WINE


 

Bamboo Network

 

 

 

Chinese buying French vineyards

Shen Dongjun is the managing director of Tesiro, a chain of 400 jewellery shops in China with an annual revenue of 150 million yuan (S$28.3 million).

In April, Mr Shen opened a new front in his business empire - he became the proud owner of Laulan Ducos, a 22-hectare vineyard in the Bordeaux region of south-west France with an annual production of 150,000 bottles of wine.

"My friends and family were surprised at my choice," he said. "But, because of the rapid growth and rising profits in the red wine market in China, they finally understood my decision."

Tesiro is the sixth Chinese firm to acquire a French vineyard. The first was Qingdao Hailong International Trading Firm, a private firm that bought a 500-year-old Bordeaux vineyard with 60 hectares in January 2008. In March this year, state food giant COFCO acquired Chateau de Viaud, also in Bordeaux, the first such purchase by a state company.

Driving these acquisitions is the astonishing growth of consumption of grape wine, especially red wine, in China. Over the last five years, wine consumption in China has risen by more than a double-digit percentage each year. Last year, Hong Kong and China consumed 33.5 million bottles of Bordeaux worth 333 million euros (S$583.3 million), increases of 98 per cent and 126 per cent respectively over 2009. This year, mainlanders are expected to consume 828 million litres of wine.

China has become the world's biggest importer of Bordeaux wine. In light of this surging demand at home, Chinese are as eager to buy the sources and producers of wine as they are to acquire foreign oil fields and petrochemical refineries.

Mr Shen, 41, said that he visited 40 vineyards before selecting Laulan Ducos. A lover of wine himself, he started importing French wine into China two years ago; this led him to consider the acquisition.

The COFCO purchase took three years of negotiations. The vendor was Pierre Raoux, who owns four chateaux in the Bordeaux region, with an annual output of tens of thousands of bottles. Neither side made public the price; the industry estimates it at 10 million euros.

Mr Raoux' son worked for one year in the COFCO head office in Beijing, establishing a link between his father and the firm. Previously, Chateau de Viaud had not sold wine to China; its annual output is 800-1,000 hectolitres, of which half was exported to the US. COFCO plans to leave management of the vineyards in local hands. It owns the Great Wall brand, one of the most popular brands of wine in China.

The Inter-professional Council of Bordeaux Wine, which represents the industry, said that it was not surprised by this investment by Chinese, following that of the British, Dutch and Japanese.

"Quality red wines have attracted investment from China for two years," it said. "It has become a symbol of good taste for the middle class. We estimate that the growth of consumption could reach 11 billion bottles or 828 million litres."

The French wine industry expects wine consumption in China to grow by at least 20 per cent annually from the current level of one litre per person per year until 2014, when it will become the world's sixth largest consumer. France accounts for 50 per cent of China's wine imports, followed by Australia and Chile. Red wine accounts for 90 per cent of total wine sales in China.

Olivier Leblanc, an agent in the wine business, said that the Chinese who invested in this sector took their time before making a decision. "Today they are investing in small vineyards in order to learn about the industry. Given their financial power, they could purchase large vineyards and major brands."

COFCO is well-placed to make large acquisitions because of its financial size and expertise in the food industry. "The wine (of Chateau Viaud) is very good, and the quality of the land and the level of management excellent," said Jean-Luc Coupet, who advised the firm on the purchase. "COFCO has opened the way. Other Chinese conglomerates could follow them in Bordeaux, the wine-growing region most famous in China and the only one which counts there."

COFCO has bought a vineyard in Chile and has announced plans to buy such assets in Italy, Australia, the US and South Africa. But, for a Chinese company, buying a French vineyard is not as easy as acquiring a shoe factory or department store. The French wine industry is a world of its own, with 250 different varieties, of which 60 are the best known.

Most of the vineyards are small-scale, family-owned and run on traditional lines. The investor must acquaint himself with the details of the industry and the regulatory and approval procedures, all in a language unfamiliar to the vast majority of Chinese. The business culture of Chinese private entrepreneurs is a world away from the traditional work practices of French vineyards. The main challenge is not money, but bridging these two cultures. -- EJ Insight   - 2011 August   BUSINESS TIMES

Bordeaux Vinters look to Asia

Hong Kong has emerged as the fastest growing wine hub while China's seemingly unquenchable thirst for wine has ousted the United States as Bordeaux's number one client outside Europe.

"Bordeaux holds a special place in China," said Don St. Pierre Jr., chief executive at ASC Greater China, the largest importer of premium wine in China, in an email to AFP.

"I do not think there is any region in the world that competes with Bordeaux -- none are viewed to have the same history or pedigree."

Bordeaux merchants have been criss-crossing China for years but saw their efforts translate into orders only recently

"China has become our first client outside the European Union," Alain Vironneau, president of the CIVB, Bordeaux's wine trade body, said last week, hailing both Hong Kong and China as "dynamic".

China's buying power comes at a particularly opportune moment for France's leading wine region. Figures last Friday show overall exports down 23 percent in 2009.

"The wine boom in China started three years ago and grows each year at an impressive rate," wine merchant Jean Pierre Rousseau, Managing Director of Diva, told AFP.

"Before that it was Lafite, Lafite, Lafite. Now they buy petits chateaux, crus bourgeois and grands crus in volume."

"Several hundred vineyards are in peril due to insufficient cash," said Vironneau, emphasising that many of these small businesses were outstanding performers but lacked support from France's banking sector.

"The crisis that the wine sector is going through is tied directly to the economic crisis."

Despite a slight increase in export sales over the last three months, Vironneau said 2009 had been "catastrophic" for the region.

Bordeaux exported 206 million bottles in 2009, generating 1.29 billion euros (1.8 billion dollars). This represents a 14 percent drop in volume and a 23 percent decrease in value.

The hardest hit markets were some of Bordeaux's most trusted -- the United States, Britain and Belgium, which dropped 44 percent, 33 percent and 16 percent respectively.

"We've never seen such a rapid and brutal collapse," said Roland Ferendj, the CIVB's general director.

While the US still outpaces China in terms of value at 139 million euros, it slipped to the number five position in volume, surpassed by China, where consumers are rapidly integrating wine into their urban lifestyle.

"Chinese consumers fall into two groups -- buying for themselves or as gifts," said Ma Lin, director of the Chinese branch of Cafa Formations, a Bordeaux wine school.

"The people who are buying for themselves have lived abroad, like the arts or are looking for a classier life in China. But many are buying for their relatives or friends."

In 2009, sales to China increased by 40 percent to 74 million euros, with volume increasing by an impressive 97 percent.

"Most of the volume growth of exports to China from France is happening at the entry level or lower end of the price range," said St. Pierre, who has 800 employees and offices in 10 Chinese cities including Hong Kong and Macau.

"The better quality brands and wines have not seen big increases."

Domestic plonk, often blended with foreign bulk wine, still corners 88.2 percent of the Chinese market. But over the last five years, domestic premium brands have arrived on store shelves.

"This is a positive trend for the future," said St. Pierre. "Eventually the restaurant owner and retailer will want better quality imported wines as a substitute for the highest priced local wines."

Hong Kong, on the other hand, is filling its cellars with grand crus.

"Hong Kong is very different (from China) -- with the abolition of all tax on wine (in 2008), demand has increased for better quality French wines, although this is primarily driven by retail and direct sales to consumers," said St. Pierre, noting that on-trade sales suffered in 2009.

In 2009, Bordeaux exports to Hong Kong increased 46 percent to 109 million euros, with a 24 percent increase in volume. And 2010 looks bright.

"We expect further growth for 2010 -- around 50 percent," Doug Rumsam, Managing Director of Bordeaux Index (HK) Ltd.

"The market out here is growing very rapidly and the emergence of so many new buyers keeps prices rising and demand strong."

Prices have reached a frenzy on the Hong Kong auction market, where Bordeaux's legendary wines come under the gavel, according to Linda Sansbury of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office.

In 2009, 14 fine wine auctions raked in an aggregate 45 million euros, outstripping London and placing it second only to New York - but not for long. "The industry believes Hong Kong will overtake New York this year to become the largest wine auction centre in the world," Sansbury said in an email to AFP.

But Hong Kong has also emerged as an illicit backdoor to the mainland.

"The reality is that Hong Kong has become a important wine hub, but if you dig a bit deeper it has also become a huge smuggling hub into China," a major importer told AFP. "The reality is that most of the expensive wines being shipped into China are being done so without the payment of proper taxes. The Hong Kong government says this is not their problem."

Wine fraud and non-payment issues also raise the risks, but Bordeaux remains undaunted. The leaders have opened Asian offices.

"It became clear that we needed somebody 100 percent dedicated to the region," said Valetine Bourrie, head of Asia for Chateau Cos d'Estournel. "It represents of course a huge budget of promotion and marketing."

And the Chinese are quickly gaining credibility in another area.

Chinese wine schools are flourishing. Ma Lin has trained 300 wine professionals in five cities in six months. The CIVB, through its office in Hong Kong, has over 50 accredited Bordeaux Wine School tutors, each training 200 students a year.

"The speed at which Asians are learning about fine wines is amazing," said Herve Berland, executive director of Chateau Mouton Rothschild. "When they do something in Asia, they want to do it well. They have a natural sense of perfection."  - 2010 March 17   INSING.com

Chinese buyers spur sold-out auction of fine wines 

A six-litre bottle of Chateau Petrus 1982, a vintage described by the seller as smelling of prunes and spices, fetched a record HK$726,000 (S$132,000) at a sold-out auction of fine wines in Hong Kong, spurred by Chinese buying.

The imperial, the equivalent of eight standard bottles of wine, went to an unidentified mainland Chinese bidder after a tug-of-war of several minutes. All but five of the 1,010 lots offered over the weekend were sold at auction, fetching a combined HK$61.5 million, compared with host Sotheby's pre-sale estimate of HK$47.8 million. The last five lots were sold privately after the auction, said Sotheby's spokeswoman Rhonda Yung.

Estimates don't include a 21 per cent buyer commission. Consignors' charges vary.

'The lots were priced rather low, probably to attract buyers,' said George Tong, a Hong Kong-based toy-factory owner and wine collector who said that he has a 5,000-bottle cellar.

Citing a three-bottle, double-magnum lot of Chateau Petrus 1989 with a top estimate of HK$280,000, Mr Tong said that the same wine recently sold for 7 per cent higher in London. The Hong Kong lot fetched HK$387,200 at Saturday's auction.

Hong Kong is rivalling New York and London as a hub for fine wines as locals and mainland Chinese show their penchant for top-grade vintages, especially rare Bordeaux, by paying a premium for them. Sotheby's and Christie's International began holding wine sales in the city months after the government abolished duties on the drink in February 2008.

At the weekend's auction, only one in 100 lots was bought by non-Asians, said Ms Yung.   - 2009 October 6    BLOOMBERG

Hong Kong: Top wine hub

Hong Kong took top slot among the world's major wine markets at weekend auctions where Sotheby's sold US$8 million (S$11.3 million) worth of fine wine.

Hong Kong has grown as a wine hub, taking over from London and New York, after the city abolished wine duties. And auction houses such as Sotheby's and Christie's have been pushing Asian buyers for new business as prices drop in the wake of global economic downturn and as luxury spending dwindles.

Sotheby's said two Hong Kong sales over the weekend of wines from the cellars of two unnamed American collectors fetched US$7.9 million, around 28 per cent above the pre-sale high estimate.

'Asian buyers represented 99 per cent of buyers in this two-day sale,' said the head of Sotheby's international wine department Serena Sutcliffe. 'Hong Kong has become Sotheby's most important wine centre, ahead of very successful auctions in New York and London,' she added in a statement.

The top lot on Sunday was a Chateau Petrus 1982 6-litre Imperial that fetched around US$93,000, a world auction record for that size of Petrus vintage. Meanwhile, a 12-bottle case of 1995 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti fetched $93,077 while a case of 2002 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti fetched US$85,000.

