-category winners across corporate, personality and marketing fields.  

The Asian Awards ceremony is designed to celebrate excellence in the drinks industry in Asia. It also serves a platform for key drinks leaders and influential personalities to network with their peers.

Heavyweights in Greater China and Asia’s drinks market including Australian wine giant, Treasury Wine Estates, China’s biggest importer COFCO Wine & Wine and the world’s youngest Master of Wine Sarah Heller MW were among some of the winners fêted at the ceremony.

The winners were selected by an expert panel of respected judges from diverse backgrounds including the business and finance sectors as well as key wine organisations, winery owners and consultants.

The results reflected the dynamism of wine market in Asia, especially in mainland China and Hong Kong as shown by our participants such as trade organisations including Wines of Germany, Wines of South Africa and leading online/offline retailers including Sichuan 1919 Wine & Spirits and Cru Asia to name a few. 

In addition, we were pleased to see how Vietnam’s burgeoning fine wine market is gaining steam, affirmed with events like Rothschild Grand Cru Wine & Champagne Dinner organised by Elite Wines Vietnam. 

Over the next few pages, we have profiled each winner as well as those with Special Commendations and summarised the reasons behind each award. A full list of winners can be viewed here. 

Lastly, we want to give our sincere thanks to our sponsor Renaissance Harbour View Hotel Hong Kong and our sparkling wine sponsor, Spain’s leading Cava producer Codorníu, who provided its flagship 1551 – imported by Northeast Wines – for all the guests.

Judges of our inaugural Drinks Business Asian Awards: 

Judy Chan, President of Grace Vineyard, China and winner of our Asian Wine Personality of the Year at Vinexpo HK 2012

Vincent Cheung, Grand Maitre of Asia, Commanderie de Bordeaux and Founding Partner of legal practice Vincent T.K. Cheung, Yap & Co., winner of our Asian Wine Personality of the Year at Vinexpo HK 2014

Greg De’eb, Principal of Crown Wine Cellars, the largest fine wine storage facility in Hong Kong

Henry Ho, President of the HK Wine Chamber of Commerce

Antoine Meunier, Head of the Wine & Spirits department of the French Trade Commission in Hong Kong (Business France)

Vernon Moore, Chairman Emeritus of the Hong Kong Wine Society, experienced banker and financier, as well as consultant to CITIC Limited

Roland Muksch, Senior Private Banker, Chairman of the HK Wine Society and Deputy Consul General of the Ordre des Coteaux de Champagne Greater China

Catherine Yen, Partner of a major accounting firm and committee member of La Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, HK Chapter

Yu-Kong Chow, Wine and F&B Consultant and experienced wine judge

Award presenters: 

Jim Thompson, Chairman of Crown Worldwide Group

Natalie Wang, Managing Editor, the drinks business Hong Kong

Dean Aslin, General Manager, Northeast Wines representing our wine sponsor Codorníu

Greg De’eb, Principal, Crown Wine Cellars

Claudio Salgado, Senior Director, Design Development Operations, Marriott Group Asia

Apple Cheung, Honorary Secretary, HK Wine Chamber of Commerce

Vincent Cheung, Grand Maitre of Asia, Commanderie de Bordeaux

Ian Harris, CEO, WSET

Best Drinks Event

Linden Wilkie, Managing Director of The Fine Wine Experience (middle) and Mike Wu, Managing Partner of The Fine Wine Experience (right), accepting the award presented by Jim Thompson, founder of Crown Wine Cellars

Winner: The Fine Wine Experience Burghound Symposium

Our first award recognises an outstanding drinks event, be it masterclass, tasting or seminar. This year, the judges rewarded The Fine Wine Experience Burghound Symposium with the coveted title for its overall well organised series of masterclasses, tastings and wine dinners, as well as its serious dedication to deepen wine lovers’ understanding of Burgundy wines. One of the leading Burgundy-focused fine wine events in Asia, the judges agreed that the symposium showcased The Fine Wine Experience’s commitment to education of involved consumers, market development, the sharing of experiences. The diverse range of Burgundy wines featured across different price points and styles further highlighted the maturity of the fine wine market in the region.

