Last week UK wine trader, Bordeaux Index reported record sales in the Far East, with fine wine sales in excess of £8.1 million, representing a massive increased of 72% on the previous year. Not bad for a month’s work.
With the 2009 vintage tipped to be the greatest of the century, founder of Bordeaux Index, Gary Boom, said: “We fully expect the Asian market to invest heavily in this vintage, which will help continue to drive significant growth in the wine market in 2010.â€
But hang on a minute, the Chinese haven’t really bought into en primeur before: buying wine that you can’t receive for another one to two years just doesn’t equate for many Asian buyers (they have a point, it is a bit strange when you think about it).
So I asked Geraint Carter, who also works at Bordeaux Index, why this year was any different to the rest.
“Well it’s certainly fair to say that precedent indicates a preference for physical assets in the Chinese/HK market,†he admitted. “That said we’re optimistic that this year will see a significant jump in participation for the following reasons:
1. They tell us they will – there has been plenty of firm interest expressed from both private and trade clients.
2. Level of familiarity/sophistication with the practices of the wine trade has increased rapidly. Good merchants with proper customer relationship and substantive infrastructure, as well as the efforts of the major Chateaux to raise their profiles.
3. Some of the recent surging demand from China/HK has been driven by investors, and there’s no doubt that the 2009 en primeur campaign will be a big attraction to those looking to speculate.
4. China is enjoying a period of very loose monetary policy. Assets have and will continue to attract capital looking for yields in this type of environment.â€
They all sound like sound reasons but I’m just going to hang fire to see whether there’ll really be a massive shift in mentality from Asian buyers this year.