Last month, US wine merchant Acker Merrall & Condit sold US$6.4 million worth of fine wine in a Hong Kong sale which Acker's president John Kapon said indicated Hong Kong's role as 'arguably the fine wine world's most important market'. --  2009 October 5   REUTERS

Chateau Latour sells for US$62,000 in Hong Kong 

A six-litre bottle of 1961 Chateau Latour fetched 62,000 US dollars at Sotheby's first wine auction in Hong Kong, a spokesman said. 

The imperial bottle, the equivalent to eight regular bottles, sold for 484,000 Hong Kong dollars to a private Asian bidder at the auction, a Sotheby's spokesman said. It had been expected to fetch between 266,000 and 363,000 Hong Kong dollars. 

All 750 lots at Saturday's auction were sold fetching a total of 49.9 million Hong Kong dollars, with more than 90 percent of lots beating the pre-auction estimate, the spokesman said. Serena Sutcliffe, head of Sothebys international wine department, said the sale had been a "spectacular" success. "The results are a wonderful reflection of the quality of the lots that we offered and also of the incredible appetite in Asia for coveted wines with excellent provenance," she said. Sutcliffe added that there were many buyers from mainland China at the sale. 

Wine has become increasingly popular in Asia in recent years, and Hong Kong has tried to establish itself as the region's wine hub. Last year, the city abolished all duty on importing wine. The move has attracted some of the world's top auction houses to start sales in the southern Chinese city. The wine auction was the first sale of Sotheby's spring auction here, which will see paintings, antiques and gems go under the hammer. The company is hoping the sale will fetch more than 600 million Hong Kong dollars.  - 2009 April 5  YAHOO!

The appeal of fine wine

Wine investing has become so popular that it is not uncommon to hear of laymen dabbling in wine funds or wine futures

Lifestyle investments are all the rage and with increasing affluence and exposure, the wealthy are finding new and alternative investments. With the current volatility in the markets and recent news of troubled financial institutions, the interest in lifestyle or passion investing will continue to increase.

In fact, wine investing has become so popular that it is not uncommon to hear of laymen dabbling in wine funds or wine futures. Wine even has its own benchmark exchange called the Liv-ex 100 Fine Wine Index.

In this period of financial turmoil, the fine wine market has proven to be remarkably resilient. For the last three months, the Liv-ex 100 Fine Wine Index is still up to +2 per cent. In the same period the Dow Jones lost -7.1 per cent, the FTSE 100 -11 per cent, and the Nikkei -5.9 per cent.

Industry specialists and wine connoisseurs are confident that the wine markets will remain robust. This is largely due to the supply and demand for wines, which continues to be unbalanced. This imbalance stems from a steady demand from mature markets like the USA, Europe and Japan, coupled with an increasing demand from rising economies like Eastern Europe, South-east Asia and China, whilst the production of fine wines remains limited and the quantity available diminishing over time. For example, the legendary Domaine de la Romanee Conti produces only 5,000 bottles of its most coveted Romanee Conti wine every year.

Nonetheless, fine wine's appeal extends beyond that of a mere diversification tool in a balanced portfolio. Wine evokes the emotion and memories of moments shared with loved ones and friends. As a well-established luxury good, wines also represent a certain Art de Vivre which people aspire towards as a sign of social status.

One way to get exposure to wine as an investment is through a wine fund, which allows investors to access some of the world's finest wines and gives investors the option to redeem their investments in bottles. They can literally enjoy the fruits of their investments and savour their profits.

Many wine investors are also wine connoisseurs who may already own a private cellar of fine wines. A fund provides them with another way to source for wines of exceptional quality through reputable professionals. A key concern nowadays is counterfeit wine, hence the channels through which wines are sourced is an important consideration.

A fund from a reputable offeror would invest in the best wines from the Bordeaux and Burgundy region in France, including the 'First Classified Growths' and 'en primeur' wines. These have traditionally yielded the best returns.

Purchases are made based on reviews of the latest wines released into the market and with the best potential. Access to the top wines is not easily available and has to be purchased through recognised wine dealers. Through a Fund, investors have access to 'professional prices', inaccessible to retail customers.

Storage, insurance and custody are also key issues to consider when investing in wines, as this affects the value of the wines. In fact, many vintages bearing impeccable pedigrees which are stored under excellent conditions are sold at prices far exceeding the expectations of auction specialists themselves.

Wines need to be properly stored in temperature-controlled warehouses, with both humidity control and protection from vibration.

Many clients have shared with us their frustrations with wine dealers and the time spent liaising with numerous parties for the purchase, storage, custody and insurance of their wine cellars. This unique combination of expertise and security appeals to investors. For busy clients, the knowledge that the wine assets are professionally handled by a fund gives them peace of mind so that they are freed up to attend to other matters.

Fund managers could also organise a specially planned trip to the Bordeaux or Burgundy region in France, including visits to the best Chateaux, often hosted by the owner or wine maker themselves. The trips we have organised has proven to be very popular among investors who appreciate the close-up interaction with the top wine makers. At the Chateaux, clients learn about the wine making process, right from the harvesting of grapes to the brewing, storage and ageing of the wines. The opportunity to come up close and personal with Chateaux owners is a rare privilege and the trip is a highlight for many of our clients. Many report that their appreciation for fine wines took on a completely new life after the trip.

On the whole, investors can expect an annual return of 8 per cent to 10 per cent as a mid-term investment. As an example, the 2005 vintage of Petrus has seen a 68 per cent increase in value since it was purchased by the Fund. Most investors understand that wines are not suitable for short-term investments. It is well-known that wines appreciate with age and as the supply of good vintages decrease, the prices of the remaining bottles increase. A bottle of 1982 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild Bordeaux bought for $620 in 2005 now sells for around $2,000, representing a return of more than 200 per cent. The returns for an investor who purchased the vintage at its release in 1983 is even more exceptional, with a return exceeding 900 per cent.

Succession is a common concern among high net worth individuals. The beauty behind owning units in a fund as opposed to physical bottles is the ease of transfer. As wines improve with age and their value is tied with its storage conditions, transferring units as opposed to the wines themselves is the preferred route. Further, units can be easily and fairly divided among family members, as opposed to dividing up physical bottles. This allows an investor's passion for wines to fit nicely with his or her succession plan.

As many would agree - you always remember the person you share a good bottle of wine with.   - 2008 September 26    BUSINESS TIMES

HONG KONG

Record $8.2M Vintage Wine Auction In Hong Kong

U.S. auction house Acker Merrall & Condit announced Sunday a record sale of US$8.2 million in its just-concluded vintage wine auction in Hong Kong.

In a statement, New York-based Acker Merrall & Condit said it sold more than HK$64 million or US$8.2 million in an all-day auction concluded late Saturday.

The sale exceeded pre-auction estimates and set a new record for wine auctions held in Asia.

"We are thrilled with the result, which is a testament to the strength of the wine market in Asia and Hong Kong's leading role as a regional hub of fine and rare wines," AFP carried the company statement.

Acker Merrall & Condit noted that a case of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti 1990 sold for HK$1.89 million (US$242,186) - a new world auction record.   - 2008 June 1

Hong Kong scraps duties on wine, beer
It wants to become an international wine hub

Hong Kong stands to become an international wine hub and profit from rapidly growing demand in China after abolishing a 40 per cent tax on the tipple, industry experts said yesterday.

Hong Kong Financial Secretary John Tsang yesterday scrapped all duty on wine and beer, saying that he hoped to create a wine trading and distribution market in the booming southern Chinese territory.

Boris de Vroomen, chairman of the Wine and Spirits Industry Coalition, said the move would 'send a strong message that Hong Kong is determined to become an international fine wine hub' alongside London and New York.

'Hong Kong has everything needed to create a fine wine hub and the only thing preventing that was the duty,' he said. 'As much as 40 per cent of fine wines traded and sold in London are sold to consumers based in Hong Kong but stored in London, so Hong Kong does not benefit.'

Wine consumption in Asia has risen sharply in recent years and is forecast to increase further.

Mr de Vroomen, who leads a joint venture between drinksmaker Diageo and LVMH, owner of Moet champagne, forecast that Chinese consumers would buy around 50 million cases of imported wine a year by 2017, up from just two million now.

Auction house Bonhams responded to the news by announcing that it would hold what it said was Hong Kong's first wine sale in a decade.

'Hong Kong has quickly established itself as a growing market leader in the trade and collecting of the finest and rarest wines on the planet,' said Frank Martell, Bonhams' international wine director. 'The proposed exemption of wine from duty ... has opened up a new dimension in the trade.'

Nicholas Pegna, Hong Kong managing director of wine merchants Berry Bros and Rudd, said that the decision to scrap duty would make the city 'very competitive'.

'A bottle of wine will now be cheaper in Hong Kong than anywhere else in Asia,' he said. 'It will make Hong Kong into a sensible hub for exporting, primarily into China.'

China will be one of the world's top 10 wine consuming nations by 2010, according to a survey carried out for the global wine and spirits convention Vinexpo.

Mr Tsang said that scrapping taxes on all alcohol except spirits would cost the government about HK$560 million (S$100 million) a year.

But he said that revenues from trading in and storing wine could increase by as much as HK$4 billion a year as a result of the move, adding that it could also help develop tourism in the city. --  2008 February 28     AFP

SINGAPORE

Famous novelist, poet and travel writer Robert Louis Stevenson once said: 'Wine is bottled poetry.'

This sentiment would undoubtedly be echoed by David Lim, founder of the wine specialty concept store chain, Denise the Wine Shop, which was launched in Singapore just a year ago last August.

With 13 stores already tucked safely under his belt and two more set to open within the next two weeks, Mr Lim's wine store chain is the largest in Singapore - a truly remarkable achievement in such a crowded, burgeoning market.

What, then, is the secret to his success? A visit to his newly opened flagship store at UE Square provides some insights: it is a homely, comfortable affair with sleek bottles lining the shelves, some of which can only be reached by means of a ladder. The effect - desired, of course - is one that is reminiscent of a private library.

'One of our greatest selling points is that we offer a personalised experience,' says Mr Lim, when questioned about the success of his stores.

'I do not believe in merely selling bottles of wine; vending machines could do that. I am very particular about my staff. They have to possess the passion and knowledge about wine, so that this attitude can translate across to the customer and provide a highly individualised wine selection experience.'

Of course, other aspects of the Denise chain factor into its success. Each store boasts a vast range of wines from Australia, France, Germany, Canada and New Zealand, among others. The majority are in the price range of $20-$80 per bottle.

Rare vintages are also available to the more discerning wine connoisseur, though for a proportionately higher price that stretches into the thousands.

The competitive price range is achieved in part by Mr Lim's shrewd business sense. Under the current scale of operation, he is able to source his wines directly from some of the best vineyards all over the world, eliminating profit-leeching middlemen - the importers and wholesalers.

Practising such a hands-on approach also ensures that he has complete control over the conditions the wine is exposed to. For example, each and every bottle is kept at 20 degrees Celsius, regardless of price and quality.

'Quality control is very important. This way we gain the customer's trust and they have complete confidence in the fact that, whenever they purchase a bottle of wine, they are assured of nothing less than the very best,' Mr Lim says.

His marketing strategy has indeed delivered - approximately half of the clientele are repeat customers. In the span of 11 months, Mr Lim has also scored deals with the big players in the lifestyle industry, purveying wine to Singapore Airlines, Shangri-La Hotel, Raffles Hotel and various fine dining restaurants, to name a few.

However, not all of Mr Lim's experience here has gone down quite as smoothly as a glass of Burgundy Pinot Noir; he has indeed faced some tough challenges.

'The biggest obstacle I faced in Singapore was the operating cost - rental prices are incredibly high. I guess you could say we were lucky as rental prices had not risen so much when we started out last year.

'But from now on, the only way for prices to go is up,' he lamented.