Spanning four days from 19 to 22 April 2017, the events headlined by well-versed Burgundy critic and writer, Allen Meadows, affectionately known as Burghound, also united renowned Burgundy producers including Laurence Mortet (Domaine Denis Mortet), Claude Dugat (Domaine Dugat), Guillaume Rouget (Domaine Emmanuel Rouget), Gerard Harmand (Domaine Harmand-Geoffroy) and Charles van Canneyt (Domaine Hudelot-Noëllat).

The judges praised the team’s one-year preparation to deliver such a high quality and dedicated symposium to showcase Burgundy in diversity and depth. The event drew 558 people from Hong Kong, mainland China, other parts of Asia and around the world, despite its whopping wine dinner prices reflecting the super premium value of iconic Burgundy wines.

More importantly, the judges commended its charity auction wine dinner benefitting local charity, Changing Young Lives Foundation. The charity auction raised more than HK$1 million. For 2018’s edition, the symposium will add another stop to its calendar – Shanghai, and we look forward to its future success.

Chris Thompson of Elite Wines Vietnam

Commended: Rothschild Grand Cru Wine & Champagne Dinner by Elite Wines Vietnam

With many entries competing for the category, the judges decided to give a special commendation to Elite Wines Vietnam for organising a glamorous and beautifully choreographed “Rothschild Grand Cru Wine & Champagne Dinner” featuring a worldwide preview of the 2008 vintage of the Barons de Rothschild champagne, as well as a range of fine wines in this nascent fine wine market. 

Best Social Media Campaign

Winner: Rosé Revolution powered by The Flying Winemaker

Rosé Revolution powered by The Flying Winemaker is a prime example of how marketing campaigns can utilise omnipresent Facebook posts and tweets to drive focus on the rosé wine category by embracing the power of social media to communicate with technology-savvy millennials and wine drinkers.

Its Facebook event page attracted hundreds of likes and the #rosérev17 hashtag became a sticky tag throughout the campaign this summer (May to July) across Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Shanghai and Macau. Its interactive postings encouraging participants to repost and share for gifts certainly generated higher social media involvements among drinkers.

Under the banner of Rosé Revolution, The Flying Winemaker rolled out various events including premium wine-pairing dinners, trade fairs, public tasting and supporting lifestyle events such as Rosé Sunset, Rosé by the Pool and Rosé Cruise. It’s a fun and interactive campaign that has fully embraced social media and was ultimately rewarded for it. 

Best Launch

Winner: Perrier-Jouët Pop-up by Pernod Ricard Hong Kong & Macau

Perrier-Jouët’s Garden of Wonder pop-up store in Pacific Place in Hong Kong

Launched in February this year, Perrier-Jouët’s Garden of Wonder pop-up store during Hong Kong’s art month successfully captured the attention of the city’s art crowd and Champagne lovers, despite not being the official sponsor of the Art Basel and Art Central. The locations of the two pop-up stores, Pacific Place and the Conrad Hotel, were strategically selected to maximise its visibility to target its audience.

The overall design of the Garden of Wonder evokes the Champagne house’s famous label design and created a “Champagne oasis” that serves as a holistic brand experience, an exhibition platform and a Champagne tasting bar at the same time.

Leveraging its smart positioning with social media and key opinion leaders, the pop-up store, in absence of advertising, generated over 14 million media impressions with over 100 pieces of coverage at a value of HK$11 million in earned media. Sales of the new vintage Perrier-Jouët Blanc de Blancs Champagne exceeded all expectations with sales of HK$150,000 recorded at Pacific Place’s Garden of Wonder alone during the 16-day pop-up.

Judges praised their distinction in Public Relations efforts, marketing, consumer research, innovative design of the pop-up store and the packaging of presentation cases.

Runner-up: 90+ Club by Treasury Wine Estates 

Targeting points-conscious wine drinkers, Treasury Wine Estates launched its 90+ Points Club across Asia, featuring its extensive repertoire of wines that have received 90 points or above by major wine critics and publications.

Rolled out in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines, the 90+ Club reached both consumers and trade professionals via multiple channels including wholesale, retail and on-trade. 