'Another headache is the staffing. My main recruitment criteria are passion and attitude, which do not come cheap in the current work environment. I also ensure each store manager undergoes extensive training - attending wine courses and visiting vineyards in France in order to gain first-hand experience of the wine-making process. All this puts serious pressure on the company finances.'

He revealed that investment in this Singaporean venture has soared into the tens of millions.

Fortunately, though, 'our investors have foresight, and are able to see the long-term prospects of this business', Mr Lim says.

Coupled with his astute business acumen and managerial skills, as well as the increasing maturity of the wine retail industry in Singapore, Denise the Wine Shop has been able to mushroom all over the country in this short span of time, despite being such a 'media-shy company'.

'We are just quietly lining up our infrastructure and back offices. We let our wine do the talking,' Mr Lim explains. 'People have also noticed the sudden prevalence of our shops islandwide - that is advertisement enough.'

What future plans, then, are in store for this young company with close to 35 stores in Singapore and Malaysia?

'Apart from expanding further in these two countries, we are looking at places like China and Vietnam with developing markets,' Mr Lim elaborates. 'With our experience in both a fledgling market in Malaysia and a mature market in Singapore, I believe we have acquired sufficient expertise to venture into different territories.'

This quality of confident determination is the main ingredient that has contributed to Mr Lim's success today.

As a fresh graduate from a pre-medicine course at the University of Iowa 15 years ago, he decided to explore uncharted terrain - dabbling first in the shipping line, followed by the health food industry.

After 'crashing out quite spectacularly in 1997', he gained an interest in the wine industry in 1998 when an ex-manager earned a fair volume from selling wine to relatives and friends during Chinese New Year.

Undeterred by his recent setbacks, he set up the first Denise store in 2001, in Petaling Jaya, a middle-class suburban area in Malaysia. The rest, as they say, is history.

'Perseverance is essential in any business,' Mr Lim said, when asked about his advice for budding entrepreneurs. 'One also needs to possess a hands-on attitude, and should treat treat his staff the way he would like to be treated.'

He adds: 'A vision-oriented, passionate, loyal team is very important', as they make up the backbone of any enterprise.

A self-confessed 'extremist', Mr Lim is indeed imprinting his glorious, Epicurean life philosophy on the local scene. 'Life is getting unnecessarily stressful, what with the bird flu, Sars, global warming. Working in the wine business in which we focus on the finer pleasures of life suits my personality very well.'

With a glass of 'bottled poetry' in his hand, Mr Lim imparts his final words of wisdom: 'Don't just stay alive; feel alive!' .     -  SINGAPORE BUSINESS TIMES

Wine industry in high spirits
Discerning customers, wider choices and geographical advantage spur industry growth in Singapore

The wine industry in Singapore is enjoying a growing customer base as consumers are given a wider variety of choice of better quality wines at competitive prices.

'Customers are more discerning and more aware of what they're drinking,' says Roderic Proniewski, a consultant with Asia Wine Network Pte Ltd. With the quality of entry-level wine on an upward trend, enthusiasts also receive better value for money. 'Rose wine is back in fashion. As it is fruity and fresh, it is ideal for the warm weather here and pairs well with seafood,' Mr Proniewski says.

In Singapore, Australian and French wine have the lion's share of the market, with about 40 per cent each, Mr Proniewski reckons, while other wines such as Italian account for the other 20 per cent. Australian wine tends to be popular here as a result of its geographical advantage.

'Singapore's location makes Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia huge export markets for Singapore,' Mr Proniewski points out, highlighting that as regulations on storing wine and liquor are more relaxed here, Singapore tends to be the choice location for storage.

Asia Wine Network counts the hotel industry as its biggest source of revenue, followed by supermarkets and local restaurants.

Da Paolo Ristorante Italiano, which has 10 restaurants and gourmet outlets, is also looking to venture into wine distribution. 'It feels like the next logical step,' says director Francesca Scarpa, who says the group will leverage on its outlets.

'The presence of Italian wine is not that strong in Singapore and we feel there is room for us to come in. We have good quality products at affordable prices,' adds Ms Scarpa.

The majority of wine carried by Da Paolo is Italian, although it also brings in wine from Australia.

As a distributor, Da Paolo will target customers in the hotel and airline industries, as well as other restaurants.

'For local distributors, Singapore is not a huge market so Wine&Spirits Asia is an opportunity to discover the best exposure on a regional level,' says Mr Proniewski, adding that Asia Wine Network managed to cement business ties in Indonesia and Thailand as a result of the last show.   - 2008 April  22  SINGAPORE BUSINESS TIMES

The Year in Review: 2006
More are investing in wine despite rising prices

The important event in 2006 was without doubt the huge escalation in prices of the 2005 Bordeaux en primeurs (futures).

For example, in May/June 2001, Chateau Lafite Rothschild 2000 opened (from the Chateau) at 175 euros (S$353) per bottle, but five years later in 2006, Lafite 2005 opened at 360 euros, just over 100 per cent up!

Fairly similar price increases were seen across the board, with a few exceptions, in particular Chateaux Leoville Barton, Pichon Lalande, and Figeac, where the percentage increases were well under 100 per cent.

The market was in shock and awe but the wines sold. There were other factors at work which helped the Chateaux with their sales.

There is no doubt that a new and potentially disrupting influence on the wine market is the emergence of new markets in Asia, in particular China and India, in Eastern Europe and in South America.

Reports during the en primeur campaign in May/June this year talked of huge buying orders from Asia. First-time buyers who had no historical experience of Bordeaux futures were prepared to pay the 2005 prices so long as they got Lafite, Mouton, Petrus, the lot.

The first point to note is that a major paradigm shift is taking place. Whereas Bordeaux Firsts could reasonably be expected to open around 160 to 175 euros, we are now looking at prices in the higher 200 and lower 300 euros. What will happen to the Bordeaux 2006 futures, now that we know that it is an uneven vintage, at best very good and for the most part, quite good, which in marketing terms means 'poor'.

There has been little in the way of press reports, both lay and professional, which is always a bad sign. Will there be a repetition of the injunction which appeared in one of the most important wine journals during the Bordeaux 2001 en primeur campaign 'Do not buy 2001'?

When that headline appeared in April 2002, the Bordeaux futures market virtually collapsed. The question remains open. We shall see come May/June 2007.

For serious wine drinkers, the rising quality and reputations of wines from Chile, Argentina, South Africa and from the lesser appellations in France - the minor appellations of Bordeaux (Cotes de Bourg of Burgundy, Macon, Saint Romain, Savigny-les-Beaune from Languedoc, Roussillon, even the Rhone Valley) - are saving graces we should be thankful for.

As a prime example, when I visited Francois Mitjaville at his iconic Chteau Tertre-Roteboeuf last June, I tasted his Cotes de Bourg Chteau Roc de Cambes 2005 (Merlot 80 per cent, Cabernet Sauvignon 20 per cent) and was bowled over. Black red colour, very fresh, intensely concentrated ripe fruit, black currants, tannic finish, goes on forever!

Another fine example is Stephan Nieppergs Cote de Castillon Chateau d'Aiguilhe. All one needs to do is to cast aside long-standing habits and prejudices, keep an open mind, and a whole exciting new world of fine wine will be found. I recall the impressive tasting of the wines of young up-and-coming South African wine maker, Eben Sadie from Priorato, Dits del Terra (75 per cent Carinena, 15 per cent Garnach, 10 per cent Syrah), and his South African Columella (90 per cent Syrah, 10 per cent Mourvdre) in Aug 2006 and realised that there is an exciting new world of emerging young and potentially great wine makers to be discovered.

On the local wine scene, wine on the table is now not only taken for granted but is seen at all levels of the community. No longer is it the special preserve of the rich or famous. Young Singaporeans - professionals, executives and businessmen - can be seen attending wine tastings, using wine at tables, and now, starting their own cellars. They form their own wine clubs and dining groups, and even more impressively, the more serious ones hold blind tasting sessions to further educate themselves.

The rising prices of French wines has seen the dominance of New World wines on the local market. Australians and Californians, and more recently Chilean, South African and Argentinean wines, have displaced French wines in volume of sales.

Visit any of the numerous wine shops that have sprung up in recent years and the one thing they have in common is the huge range of Australian wines on their shelves.

Wines in the $20-30 range abound. I see this as a most encouraging sign although I wonder how they survive when just about everyone is carrying the same wines.

There was a time when Australian labels were far from commonly seen here, and many of us started our wine experience with the German Blue Nun and the Spanish Mateus Rose! There is no doubt that the large number of people who today drink Australian will with time and more experience move up the quality scale. And among those will be the Lafite and Romane Conti drinkers of tomorrow.

There are already early signs that:

The popularity of New World wines, and in particular Australian, is beginning to decrease, and

  • a slow increase in interest in German Rieslings (to replace the ubiquitous Chardonnay) and in Italian and Spanish reds. These are perceived to be almost at the same quality level as the best of French and have the advantage of being less expensive.

    Interestingly enough, a young lady executive I met at one of the wine tastings during the recent (April) World Gourmet Summit exemplified for me the emerging picture of the new Singapore wine lover. She not only had a preference for Italian and Spanish wines over French, but was also into blind tastings with a small group of equally serious wine lovers.

    Some of the major nations may well continue to deny the fact that global warming is for real but wine growers and producers in Europe have begun to see the effect of this in their recent vintages. The full ripening they are seeing almost regularly over the past few vintages (in the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer in particular) is proof enough for them that global warming has taken and will continue to take place no matter what the politicians say. While the northernmost wine regions will experience riper vintages, one can picture the southernmost wine regions, in particular in Spain and Italy, becoming a New New World! - by N K Yong   SINGAPORE BUSINESS TIMES   26 Dec 2006

A Socialite's Wine Cellar 
WALL ST. JOURNAL  

As summer ends, things are heating up in the wine world. In the next three weeks, auction houses in New York will sell about $10 million in rare and vintage wines, and a slew of additional sales will take place across the country through early December. "Fall has become the wine-sales season in America," says Jamie Ritchie, director of the U.S. wine department for Sotheby's auction house. All told, from Sept. 9 through year end, auctioneers in New York and Los Angeles will put more than 50,000 bottles on the block. 

But while the shelves are far from bare, some famous names will be missing. The big-name Bordeaux headliners, the typically $2,000-to-$20,000-a-bottle wines, are increasingly hard to find. Scarcity is always a problem in collectibles markets, of course, but it's a particularly acute one in the wine field. "Wine gets drunk," Mr. Ritchie says. So, with the great masterpieces (Chateau d'Yquem, Lafite, Petrus) harder to find in their prime vintages, the auctioneers are filling their sales with a few lesser-known -- and often cheaper -- stars. That means 18th- and 19th-century bottles (coming auctions include a Lafite 1865 and Château d'Yquem 1784), flights of wine (fans of Haut-Brion can buy 56 different vintages direct from the chateau's cellars at a coming sale) and outright gimmicks. (In a November auction, Sotheby's will offer a bottle of Beringer 2001 Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley that's the size of 173 standard bottles -- said to be the world's largest bottle of wine.) 

With cases of some wines starting at suggested bids of $250, bargains can sometimes be had at these auctions, but the real appeal is that many of these wines aren't available commercially. For the majority of wine fans who don't have either the means or the desire to cellar young wine that needs aging, auctions provide the opportunity to purchase older vintages that already have benefited from (often professional) cellaring -- and are drinkable either right away or soon.