Its official gala launch event in Shanghai alone last December created media impressions across print, online and social media, reaching more than RMB 1.19 million in total ad value. The judges believed the campaign using internationally accepted points system is a successful push to achieve its goal, to simplify the purchase decisions for consumers.

Best Consumer Campaign

Winner: Riesling Weeks by Wines of Germany

The Best Consumer Campaign Award is set out to reward a successful marketing campaign that managed to achieve the maximum reach of the product even with limited resources. Using a modest budget of under HK$100,000, this campaign managed to leverage off the collaboration with a number of importers in Hong Kong, to deliver a campaign that consisted of multiple tastings, dinners and wine promotions involving 90 outlets including restaurants, bars, wine shops and supermarkets across the city.

Its popular kick-off event and the successful social media campaign with a ‘German Wine Princess’ generated plenty of buzz and instagram-worthy photo opportunities. The princess attended 12 consumer events and met with over 400 consumers during the Riesling weeks.

The month-long promotion successfully reached 50 media outlets. This year participating restaurants involved in promoting city-wide Rieslings also increased by 50% compared with last year, the result of its high-level engagement.

Best Trade Campaign

Winner: Discover South Africa by Wines of South Africa

On-Trade Supplier of the Year

Winner: Kerry Wines 

In Hong Kong’s much contested on-trade supply chains in hotels, restaurants, bars and clubs, excelling in on-trade supply requires companies to deliver quality service, a diverse product range in terms of price points and regions, supporting marketing and promotional materials as well as corresponding wine education for staff and wine service team.

This year, judges believe Hong Kong’s leading wine importer Kerry Wines demonstrated tireless efforts to expand its product portfolio – adding another 14 brands in the past year – and keen dedication to provide education and training by offering sommelier masterclasses, WSET courses in addition to first-hand visits to vineyards and wineries.

The company also played a part in respecting the environment by recycling wooden boxes from its clients. All the efforts have led Kerry Wines to achieve 33% growth in sales in Hong Kong and gained 50 new on-trade customers within one year. 

Runner-up: Links Concept

Established in 2000, Links Concept, a leading wine merchant in Greater China region, was commended by the judges for their singular focus on introducing and promoting family-owned brands in the region’s wine market. Its exclusive brands can be found in some of the city’s top Michelin starred restaurants, hotels and private clubs. 

In order to support its on-trade supply, the company has hired a sommelier to train its clients’ wine service team. This year, it has also opened up a new tasting room in its office to help showcase its portfolio to its clients. This company is in the process of revamping its website design, refreshing its portfolio, with more fun and interactive tastings and dinners in the pipeline. We look forward to seeing Links Concept unveiling more exciting projects in the coming months. 

Best Online Retailer 

Winner: Cru Asia 

This year, for the Best Online Retailer category, the judges assessed candidates’ product range, attractiveness of site design, novel selling techniques and a loyal customer base, brand recognition and geographical reach. Cru Asia, a leading online retailer operating in Hong Kong and Singapore, came out on top, impressing the judges with its extensive portfolio of more than 4,000 products and a sound delivery system that covers eight countries across Asia.

Its search engine on its web stores boasts user friendly filter assist and predictive text searching, as well as its sleek one-click checkout feature that spared customers unnecessary hassle. It also features live chat for customers to talk directly to Cru expert wine advisors – in Mandarin, Cantonese and English. To accommodate regional differences across Asia, the company offers RMB checkout option on popular AliPay, WeChat Pay, Union Pay and TenCent Pay at the Hong Kong web store, as well as visibility of trade pricing for trade clients. It also offers storage options upon checkout. 

Eyeing the region’s growing mobile commerce, especially in mainland China, in June this year, this company became the first online wine retailer in Hong Kong to launch a ‘daily offers’ sales App for iPhone and Android, targeted at fine wine sales. According to the company, 45% of its website traffic is from the mobile phone.