Fads and Fashions
"The most expensive wines aren't always the best," says chef and restaurateur  ...        2 Sept 2004

September 2004 Sipping
Several wine merchants and auction houses kick off the fall with blockbuster sales of rare wines (auctions are in New York, unless otherwise noted.)
WINE/# OF BOTTLES SUGGESTED BID/AUCTION HOUSE COMMENTS
Quinta do Noval 1997
12 bottles		 $1,430-$1,600
Christie's		 This rare port (only 1,200 cases were produced) is a highlight of Christie's Sept. 23 London sale; Other stars are spirits from the estate of socialite Doris Duke.
Chateau Petrus 1989 Pomerol
12 bottles		 $11,000-$16,000
Zachys		 Collectors pay a premium for this vintage, and for Petrus, which often brings $1,000 a bottle; The small vineyard's soil is said to be rich in clay, making for exceptional flavor.
Ermitage L'Ermite M. Chapoutier
1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 Four bottles		 $420-$550
Acker Merrall & Condit		 This wine shop's big sale Thursday (Sept. 9), at New York's Four Seasons restaurant, includes several 'verticals': bottles of the same wine from various vintages.
Heitz Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon 1974 Martha's Vineyard
One bottle		 $400-$500
Acker Merrall & Condit		 Prices of this cult Napa Valley wine have soared above $700 a bottle in the past, higher than some classic mid-century French Bordeaux.
Chateau Lafite 2000
12 bottles		 $3,000-$5,000
Sotheby's		 This new wine won't be drinkable for years but there's an increasingly hot investment-driven market for reds of this well-regarded vintage.

  WALL ST. JOURNAL     2 Sept 2004

Investing in wine used to mean picking up a few bottles from a top producer, but owning part of the winery itself through stocks, mutual funds, commodity exchanges and futures can also yield palatable returns.

With a few caveats, of course. Most wineries are small, family-run businesses, and few are even publicly traded.

In the United States, such companies comprise less than US$3-billion in market capitalization as compared to the top three beer companies, Anheuser-Busch, Molson and Coors, worth US$42-billion.

Yes, some large conglomerates, such as Seagram, Fortune Brands, Brown-Forman Corp, U.S. Tobacco and Canandaigua, now own wineries, but wine is usually a small part of their earnings.

However, investors can now own a piece of premium wine brands in the United States such as Robert Mondavi Winery (Nasdaq: MOND) and Chalone Wine Group (Nasdaq: CHLN) in the United States, and in Canada, Vincor (TSX: VN), Magnotta (TSX: MGN) and Andrés (TSX: ADW.A). However, even Mondavi, the largest pure-play public wine company, is considered only a mid-cap company.

The small-cap nature of the wine business is why few analysts or investors, especially institutional investors, have been interested in the sector in the past, says Michael Van Aelst, consumer product analyst with CIBC: There's simply not enough critical mass to create the liquidity that allows for easy movement in and out of the stock. As well, unlike the lustrous dot.com days of old, there have been no spectacular wine IPOs to attract interest and create millionaires. It's likely there never will be an IBM of wine, or even an Amazon.com.

The wine industry isn't even structured like other beverage businesses, points out Mr. Van Aelst, which makes benchmarking difficult. Most analysts who follow wine also follow Coke and Pepsi, and spend most of their time on those stocks. Soft drinks provide stable, non-cyclical earnings, liquidity, low commodity risk, strong brand identity and measurable market share -- and all this is almost the opposite of the wine industry, which has thousands of niche labels, grapes, blends and regions, at prices that range from $5 to more than $50,000.

Wine is also a much more changeable product than soda: It varies every year with the weather and the winemaker's choices.

If a growing region experiences poor weather, Welch's can buy grapes for its juice elsewhere; but many wineries are tied to the vineyard designated on their labels, and have to settle for a lower yield or declassified wine: Substituting cheap grapes could be illegal or ruin their reputation.

Despite the fact that about the only trait shared by soda pop and wine is that both are liquids, some analysts still transfer their fizzy expectations and models to wine. They evaluate the companies based on units sold but low yields for wine usually mean higher quality. They believe that quick inventory turnover is a plus, but wine benefits from ageing at the winery -- and the consumer may not even drink the product for years. And they think that stock-outs are a bad thing, even though many wineries consider it prestigious when their wine sells out and is hard to find. Some analysts wonder why they just don't pump out more? (One production-line-minded soul once asked the Mondavis how many times a year the grapes were harvested.) Wine is also highly capital-intensive, requiring harvesting machinery, grape presses, bottling and labeling machines, etc.

Many winemakers bear this capital expense and risk, and to ensure the quality of their fruit, most also own their vineyards or have long-term, highly committed contracts with grape growers.

Wine is a cash-hungry business too: All of the investment is needed up-front, and it usually takes five to seven years to generate even modest cash flow -- after the vines mature enough to produce good fruit, and the wine itself has had time to age in the bottle before going to market.

And then when it does get to market, in both Canada and the United States, the wine must work its way through a complex set of regulations and distribution systems, which can include as many as three tiers, differing by province and state.

But despite all of these factors, says Mr. Van Aelst, what's attracting analysts and investors to wine stocks now is their potential for growth. For one thing, the wine market itself is on the upswing: Consumption in North American is expected to increase by as much as 25% in the next five years. The growth isn't just occurring in overall wine consumption, but especially in the higher-priced wines. That means that both volume and earnings are expected to go up -- the two factors that intoxicate both analysts and investors.

In fact, the growth in sales of premium wines is expected to be in the double digits, compared to growth in the low single-digits for beer and pop.

And that trend seems to be here to stay: As Baby Boomers age, the growth in wine, and particularly premium wine, will likely continue. According to J.P. Morgan Securities' report on the wine industry, this greying of the population should account for 1.2% annual volume growth through 2015.

The export market seems to be ripening as well -- particularly for New World producers of fruit-forward, easy-drinking wines. These appeal not only to their domestic drinkers, but also increasingly to Asians and Europeans. This year, for the first time, more Australian than French wine is consumed in both Britain and the United States.

Many New World companies have entered into joint ventures with winemakers abroad, both to create new wines and to open up distribution channels. One of the most active, Mondavi, partners with the Rothschilds of France, the Eduardo Chadwick family of Chile and the Marchesi de' Frescobaldi of Italy. The industry itself is also consolidating, with larger concerns buying smaller companies for cost savings and marketing synergies. Canada's largest wine company, Vincor, has purchased R.H. Phillips Vineyard in California; Hogue Cellar in Washington; and most recently, Goundrey Wines in Australia.

So should investors sink their money into liquid assets? Probably not, advises Lewis Perdue, who analyzed wine companies in his book The Wrath of Grapes. He says that people should invest in wine for love, not money: "Wine stock prices haven't kept up with any of the major indices, so it's not something to invest in if you're planning to send your kids to college or retire on it."

Mr. Perdue also believes that the predicted over-production of grapes in regions such as Australia, California and southern France will depress wine prices and profits, since even the rise in consumption will not be enough to absorb the excess wine. In fact, he calls the industry's lack of disclosure about the expected grape glut the "Enron of wine," and believes that stock prices will eventually collapse because of it.

However, Mr. Van Aelst remains optimistic: Where wine used to be a bauble in an investor's portfolio, it's now considered a more serious long-term investment. (In particular, he likes Vincor, given its financial strength, operational strategy and distribution growth.)

Wine, he believes, is a defensive stock that still performs even when the economy slows down.   - by Natalie MacLean

RED WINE:  Holistic Benefits

Red wine toasted as prevention for cancer
Research centre finds men who drink seven glasses per week reduce risk to prostate

Red wine drinkers, raise your glasses! Another study extolling the health benefits of red wine was released on Tuesday, saying a glass a day may help prevent prostate cancer.

Researchers from Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center found men who drink four to seven glasses of red wine a week are only 52 percent as likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer as those who don't drink red wine.

The report, published in the June 2007 issue of Harvard Men's Health Watch, was based on a small study examining the risk of prostate cancer in 1,456 men aged between 40 and 64, including alcohol consumption.

"At first the results for alcohol consumption seemed similar to the findings of many earlier studies -- there was no relationship between overall consumption and risk,'' said the researchers in a statement.

"But the scientists went one step further by evaluating each type of alcoholic beverage independently. Here the news was surprising -- wine drinking was linked to a reduced risk of prostate cancer.''

When white wine was compared with red, red had the most benefit with even low amounts appearing to help.

But by contrast men who were heavy beer drinkers, consuming 35 or more a week for eight years or longer, were at greater risk of contracting prostrate cancer.

The results also confirmed other studies' findings with the risk of prostrate cancer higher for men with a family history of the disease, who were obese, smokers or African American.

The researchers speculated that the reason was chemical and could be linked to various flavonoids and resveratrol that were missing from other alcoholic beverages.

A Dutch study released in February found drinking a small amount of wine can extend men's life expectancy while a U.S. study last year found red wine could help protect the brain from damage after a stroke.   - 2007 May 23    REUTERS

Red wine cures cold: study

Scientists are adding another health benefit to the growing list of diseases that seem to be tackled by a good guzzle of red wine. A study says red wine has the ability to prevent the common cold.

A team of U.S. and Spanish doctors found the more wine people drink, the fewer colds they catch -- up to almost half the cases for those drinking more than two glasses a day. The same benefit does not come from beer or liquor.

People drinking one glass of red wine a day had 23% fewer colds; those drinking two glasses a day had 30% fewer and at more than two glasses a day the benefit jumped to 44%, said Dr. Miguel A. Hernán, a researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and an author of the study published this week in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

"What seems clear is that there is something in wine that protects from colds. It is not the alcohol, because the other drinks also have alcohol but do not have this effect," said Dr. Hernán.

The apparent protective effects of red wine have been piling up. It has been praised for protecting against Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, lowering cholesterol, aiding in cell proliferation, reducing blood pressure, slowing the spread of cancer and preventing dysentery. Some suggest further study may lead to new treatments for AIDS, sleeping sickness and ways to rejuvenate the skin. The enthusiasm has lead one Web site to declare: "Red wine -- It's good for what ails ya!"

Medical interest in red wine stems from the so-called "French Paradox," the observation that the French diet is high in fat and yet the French suffer low rates of heart disease. Researchers think the fatty diet is mitigated by the large consumption of red wine, although there is debate over the specific mechanism.

"Doctors are usually very reluctant to see alcoholic drinks as something that is good for you, so investigators in this area are always very careful about their conclusions," said Dr. Hernán.

He said the connection between wine and the common cold is important. "This is the most common disease of humans, the common cold, and we know very little about this. It doesn't kill people, but it still is important from an economic point of view, in terms of absenteeism and productivity."

The study tracked 4,287 faculty and staff at five Spanish universities who were questioned every 10 weeks from 1998 to 1999. Dr. Hernán suspects that at some point, drinking too much wine would eliminate the positive effect, as alcohol depresses the immune system, but there were so few heavy drinkers in the study the specific point could not be measured.       - by Adrian Humphreys      National Post     10 May 2002

OREGON WINES
 Eyrie Vineyards in Oregon's Willamette Valley

Oregon wineries are hard to find. Unmarked and hidden off rutted roads, you could easily drive past the one you're looking for several times before you'd find it. On a gentle July morning last summer, after five forays down several blind turn-offs, my husband and I finally pulled up to an open red shed -- the winery and tasting room -- of Amity Vineyards. The winery, which produces some of Oregon's finest pinot noirs, sits atop the Eola Hills in central Oregon, amid rolling vineyards that rise and fall, one after the other, like a school of green-striped dolphins.

We dropped in to the winery on our way to McMinnville, Ore., where we were attending the International Pinot Noir Celebration.

Morning light dusts the vine leaves with gold. As we step out of the car, volcanic clay soil collapses beneath our sandals, sending puffs of dust up between our toes. Just inside the shed, we see winemaker Myron Redford, bent over his tasting counter, making notes.

A willowy wizard of a man, in a faded golf shirt and jeans, Redford greets us warmly. As he pours three tasting samples of his silky pinot noirs, we mention our difficulty finding his winery. Redford smiles and explains that although most Oregon winemakers don't want to discourage visitors, they don't have the staff to handle large numbers. (Later, we hear that one Oregon vintner threatened to stop buying gas at his local service station, if the owner gave out directions to his winery.)

The French call it terroir -- the notion that the soil and weather of a vineyard's location imbue its wine with a particular character. It's the Oregon vintners' respect for terroir that has drawn an avid following to their wine.

"Oak is the ketchup of the wine world," says Redford, explaining that he uses old, rather than new, French barrels because they impart less oak character to the wine during the ageing process. "I don't want to drink French forests, I want to drink Oregon wine. But it's tough when wine critics give high marks to heavily wooded wines." Laughing nervously, he adds, "They can't tell the difference between fruit and oak." That respect for allowing the wine to express itself is what links Oregon's pinot noir to Burgundy's, but so, too, does the climate.

Both Burgundy and Oregon sit on the 45*North parallel, the latitude of marginal growing conditions and great wines. In Oregon, sea breezes blow over the mountains to keep the weather cool, and allow the grapes a long, slow ripening that yields wines of great complexity and balance -- in good years. Fall rains ruined the 1995 to 1997 vintages, but the 1999 to 2001 vintages have been superb. Pinot noir is known as the "heartbreak grape" -- a thin-skinned varietal, susceptible not merely to rain and frost, but at times, it seems, even to voices raised above a whisper in the vineyard.

The self-described "pathological optimists" who make pinot noir love it for the way it demands every ounce of their winemaking artistry and science. Due to its feral caprice and low yield, pinot noir is more expensive than most wines. In Burgundy, coveted pinots, such as Domaine Romanée-Conti, command hundreds of dollars per bottle. While Oregon prices are much lower, bottles rarely go for less than $25.

But pinotphiles aren't sniffing at the price -- they're too busy inhaling the wine's aromas: black cherries, raspberries, roses, spices, burning autumn leaves, and something euphemistically called "barnyard" -- an exotic blend of fresh-turned earth and forest-grown mushrooms.

Cool-climate pinot is relatively low in alcohol, on average 10-12%, compared to the monster cabernets grown in warm climates that can weigh in at 14% or more. It also has high acidity, which makes it food-friendly, especially with lighter fare such as chicken or fish.

At the Celebration in McMinnville, tonight, we'll have an opportunity to judge for ourselves just how Oregon pinot noirs compare to other pinot noirs from around the world. Redford is going too, after he closes the tasting room.

- - -

In a lantern-lit oak grove, on a mid-summer's eve, wine lovers have gathered at Linfield College in McMinnville for a salmon-bake dinner. With attendance limited to 600, those attending the three-day IPNC have won a lottery just to be here. The event offers everything from lessons in wine pruning and barrel blending to bacchanalian meals served in the middle of local vineyards. But the highlights, of course, will be the Friday and Saturday walk-abouts, tasting top pinot noirs from 61 wineries around the world, while a jazz trio plays on the sun-dappled lawn.

At a prominent table near the dessert pavilion sits the father of Oregon pinot noir, David Lett. It's hard to miss "Papa Pinot," who's a dead ringer for Hemingway: weathered rosy cheeks, white beard and blue eyes.

It was in 1961 that Lett says he first became interested in wine. "I was driving up from Utah, to San Francisco, to go to dental school," he says. "But I took a detour through the Napa Valley. And that was it. I knew I had to be a part of it. So I enrolled in the viticulture and oenology program at [University of California, Davis]. Then I fell in love with pinot noir."

After completing the program, it was simply a matter of deciding where he and his new love would settle. "I looked at lots of regions, but I kept coming back to the Willamette Valley -- it was a ringer for Burgundy."

Lett moved to the Willamette Valley in 1965 and, as he tells it, "pitched a tent and planted pinot noir. My winery was an old turkey-processing barn -- my wife and I had to hand-crank the hydraulic press for the grapes. I called it Eyrie Vineyards, after the pair of red-tailed hawks that would soar over the vineyard and nest on top of our fir trees."

By the early 1970s, "living off the land" had become a West Coast ideal -- hippies, hillbillies and a few clean-shaven dreamers followed in Lett's footsteps. Dick Erath of Erath Vineyards and Dick Ponzi of Ponzi Vineyards came from California. In those days, most of them worked out of sheds, re-investing the profits back into their wineries.

Today, most of Oregon's 170 wineries are family operations -- and the largest winery, King Estate, which produces 90,000 cases a year, would be considered only a mid-sized winery by California standards.

"California produces Dolly Parton wines, but Oregon is Julia Roberts," Lett says. Yielding a little more than a million cases of wine each year, Oregon's production is small compared to that of California, which produces 100 times that amount. But the taste of Sunshine State pinot can sometimes be jammy, almost stewed -- unless it comes from one of California's cooler regions, such as Carneros and the Russian River Valley. By contrast, Oregon pinots show more of the finesse of their Burgundian ancestors.

Perhaps that's why Oregon pinot came out on top against Burgundy's best. In 1979, in Paris, Lett's 1975 Eyrie Pinot Noir placed third in a blind tasting against Burgundy's best wines. Naturellement, the French were scandalized. Showing fine French resistance, Robert Drouhin, a top Burgundy négociant, decided to host the same tasting on his own turf in Beaune a few months later. This time, his 1959 Drouhin Chambolle-Musigny placed first, but only by two-tenths of a point over the second-place wine -- Lett's.

Quoi faire? With a Gallic shrug, Drouhin decided to join 'em. He bought 225 acres in the Willamette Valley. (Even the heirs of Louis XIV can no longer buy vineyard land in Burgundy, limited as it is by fief.) The gently rolling slopes reminded Drouhin of Burgundy's Côte d'Or, and he built a four-level gravity-flow winery on his hillside location to coddle the whimsical wine.

For Oregon winemakers, the arrival of Drouhin was Old World confirmation that this was, indeed, one of the great wine regions for pinot. Drouhin's daughter Véronique even interned at Lett's winery, before becoming the vintner at Domaine Drouhin Oregon when it opened in 1988. Unfettered by the restrictive winemaking laws of Burgundy, she found freedom to experiment -- even though Oregon's wine laws are the toughest in the United States.

But, according to Lett, the small-scale, informal culture remains: "When you go tasting in Bordeaux, you wear a coat and tie -- and the owner is probably a banker. In Napa Valley, you'll taste with a nine-to-fiver who's never touched a hose," he says. "But in Oregon, you'll likely meet the person whose name is on the bottle. We still have a sense of, 'Wow, people want to come here and taste our wines!' "

Oregon's potential seems to stretch as far as the eye can see; some 100,000 acres of vineyard land have yet to be developed. (Compare that to the combined areas of Burgundy and Napa and Sonoma, in California, where, in total, some 75,000 acres are cultivated.) What's more, wine lovers have begun to look for more complex, subtle wines -- the kind that Oregon offers.

"We still have to watch that we don't price our wines out of the market, and get a reputation for it," Lett says. "You can give folks lots of haircuts, but you can only scalp them once," he says. "But the biggest challenge is to make Oregon known for quality in the minds of wine drinkers."

But even if Oregon winemakers are careful about price and quality, their reputation could still be hurt by inferior wine made in another region. Pinot noir has a chameleon-like sensitivity to where it's grown, but many consumers have not yet learned to distinguish between pinot noirs made in Oregon and those from other places, where yields may be two to three times higher. One bad glass -- or even just an unusual one -- could turn a wine drinker off pinot noir for good.

Tonight, though, the fickle nature of pinot noir is an attraction: by now we've horse-traded more than 20 bottles with other tables. We have stuffed ourselves like the last hold-outs inside a castle who know that with the first fingers of dawn, Sobriety and Deadlines will crash through the gates. But that's the bewitching power of pinot noir: it makes you feel as though all that matters is right here, right now.  - by  Natalie MacLean    Saturday Post    8 March 2003

SOUTH AFRICA

A Prince Among Wines   

South Africa's homemade grape - developed by scientists in a Stellenbosch laboratory and vineyard in 1935 - is pinotage. It can be a tricky grape to get right. It inherits a lot of the quirky character of pinot noir, one of the two vines grafted together to make the variety. 

Four of South Africa's most interesting wine personalities have combined to form the Spice Route Wine Company. One of their releases is the 98 Spice Route pinotage, on sale at Watson's Wine Cellars for $118 (regular price $148).  

While I've found a number of versions of this widely grown grape to be a bit rough and cabbagy, this is a prince of wines. It has a delicate colour and a subtle nose. On the palate, it's got a ripe berry flavour.  

Spice Route vineyards are off the beaten wine route. They are up the Atlantic coast from Cape Town, in an area known for blustery chill winds. The company took 390 hectares of vineyards, which is a huge property, and set up a modern winery in an old tobacco shed.  

The venture is headed by two winemakers, famous in their own cellars. Gyles Webb created Thelema label, one of the most renowned in Africa. Charles Back is renowned not only for the tremendous wines that come from his Fairview Estate cellars, but also for the visionary employment scheme that gives his field workers a fair deal and a share in the company.  

John Platter is the country's leading wine writer and Jabulai Ntshangase a wine sales executive.  

Together, the four have almost overnight built a new presence in the industry, and if this spicy, smooth pinotage is any guide, we're going to be enjoying more of their wine.    -  by Kevin Sinclair    South China Morning Post      February 4, 2000

NEW WORLD - BRITISH COLUMBIA

B.C.'s trophy wines:  worth triple digits

If the prospect of a $100 red wine from Canada strikes you as the absurd fancy of a winemaker who is 11 bottles short of a case, brace yourself.

Here in the majestic Okanagan Valley, triple digits are just over the horizon.

Last week, Mission Hill Family Estate Winery marked the release of Oculus 2004, the latest vintage of a super-luxury red modelled after the great cuvees of Bordeaux.

At an eyebrow-raising $70, the price could easily approach $100 in provinces such as Ontario, where it will roll out in several months and where a $20 markup on premium B.C. brands is routine.

And at a local price of $70, a 17-per-cent jump from last year's $60 for the 2003 vintage, Oculus is on track to crack the $100 barrier by 2010, just in time for the feverish B.C. pride of the Vancouver Olympics.

Oculus may be the most expensive wine to emerge from British Columbia, but it's just one of a new crop of rarefied B.C. reds vying to become this country's counterparts to the great three-digit cult wines of France and California's Napa Valley.

Among the new Okanagan icons are Nota Bene from Black Hills Estate Winery, Old Main Red from Kettle Valley Winery and The Legacy from Poplar Grove Winery.

The fast-growing list also includes such coveted big reds as Portfolio from Laughing Stock Vineyards, Apogée from Le Vieux Pin, La Frenz Winery's Shiraz, and Osoyoos Larose, a Bordeaux-styled blend from a joint venture between Canada's Vincor and French producer Groupe Taillan. Never heard of them? That would be understandable. Few ever see the light of a liquor store shelf.

Most sell out within months, if not days, of release, scooped up by eager collectors at the winery door and by high-end restaurants in Vancouver and Whistler.

"This valley is just flaming red hot at the moment," said John Simes, Mission Hill's winemaker, referring to the flurry of world-class wines and capital investments in the sun-drenched Okanagan, a 200-kilometre valley in the south-central region of the province.

New Zealand-born Mr. Simes has done as much to put British Columbia on the wine map as anyone.

His first chardonnay at Mission Hill in the early 1990s, a full-bodied, barrel-aged white, won the International Wine and Spirit Competition trophy for best chardonnay in the world, a first for Canada.

From his postcard-view perch near Kelowna, at the Okanagan's most spectacular winery - described by veteran wine-book author John Schreiner as Buckingham Palace for grapes - Mr. Simes went on to create Oculus, a merlot-dominated Bordeaux-style blend.

His boss, Mission Hill owner Anthony von Mandl, the magnate behind the wildly successful, flavoured vodka drink Mike's Hard Lemonade, spared little expense for his flagship wine.

Hundreds of $1,000 French-oak barrels stacked five high on special steel scaffold frames greet the visitor to one of Mr. Simes's vast aging cellars.

Nearby is a shiny metal maze of the latest in automated grape-sorting tables, stem-removing conveyors and computerized basket presses.

Proud as he is of the hardware, Mr. Simes - like most artisans who craft fine wine - prefers to stress the meticulous grooming of his vineyards, which are pruned and trimmed by hand to yield small but highly concentrated quantities of fruit, most of which is grown in south Okanagan between the town of Oliver and the Washington border.