Best Retail 

Winner: Sichuan 1919 Wines & Spirits Scm. Co., Ltd 

David Pedrol from Sichuan 1919 accepting Best Retail Award

This year, the Best Retail Award goes to Sichuan 1919 Wines & Spirits Scm. Co., Ltd, a company that has become China’s biggest and fastest growing O2O wine and spirits platform with a strong online presence supported by an extensive network of offline shops across China. Based in Chengdu, capital city of Sichuan province in Southwestern China, unlike other companies that targeted eastern and coastal regions in China, the company’s growth leveraged on the emerging and fast growing cities in southern, western and central parts of China before tapping into more established eastern and coastal regions. 

Today, it has a network of 1,500 offline shops, triple the number in 2015, across 500 cities in mainland China. In addition to wine, it’s a major distributor of Chinese Baijiu and other imported liquors. This year, the retailer has unveiled a mobile app that promises a record delivery time of 19 minutes to deliver wine in major cities in China, as a competitive edge over other wine retailers. 

Earlier this year, the company formed a partnership with Vinitaly International Academy. Looking ahead, the company has set a target of 6,000 stores across China by 2019, consisting of a combination of franchise and self-owned stores. For these reasons, the judges deemed the company a worthy recipient of Best Retail Award. 

Special commendation: CHEERS Wines 

Led by Claudia Masueger, Cheers Wines earned a special commendation from the judges. Aiming to build a network of 888 franchise and self-owned stores, up from current 55, throughout China, enhanced by consumer education events and loyalty programme, the company has demonstrated to the judges its vibrant team work and its ambitious business growth plan.  

According to the company, all the wines sold are imported, and over 90% sold are exclusive to CHEERS and to the Chinese market. With the recent injection of capital by Swiss company Mövenpick, and Masuegeer’s leadership, we expect to see them soon again.

Fine Wine Retailer of the Year 

Winner: COFCO Wine & Wine

COFCO Wine & Wine in a short span of three years since its inception in 2014 has grown to be the biggest wine importer in mainland China, as well as being the country’s biggest Australian wine importer and biggest Bordeaux en primeur buyer. In addition to Bordeaux, COFCO Wine & Wine has built a fine wine portfolio across various wine regions including Italy’s Antinori and Valdicava, Australia’s Penfolds and Peter Lehmann, Chile’s Santa Rita and Seña, Spain’s Faustino, as well as Black Stallion, Dominus and Opus One from Napa to name a few. It now boasts a network of 400 professional wine stores across China, including Tibet and Sanya in Hainan, with a goal to expand the number to 1,000 within the next few years. 

Perhaps more encouragingly for the judges is seeing the company’s efforts to combat fake wines in mainland China to ensure its wines’ provenance and quality. The company has developed an Anti-Fake label to be fitted to each bottle sold and founded the ‘Alliance of Fine Wine Traders’ in China to build an authentic and fair fine wine market. It has also collaborated with TMall and JD.com to sell fine wine online to support its offline activities. Not only selling wine, the company has also committed to delivering WSET education and wine knowledge to its staff and customers. 

Best Drinks Company

Winner: Treasury Wine Estates

Australia’s wine giant, Treasury Wine Estates, has arguably become the leading player in today’s drinks trade, with an expansive portfolio from Penfolds to Napa’s Beringer to its newly introduced French portfolio, and has earned unrivalled success in its most profitable market in mainland China. From its business development and diversification, sales/profit growth, employee management to new product development, market penetration, brand development and corporate responsibility shown in the past year, the judges felt strongly that amongst all candidates, TWE stood head and shoulder. 

Building on the success of its Australian brands including Penfolds and Wolf Blass, in late 2016 the company introduced a portfolio of Californian wine brands including Beringer and Beaulieu Vineyards, and in March this year, it launched a new French wine portfolio to continuously enhance its portfolio offerings in Asia.

The company has delivered impressive growth in fiscal year 2017, particularly driven by Asia. The region reported 47% EBITS growth to AU$150.1 million, and an EBITS margin of 38.1%, reflecting increased brand portfolio breadth and distribution network optimisation, notably in China and Japan. Additionally, the company has shown resilient efforts in brand protection especially with its flagship brand Penfolds in mainland China.

Special Commendation: Berry Bros & Rudd Asia

Over the past 12 months, the company has demonstrated a successful turnaround of the business in Asia, with growth seen in Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore.