"Oculus is a pruning-to-bottle program," he said.

Tasting through barrel samples of the 2006 wines destined for the Oculus blend is a crash course in the blender's art.

The cabernet sauvignon is a blast of cassis and espresso. The cabernet franc is remarkably sweet and creamy, while the merlot tastes of blackberry, nuts and toasted bread, and the inky-purple petit verdot of earth and spice.

After a few gargles of the young juice the mouth begins to parch from the aggressive tannins, astringent tea-like particles contained in grape skins and seeds.

If you've tasted strong, unsweetened orange pekoe or Earl Grey, you'll know the feeling.

Named for the small circular hole in the dome of Rome's ancient Pantheon, Oculus represents a puny fraction of Mission Hill's output - just 3,000 to 3,500 12-bottle cases, depending on the size of the crop, versus more than 200,000 cases in total.

In that sense, it's no different from other B.C. cult wines.

Aside from the high cost of intensive manual labour in the vineyards and winery, scarcity is the key to the increasingly jaw-dropping prices in the Okanagan, the province's biggest wine-growing region.

At Black Hills, a modernist, flat-roofed, grey block of a building between Oliver and Osoyoos, visitors last week were greeted with a heart-sinking sign on the road: "Sold Out."

Mercifully, there are always a few show bottles left of the winery's flagship $37 red, Nota Bene, for visiting journalists.

The superlative 2005 vintage is silky and brimming with ripe dark fruits and nuances of cigar tobacco, with an impressively long finish.

The 2006, bottled the day I visited last week, is a velvety wonder of cherries, chocolate, vanilla and - as winemaker Senka Tennant described its most intriguing nuance - "pencil shavings."

Another factor helping to fuel B.C. wine prices is what Vancouver-based veteran wine judge David Scholefield, a former senior buyer for the B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch, calls the enthusiastic "regional chauvinism" of B.C. wine drinkers - the envy of producers in Niagara, Canada's bigger wine-growing region.

"Many people in Toronto feel that Niagara wine isn't worthy of the same respect as the gilt-edged classics" of France and California, Mr. Scholefield said.

Mark Davidson, a Vancouver wine instructor with the International Sommelier Guild who regularly teaches in the United States, says one can gauge local support for the B.C. industry through the lens of top restaurants' wine lists.

While many high-end restaurants in Toronto shun Niagara wines, or may include only a few token bottles in their cellars, "every top table in Vancouver has B.C. wines."

Not that Niagara lacks its share of worthy new wines that are starting to push the price envelope, notably a $65 top-end pinot noir made by Le Clos Jordanne.

But when it comes to producing cult wines based on cabernet sauvignon and merlot in the styles of Bordeaux and Napa Valley, Niagara is at a distinct disadvantage.

Those late-ripening grapes demand warm weather and longer "hang times" in autumn to develop ripe flavours, a precarious proposition in cool Niagara.

Pick too early in fear of cold weather or frost, and the wine can become too herbal and high in acidity.

The B.C. cult-wine phenomenon is palpable as you make your way up and down the Okanagan in search of a precious bottle.

There was no shiraz left to sample at the squat ranch-style tasting room of La Frenz on the Naramata bench north of Penticton - no matter how hard one feigned thirst or shamelessly worked the charm with co-owner Niva Martin.

Her 600 cases had, alas, been spoken for (though I did spy several gleaming bottles pulled from a back room and discreetly tucked into a box for another visitor, presumably a member of the winery's exclusive mailing list).

Prospects improved down the road at Poplar Grove, where co-owner Ian Sutherland, one of the province's most respected winemakers and consultants, uncorked the 2004 vintage of his $50 Bordeaux-style blend, The Legacy.

(It probably helped that on this occasion I was visiting with Sinclair Philip, proprietor of Vancouver Island's famed hotel and restaurant Sooke Harbour House.)

To be released Oct. 1, the 2004 Legacy is a blend of mostly merlot with smaller quantities of cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon and malbec - a velvety blockbuster evocative of a top-class Pomerol or St.-Emilion from Bordeaux.

Unfortunately, there were just 800 cases made, several of which are on their way to the cellar at Sooke Harbour House.

*****

Tasting notes

Like most renowned wines, British Columbia's finest reds are made in minuscule quantities. The wineries below also make a range of other excellent offerings, both white and red.

Black Hills Estate Nota Bene 2005
$37 (sold out)
Silky and packed with flavours of black-skinned fruits, black olive, cigar tobacco and cedar, set against a layer of fine-grained tannins. Made from cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc.

Kettle Valley Old Main Red 2005
$35
Reminiscent of right-bank Bordeaux, lean but muscular, with nuances of earth and cedar. Made from merlot, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, malbec and petit verdot.

Laughing Stock Portfolio 2005
$37
Rich and velvety, showing hints of blackberry, vanilla and dark chocolate. Made mostly from merlot, with cabernet sauvignon and traces of cabernet franc, malbec and petit verdot.

Mission Hill Oculus 2004
$70
Big, chewy and spicy. Notes of cherry and toasty oak. Made mostly from merlot, with small quantities of cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc.

Poplar Grove The Legacy 2004
$50 (to be released Oct. 1)
Powerful and penetrating, with a silky texture and traces of earth, vanilla and spice, resolving with a firm backbone. Made mostly from merlot, plus cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon and malbec.

 - GLOBE & MAIL   2007 September 12  by Beppi Crosariol

Corks are popping in the Okanagan as the area's grape industry celebrates a boom in the bubbly -- and many other kinds of wine.

The number of B.C. hectares growing grapes has almost tripled between 1996 and 2001, says Statistics Canada.

In fact, the Interior's grape-growing industry is one of the few bright spots in the StatsCan 2001 census of agriculture.

The number of B.C. farms growing grapes jumped almost 24 per cent, from 440 in 1996 to 544 in 2001.

And the number of hectares growing grapes leapt from 977 in 1996 to 2,861 in 2001.

"It's a tremendous cause for celebration," said John Simes, chief winemaker of Mission Hill Winery in Westbank.

"We have got a vibrant, growing industry," says Simes.

"We are producing very good quality, very consistently."

Simes said that in the past few years, Mission Hill has planted about 300 hectares of vines, as well as using a number of contract vineyards.

Lanny Martiniuk, a director of the B.C. Independent Grapegrowers' Association, says that Mission Hill along with winery giant Vincor are largely responsible for the boom in grapevine planting.

As well, farmers are converting to grapes from other crops.

"That kind of expansion is always worrisome," said Martiniuk, who's been growing grapes for 18 years south of Oliver and was a founder of the B.C. Wine Institute.

"A lot of these plantings occurred in the past three to four years and many of those grapes are just coming into production."

He said there may be about 1,000 hectares which have been planted and are not producing yet.

"The challenge is to continue the marketing and promotion, so there's a home for those grapes," he added.

Stephen Cipes, owner of the Summerhill Estate Winery in Kelowna, says the Okanagan has unique growing conditions, with its low humidity and rainfall, combined with early morning and late evening sun.

"We produced small, highly flavourful grapes," he said.

Summerhill won the only gold medal in France for its Chardonnay du Monde sparkling wine in March 2000.

"B.C.-made wines are better than anywhere in the world," said Cipes, who grows 26 hectares of vines and buys grapes from 20 growers.

Overall, the number of farms in B.C. fell 7.1 per cent, from 21,835 in 1996, to 20,290 in 2001.

However, the average size of those farms increased by 10 per cent, meaning total area farmed grew by 2.3 per cent.   - by Damian Inwood     The Province    16 May 2002

Wine Library in British Columbia

 You can't borrow anything from the newest library at the University of British Columbia. But if you have some fine wine you'd like to lend, you can check it in.

Nine months ago, the Wine Library was an old storage room in the basement of the Nutritional Sciences Building.

Now hidden behind a solid oak door and protected by an elaborate security system, the space houses the B.C. Chapter of the Canadian Wine Library. This is a temperature-controlled facility where up to 20,000 B.C. wines will be kept.

There is also a tasting room built with a donation from the Mission Hill Family Estate Winery in the Okanagan Valley.

The facility is the second in Canada. The first is at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont.

But it will be the first in the world to conduct wine research on a large scale, in collaboration with universities in other well-established wine growing regions.        - Times Colonist (Victoria)   20 July 2003

Mission Hills

KELOWNA, B.C. - Anthony von Mandl set out six years ago to rebuild his Mission Hill Family Estate winery, convinced the world would start taking British Columbia wines seriously.

He looked carefully at what his mentor Robert Mondavi did in launching his acclaimed 1966 winery at a time when California wines were not recognized for quality.

Mr. Mondavi not only applied quality winemaking techniques but also built the Napa Valley's first modern showpiece winery.

"When I studied carefully what Bob did in 1966, it was clear to me that a landmark showpiece winery was absolutely essential to the Okanagan," Mr. von Mandl says.

The new Mission Hill winery, which officially opened on Saturday, soaked up $40-million and is an architectural tour de force without rival among Canadian wineries. It also is a powerful marketing tool. Mr. von Mandl reports the 160,000 visitors expected this season are not just buying more wine after taking sold-out tours, but also are buying more expensive wines.

"It is pretty spectacular," Nancy Cameron, manager of Tourism Kelowna, said. "Mission Hill has developed a very distinctive experience that appeals to the high-yield tourist."

The winery should give the Okanagan a leg up on the Niagara region in competing for international prestige, although the lead could narrow in three years when Vincor International Ltd. opens its recently announced Le Clos Jordan in Ontario, flamboyantly designed by California-based architect Frank Gehry. It is intended to bring what Vincor calls "global attention to the Niagara Peninsula."

Le Clos Jordan's modern expressionistic building echoes Mr. Gehry's contentious Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

For Mission Hill, Seattle architect Tom Kundig fashioned a more traditional winery with extravagant features ranging from landscaping with mature trees to a reception hall dominated by a $600,000 Marc Chagall tapestry. The 12-storey bell tower (with four bronze bells cast in France) and the expansive courtyard flanked by an amphitheatre create the ambiance of a Tuscan hill town. The cellars, blasted from the volcanic rock of the mountain top, have room for 6,500 barrels. One candle-lit cellar included on the standard wine tour suggests a coolly dark European cathedral.

Mr. von Mandl set out with a far-less-theatrical design in mind for rebuilding the hilltop winery, built in 1966 and owned by Mr. von Mandl since 1981. "It's way beyond a dream come true," he said. "I would never have imagined there could be a way to finance a winery like this in the Okanagan."

The financing has come largely from the huge success of Mike's Hard Lemonade, a flavoured vodka-based beverage launched in 1996 by The Mark Anthony Group Inc., the private holding company through which Mr. von Mandl runs his wine and alcoholic beverages empire. While Mission Hill is a profitable winery, making more than 100,000 cases a year, it is believed the major share of Mark Anthony's annual revenue -- estimated to exceed $300-million a year -- comes from sales of Mike's.

The river of cash supported Mr. von Mandl's perfectionism. Many of the winery's design elements, including furniture, were modelled full scale in plywood. Mr. Kundig drew 70 designs of the bell tower before he and the winery owner were satisfied.

"There is no doubt that Mike's was extremely helpful in allowing Mission Hill to go out and invest as we did," Mr. von Mandl says. In addition to rebuilding the winery, Mission Hill since 1994 has acquired nearly 1,000 acres of vineyards, or about 20% of all the vineyards in the Okanagan.

"Mission Hill is a family business unto its own now," he says. "It has the size and economics to grow and prosper on its own."

Born in Vancouver to Czech immigrants, Mr. von Mandl, 52, set up as a wine merchant 30 years ago in Vancouver.

When he bought Mission Hill in 1981, the rundown winery not far from Kelowna had been through two receiverships and had little going for it but its hilltop location with spectacular views across Okanagan Lake. Its sales improved under its new owners but the real turnaround began in 1992 when John Simes, then the chief winemaker at New Zealand's largest winery, was hired by Mission Hill.

That fall, he made a Chardonnay that won a major award two years later in Britain.

The publicity and the immediate jump in sales prompted Mr. von Mandl to buy vineyards and exercise more control over the quality of the grapes he was giving Mr. Simes to work with. With the subsequent success of Mike's, a concept beverage he spotted in Australia, the intensely ambitious Mr. von Mandl now wants Mission Hill to become "one of the 10 top wineries in the world."

He believes he is on the way. Recently, his hosts at a private dinner surprised him by serving two red wines, identifying them only after they had been tasted. One was a 1998 Mission Hill Merlot, which sells for about $25. The other was a 1995 Château Pétrus, which sells for more than US$1,000.

Mr. von Mandl says he was proud of the results when the wines were identified.

"I loved the Pétrus, don't get me wrong," he says. "The Pétrus is an extraordinary wine. But the consensus was in a blind tasting that we were not so certain that people would necessarily select the Pétrus. To show so well is tremendously rewarding."    - by John Schreiner        National Post        16 September 2002

WINE TIPS

The following are some tips on wine that we have received.   We do not verify the accuracy of the comments but happy to share with you on a selected basis.

From: Kenneth Hui 
Re:    Hommage Jacques Perrin

A luxury cuvee which is produced only in exceptional vintages and with a mere production of no more than 300 cases, the 1995 Beacastel Jacques Perrin reveals a compelling bouquet of exotic aromas.

From:  Thomas Wong (a certified Somalier who is our good friend - currently in Shanghai)
Re:      Mined Treasure - Bordeaux 2000 Chateau La Prade - Appellation Bordeaux Cotes 
           De France Controlee

Dear Bordeaux 2000 Lover,

If you unable or unwilling to get those triple priced 2000 Merlot, this is a good one, see if you still able to find them.

This wine is make by the Owner Nicolas Thienpont right after he acquired the vinyard in 2000.

The wine is dark in core and lighter the rim; Intense nose of Vanilla, dark chocolate, barrel of my uncertainty, if it's mixed both American and French, Smokey (a good variety to match Chinese dishes with smoke favour), burned wood, dark berries and jammy, Tannic but delicious, loads of fruits, medium - full body, dry on the palate but with very subtle feel of ripe dark berries, very good length.

I was lucky that I bouught one case, hope I can hold on before Christmas arrive.

Here some information about the appellation and the vineyard.

Côtes de Castillon & Francs
East of Saint-Emilion and its satellites, above the town of Castillon near the border between the Gironde département and that of the Dordogne, lie the Côtes de Castillon and the Côtes de Francs. Both these regions were formerly Bordeaux Supérieur. In 1989 - having been plain Bordeaux Supérieur until 1955 - what was then Bordeaux Supérieur, Côtes de Castillon, was upgraded to Côtes de Castillon Contrôlée. There are nine communes; to the north, three further communes were given their own special Appellation Contrôlée Bordeaux, Côtes de Francs in 1967. Here, white wine as well as red is permitted. Côtes de Castillon is an appellation for red wines only. In both areas, the dominant grape variety is merlot.

This is an attractive part of Bordeaux. The landscape can be steeply undulating, rising to 100 meters above sea level, dividing the countryside into woodland, pasture and vineyards. The latter are usually sheltered sites facing southward over the Dordogne valley, protected from the north.  Few of the estates can boast large vineyards, though areas under vine are normally more ample than those across the border in n Saint-Emilion. The all-important cooperative at Gardegan accounts for the wine of some 150 of the smaller proprietors and is responsible for one-fifth of the total production. There is a second, even smaller co-op in the Côtes de Francs.

The soil structure is similar to that farther west in Saint-Emilion. Down by the river, there is rich, alluvial matter. In the valleys, clay mixes with sand. Better soils contain gravel as well, while on the top of the slopes one will find clay-limestone soils and marl.

Both areas have expanded in recent years. Castillon has risen from around 2,450 hectares to 3,250 since 1982. At the same time, the Francs has grown from 300 hectares to 500 hectares today. In the meanwhile, both the communes of Monbadon and Les Salles de Castillon have mysteriously been promoted from Francs to Castillon. I have allowed for this in these comparisons.

At the same time, there has been an injection not just of the equipment and controls necessary to produce better wine, but the willingness to improve standards. As elsewhere, this has come about by means of a younger family member taking charge and the arrival of outside investors. One of the first among the latter group was the Thienpont family, owners of Vieux Château Certan in Pomerol. Georges Thienpont, one of the sons of the original Georges, who bought Certan in 1924, settled in the Côtes de Francs as a cattle farmer. He and his son Nicolas began planting vines at Château Puygueraud in 1979, expanding later into other estates. Château Puygueraud remains one of the top wines of the appellation. Elsewhere, Patrick Valette, son of Jean-Paul, late of Saint-Emilion's Château Pavie, bought Château La Prade, Hubert de Boüard (Angélus) and Dominique Hébrard (Cheval Blanc) renovated Château de Francs and Jean-Marie Chardonnier, a Bordeaux négociant, purchased Château Marsau. These are all in the Côtes de Francs.

More recently, in the Côtes de Castillon, Stephan de Niepperg has acquired Château d'Aiguilhe. His oenologue consultant, Stéphane Derenoncourt, has founded his Domaine de L'A. And even British wine merchant Tony Laithwaite makes wine at Château la Clairière. Some have taken hold the old-fashioned way, like the late French film producer Peby Guisez and his wife, Corinne, who inherited Château Cap de Faugères from cousins of the family in 1987, and Arnaud de Labarre, son of Madame Claude, late co-director, on behalf of her family at Château Cheval Blanc, who is installed at Château La Croix Lartigue.

Both the Francs and the Castillon are happy hunting grounds for those looking for well-made minor Bordeaux. There are lots of good wines in both 1998 and 2000 and some more-than-satisfactory examples from 1999. They come forward after some four to seven years, depending on the vintage. Many châteaux produce a basic, non-wood-aged cuvée, and then one or two superior, increasingly oaky versions. These, if not too excessively priced, are usually well worth the extra premium.

Château La Prade: The 4.5-hectare Château La Prade used to belong to Patrick Valette, son of the late Jean-Paul of Saint-Emilion's Château Pavie. He made one of the best Côtes de Francs during the 1980s, but then sold out to Nicolas Thienpont in 2000. Under the latter's able management, high quality continues. There is both more substance and more depth than in the majority of the neighboring wines.

Château Puygueraud: The 32-hectare Château Puygueraud was the late Georges Thienpont's original Côtes de Francs base. He arrived here in 1946. For 30 years, he reared cattle and occupied himself with other farming activities on the site. It was not until the late 1970s that he started planting vines.

His first vintage, the 1983, the year his son Nicolas joined him, was an instant success, which almost single-handedly put the appellation on the map, encouraging others to invest in the locality.  Château Puygueraud remains the Côtes de Francs' best red wine: full, rich, classy and succulent.

Georges Thienpont died in 1997. In his memory, a super cuvée called "Georges" was launched in 2000. It contains more cabernet than the basic château wine, and plenty of malbec, an assemblage of which Georges Thienpont would have approved.

The Ultimate Wine Fridge

Captain Kirk, your champagne fridge is ready.

Star Trek may have preceded the wine boom, but had there been need for an interstellar cellar on the Starship Enterprise, it might have looked a bit like Veuve Clicquot's Vertical Limit.

Part time capsule, part art object, the gleaming, brushed-metal vault may be the ultimate wine-geek trophy. It even comes factory loaded with all the wine you will need to get the ultimate New Year's party started: 12 super-rare magnums of vintage Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin champagne dating as far back as 1955.

And it could be yours - for a hefty donation to a Canadian medical-research charity.

The two-metre-high unit, unique in Canada and one of just 15 in the world, is being auctioned online this week to benefit the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine, a Toronto-based institution affiliated with the University Health Network that funds cutting-edge research into life-threatening conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and spinal cord injury.

Current bid (at press time): a cool $80,000 (U.S.), which is still well below the record paid for an identical unit at a charity auction in Hong Kong recently: €120,000, or about $185,000 (Canadian).

The Canadian auction, at Veuveclicquotverticallimit.org, closes Sunday at 4 p.m. EST.

Created by Porsche Design Studio, the graphics firm founded by Ferdinand Porsche of sports car fame, it features a dozen vertically interlocking doors, each shaped like a horizontal bottle. Behind them lie perfectly refrigerated 1.5-litre bottles from the best harvests, including the acclaimed 1959 (served at a meeting between Charles de Gaulle and former British prime minister Harold Wilson) and the superb 1969 rosé.

The interior, bathed in the egg-yolk hue of the champagne house's famous label, is kept at a constant 12 C, the brisk ambience of Veuve's underground caves and the optimum for aging champagne. (Sorry - not cold enough for mayo or beer. But once a bottle's consumed, the vacant slot can accommodate just about any other magnum-sized bottle.)

Old champagne may seem a curiosity to people accustomed to buying New Year's bubbly on Dec. 31. But many of the best French cuvées, specifically vintage-dated bottles containing wine from only the best harvests, as opposed to wine blended from several years, are designed to age like top-class reds. Over time, they develop seductive secondary nuances, such as hazelnut, honey and sherry-like notes, making them some of the most coveted wines on Earth.

Veuve, a unit of French luxury house LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, commissioned the 15 fridges to generate buzz for its portfolio of cellar-worthy vintage-dated champagnes, which are less well-known than its ubiquitous, non-vintage Yellow Label brand.

Though most of the fridges are slated to be sold privately (two allocated to the United States were snapped up for $70,000 each), Veuve decided there could be ample publicity spinoff if it donated a few units to the right charities. Enter the McEwen Centre, which the bubbly benefactor had been supporting for years with donations to various fundraising events.

"They came to us with it," said Cheryl McEwen, who, with husband Rob McEwen, was a founding donor of the centre in 2003. "It's a perfect marriage, if you will. It's progressive, it's very modern. And regenerative medicine is very progressive, very modern."

The Canadian auction is open to domestic as well as international bidders, with worldwide shipping included. A formal presentation will be made to the victor at a reception in Toronto on June 10 hosted by Veuve's worldwide president, Cécile Bonnefond. Yes, there will be champagne.    - 2008 June 2    GLOBE & MAIL

CHINA

Foreign Grape Wines to Enter China Massively

CHINA, Mar 18, 2002  -- France gets ready to hold "Asia-Pacific Region Grape Wine & Tipple International Exhibition" in Japan's Tokyo in June 2002 by utilizing "2002 Korea & Japan World Cup". However France holds the press conference of the exhibition in Beijing now.

According to survey, the increase rate of grape wine consumption of China, Korea, Japan, Singapore and China's Taiwan is far higher than other regions in the world. The output of grape wine of China, Korea and Japan has increased 52.8% in the past 6 years.

The supervisor Duveby for SOPEXA Greater China says, "The tariff concession of China is very important to France's grape wine." "With the increase of white-collar personnel in China, the cheaper grape wine of France will attract more and more consumers," added Duveby.

It's reported that the press conference of the exhibition will also be held in Hong Kong, Taipei, Tokyo and Seoul.

According to the survey made by SOPEXA, the planting area of China's grape develops rapidly. It keeps increasing by 40%. The trend will go on within 5 years. The output of China's grape wine reaches 4 million hektoliters. It has realized increasing by 30% in the past 5 years. According to forecast, it will keep increasing by 15% within 5 years.

With China's entry into WTO, importing quota will be cancelled and tariff will drop to less than 10%. It brings equal competitive opportunities to foreign grape wines. The import of foreign grape wines will increase massively.  - Northern Light

Asia develops a taste for fine wines

On a side street in the Kangnam-gu business district of Seoul sits Podo Plaza, a three-story cubic structure devoted to wine - not rice wine, as one might expect, but the grapey variety from Bordeaux and Burgundy, Tuscany and the Napa Valley. Its retail space contains 3,000 labels, some of which are served in its downstairs wine bar; an upstairs space is devoted to wine and culinary education.