On top of relocating its office location in Hong Kong, BB&R was recognised by the judges for its implementation of strategic initiatives in challenging markets such as Singapore, and diversifying product range in Japan, as well as opening an office in historic Kyoto.

In Singapore, for example, it entered into a strategic partnership with retailer and wholesaler 1855 The Bottle Shop to expand its distribution network through its nine stores. In the near future, the company is also planning the launch of The Wine Merchants range in new markets such as Korea and Philippines, which we are certain will help further boost its success in Asia.

Young Achiever of the Year 

Winner: Sarah Heller MW

Ian Harris, CEO of WSET, presenting the Young Achiever of the Year Award to Sarah Heller MW

Although not many contenders threw their hats in the ring for the seemingly impossible Young Achiever of the Year Award, as the two main criteria dictate that each contest must be both under 35 and achieve what is seemingly humanly impossible, the choice was obvious for the judges, however, when it comes to Sarah Heller MW.

At the age of 29, she already became the world’s youngest Master of Wine, one of the toughest examination programmes in the world with less than 400 people in the world earning the title. 

Her academic excellence was also affirmed with her picking up four out of the seven prizes that rewarded outstanding academic performance in the Master of Wine exam papers, given out at the IMW Annual Reception and Awards ceremony 2017. Heller already showed earlier promise by winning the WSET Vintner’s Cup and IWSC Scholarship for achievement in the WSET Diploma.

She also became a first-time mother in the same year, and already was responsible for a number of projects including writing a ground-breaking piece of market research on the consumer behaviour of Chinese Millennials shopping for wine on e-commerce platforms. She also co-created a content-driven e-commerce platform with digital app ShowMuse, with wine videos that have over 1,000,000 views in Hong Kong and China through the app, and developed the prototype for an interactive wine gaming app to help Millennial consumers learn about wine regions and production.

As if that’s not enough, Heller is also multilingual. She speaks English, German, French and Italian, with a good command of Spanish and Mandarin Chinese. By any measure, Heller is the ultimate Young Achiever, and we look forward to witnessing the launch of her future projects in the wine industry.

Man of the Year

Winner: Castle Li, general manager of COFCO Wine & Wine and Great Wall 

Our last award goes to Castle Li, who managed to turn a start-up position company into China’s biggest wine importer, and is now anointed to bring his leadership skills and reform-minded management style to reboot China’s leading winery Great Wall in the hope of transforming it into a quality-driven winery in the future.

Li was appointed general manager of COFCO Wine & Wine, the wine and spirits importing arm of China’s state-owned conglomerate COFCO, in 2014 when wine consumption in China was challenging amidst the country’s austerity measures. Yet, under Li’s leadership, the company managed to register remarkable growth, and became China’s biggest wine importer by volume with a short span of three years.

The company imported around eight million bottles of wine last year, and has built a network of 400 wine shops across China. Having gained exclusive distribution rights for many Australian wine brands, the company has become the biggest Australian wine importer in China as well as being the largest buyer of Bordeaux en primeur wines in the country.

Recognising his tremendous efforts, he was promoted to be the general manger of China’s Great Wall brand in August this year, in an effort to regain a leading position in the China market and improve its brand recognition.

Woman of the Year

Winner: Ivy Ng, publisher of the drinks business Hong Kong 

Without risking sounding presumptuous, Ivy Ng, has in the past year consolidated the drinks business brand in Asia, building a strong editorial and sales team, and helping launch our successful Asian Masters series competitions as well as organising the drinks business Asian Awards.

Having joined the drinks business Hong Kong in 2014 as its publisher, Ng, a native of Hong Kong, has been instrumental in building the brand’s reach across Asia and its fast development in the past few years.

A holder of WSET Level 4 Diploma, Ng is also a dedicated wine educator, recognised as a certified educator for the WSET, the Sake Sommelier Association as well as a Bourgogne Wine Official Ambassador accredited by BIVB (the Bourgogne Wine Board). Having recently graduated from the UC Davis Extension Winemaking Certificate Program, Ng has just embarked upon the studies for another passion of hers – cheese.