The existence in the South Korean capital of this monument to wine - created and financed by Hi Sang Lee, the chairman of the Korean Flour Mills Industrial Association - speaks volumes about the degree to which Asian collectors like Lee are investing in a passion that was relatively unknown to them a decade or two ago.

Fine wine, an asset once narrowly pursued by wealthy oenophiles in Europe and North America, is being appreciated - in all senses of the word - by a flood of new collectors from Asia, Russia and Eastern Europe. Armed with lists of critically rated wines, the newly wealthy are competing for the blue-chip products - first-growth Bordeaux and grand cru Burgundy.

Listen to Clive Coates, a wine writer and officially designated master of wine who lives in the Bordeaux region of France: "Fifty years ago, only the upper-class Brits bought fine wine. Now there are more and more rich people from all over the world coming out of the woodwork and competing for that wine."

Sotheby's, the auction house based in London, held its first U.S. wine sale of the autumn season last weekend. The event, which generated a whopping $2.4 million, exceeded Sotheby's expectations, with 60 percent of the lots selling above their high estimates.

Asian private collectors locked up 7 of the top 10 lots, including collections of Château Mouton Rothschild 1961 (eight bottles at $20,315), Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Assortment 1990 (12 bottles at $38,837) and La Tâche 1985 (nine bottles at $29,875). A European collector took the top lot, plunking down $161,325 for 12 bottles of Château Mouton Rothschild 1945.

During the same weekend as the Sotheby's event, the mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, auctioned nearly 5,000 bottles of top-rated wines collected by his predecessor, Jacques Chirac. The event raised more than $1.25 million and attracted collectors from around the world. Among them was Stephen Williams, managing director of Antique Wine in London. Williams, representing a corporate client, bowed out of a bidding war with a private collector from Beijing over a few bottles of 1989 Château Petrus; the Chinese bidder, Williams said, "clearly wanted them," even at €4,000, or $5,000, each.

Williams said that in the past two years his corporate clientele had grown threefold, largely on the ascent of big-spending hotel owners from Russia, China and Macao. Williams claims to have sold more wine this year to the Chinese region of Macao, a major Asian gambling hub, than to any single country."Wine is important relative to gaming, in that these hotels like their top clients to feel comfortable," Williams said. "If you are going to sit around a table with a couple of million dollars, you can drink as much Château Petrus as you want."

But there's only so much Petrus and Margaux produced in a year - and therein lies a conundrum, for producers and enthusiasts alike. "Château Margaux makes 40,000 cases per year and sells out every year," Williams said. "When a new market like China emerges, even with only 1 percent of its consumers buying wine, that can have a profound effect." Williams said Bordeaux merchants had begun reducing their allocations of top wines to traditional importers in the mature markets, part of the long-term aim to ensure wide distribution of their wines to emerging markets.

Serena Sutcliffe, director of international wine sales at Sotheby's and a master of wine as well, confirmed seeing "tremendous demand for the absolute top fine wines" coming from markets that "didn't exist a decade ago." As a result, Sutcliffe said, "there is actually a shortage of the world's very finest wines."

The good news is that collectors who already own a decent store of solid Bordeaux vintages have the potential for some real profit in the years ahead should they opt to resell some of that inventory. The bad news is that anyone looking to take a new position in first-growth Bordeaux or premium grand cru Burgundy - like Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, a current star on the auction circuit - is going to pay top prices.

For instance, anyone looking to get in on the futures market for the 2005 Bordeaux will do so at an unprecedented premium. As the American wine writer James Laube noted in a recent column for The Wine Spectator, an industry magazine, the 2005 first-growth Bordeaux future market has been "scary" during the past year. Futures of Château Ausone and Le Pin, which in Laube's view are still "babies resting in barrels," are selling for $1,000 or more a bottle.

At those prices, Laube wrote, collectors and investors looking for a deal might be better off focusing on more mature vintages of top-tier Bordeaux. Laube may be right: according to the 22nd edition of VinFolio's Wine Price File, collectors were able to pick up a standard 750-milliliter bottle of 2000 Château Margaux for an average of $590 during the first half of this year.

While stellar Bordeaux vintages like 1996 and 2000 can be had for as much as half off the prices of their 2005 counterparts, they are hardly a steal. As Sutcliffe explained, the high pricing for the 2005 Bordeaux campaign is making previous Bordeaux vintages like 1996 and 2000 that much more expensive.

Antique Wine has experienced this phenomenon at first hand. A year ago, the company traded Chateau Petrus 1982 at £14,000, or $26,000, a case. Now, the same case is fetching £22,000. Chateau Petrus 1989 and 1990 were both around £10,000 a case, and now they're £18,000. That works out to 50 percent to 70 percent growth in value in a single year. For the wine collector or investor looking to unload some of his or her stores of Bordeaux, this is probably as good a time as any to take a profit.

Yet whereas in the past collectors could count on some of that prized inventory coming back into the secondary marketplace, this may not be the case in the future. "The phenomenon in Asia is that wine won't come back onto market," Williams said. "It will be consumed, which also means that prices will probably remain high."

For the die-hard wine investor looking to protect a portfolio, there aren't many options but to face facts and buy the top bottles, since they have the most proven track records and are produced in enough capacity to have a broad following. Neither Coates nor Sutcliffe, both of whom have tracked the industry for over 30 years, sees any correction in the offing.

That's not to say the market might not be about to reach a plateau. There could be periods when it will be static. Every time a new group of customers enters the market, Williams said, prices go up; this was the case with the Americans in the 1970s and the Japanese in the 1980s.

And there's no telling what will happen, he added, if and when the brand- conscious Chinese become "serious" wine consumers. A March 2006 report from the California Association of Winegrowers estimated that in 1989, China imported almost no wine from the United States. In 2005, U.S. wine exports to China totaled 2.3 million liters, or 608,000 gallons, at a value of $5.9 million.

But while the topmost portion of the market may seem out of reach, just below are some incredibly good values. Sutcliffe forecasts that 1998 Bordeaux will "have a real future" in the secondary market even though it is "currently stagnant." Likewise, she says, the 2001 Bordeaux and 2001 Burgundy represent strong buys, "if you can find them."

Williams is particularly bullish on Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, DeVogue, the 1978, 1986, 1990 and 1995 vintages of top Burgundies and Australia's Penfold Grange.

Coates also singled out a grand cru Burgundy, Domaine de Chevalier, as an underrated wine that he said cost a third of what Château Lynch-Bages currently commands yet drinks exceptionally well and has good cellar potential.

Premium wines from California, Italy and Spain also offer not only excellent values but some upside potential as well. The Wine Spectator, in its Nov. 15 issue, offers a list of the most actively traded Napa Valley cabernets sold at U.S. auction. The criterion for inclusion is that at least 1,000 bottles of any vintage were sold at auction in the past two years. The most dramatic performer at auction was Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon, a cult classic that has risen, on average, 871 percent in value since it was first released.

Though Williams called Screaming Eagle a "phenomenal value" for collectors, he does not recommend it for the investor, since it simply is not produced in enough quantity to guarantee that it will have longevity in the marketplace. Only 500 cases of Screaming Eagle are produced a year.

That said, at the Paris auction, Williams himself paid a record-breaking £5,000 apiece for two bottles of 1986 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, a wine even more narrowly produced than Screaming Eagle, at 450 cases.

"Not sure where or how we will sell it," Williams said of his pricey purchase, "but due to the excellent provenance, coupled with the interesting history behind these bottles, I am sure they will find new homes."

Probably in Asia.    
 - By Holly Hubbard Preston    INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE     27 Oct 2006

China's rich develop a taste for red wine
Demand is soaring in big cities as well as provinces

Champagne has yet to tickle the tastebuds of many Chinese but red wine has become a favourite on restaurant tables for the country's wealthy elite and demand is soaring.

An explosion in local production, with sales multiplying five-fold in 10 years, and big growth in imports are lining the pockets of vineyard owners and distributors of foreign brands.

While individual consumption of wine is still just 0.2 litres per annum, compared to a world average of seven litres, the size of China's population has lifted the country into the top 20 consumers of Cabernet, Merlot and Gamay.

China's new yuppies have no qualms about asking for a quality wine in a restaurant, even to accompany Chinese cuisine, nor to buy a decent imported bottle for special occasions.

The traditional Chinese greeting of 'Hello, you ate?' could soon be joined by 'You have drunk well?'

'The Chinese are earning more and more money and can increasingly treat themselves to wine, like the foreigners,' said Of Yunling, marketing director for Dynasty, one of China's top three wine producers.

Nan Jianjun, an adviser to the chairman of wine producer Great Wall, said health, not just wealth, has helped Chinese wine consumption rocket.

'More and more Chinese think that red wine is good for their health, so they drink more and more of it.'

Whether for pleasure, curiosity or to maintain their arteries, bottles are flying off shelves to the glee of distributors.

'The Chinese market is only the size of Taiwan or South Korea, but the prospects are enormous,' said Don St Pierre, president of ASC, one of the two largest importers and wine distributors in China.

'In certain luxury hotels in Shanghai, for example, 70 per cent of the consumers of good, rather expensive bottles are Chinese,' said Mr St Pierre, whose company posted a 45 per cent rise in sales in the last 12 months.

Ethan Perk, China sales and marketing director at Montrose, the nation's other large foreign wine distribution company, shares Mr St Pierre's optimism.

'It is certainly not an easy market but it is legitimate to believe in it. In 20 years, it will be an immense market,' he said.

'In one of our shops in Beijing, half of our customers are already Chinese,' added Mr Perk, who estimates the number of current Chinese quaffers to exceed 100 million.

'Not so long ago, we ran 80 per cent of our wines in the large hotels. Today 65 per cent go to Chinese restaurants,' he said.

The phenomenon is not limited to Beijing and Shanghai, where purchasing power is high. Wine consumption has also taken hold in the provinces, according to local producers, who said passion for the tipple was on the rise in the average city - AFP   30 December 2002  Singapore Straits Time

Asia's nouveau riche switch from cognac to 'exotic' wines to cognac

Red wine has replaced cognac as the beverage of choice among Asian power-brokers, but North Korea's leader lags behind the times.

While most business leaders in Asia have reportedly switched to healthier red wine in recent years, Kim Jong Il still prefers to sip fine cognac -- almost $1 million worth of it a year.

In fact, Hennessy, the Paris-based distiller, lists him as among its biggest customers.

Ruling over an impoverished Communist nation where the average worker earns the equivalent of about $1,500 Cdn a year, CNN reports that Kim -- who is currently under world pressure to abandon his country's nuclear-weapons program -- spends about $780,000 to $940,000 annually on Hennessy's premium brands.

In North Korea, a bottle of premium cognac sells for about $940, more than seven months' salary for an average worker in the country of 22 million people.

Kim seems content to stick to his cognac even though most other Asian high-rollers have embarked on an expensive red wine kick, according to Vancouver entrepreneurs who travel frequently to Hong Kong, China and Taiwan.

"Eighty to 90 per cent of business people in Taiwan are now drinking red wine," said Richard Lin, chairman of Dynamotive Energy Systems Corp.

"It's common for a table of 10 [diners] to consume 10 to 15 bottles of high-end wine in the $500 to $1,000 Cdn a bottle range. They don't want any cheap stuff -- nothing under $200 a bottle."

Added Golden Properties' president Geoffrey Lau: "Cognac is not popular anymore since people discovered hard liquor is not good for your health. Most of them have changed to white or red wine, particularly red."

Scott Shaw said while Hennessy XO cognac remains popular as a gift or among the older generation in Asia, the nouveau riche prefer "exotic" imported wines from France, Italy and the U.S.

Said Bob Lee, a prominent businessman in Vancouver: "Every time I go to a party in Hong Kong, people are drinking wine. In China, some older people may still drink brandy."

Thomas Fung, chairman of Fairchild Group, said many upscale restaurants in Asia now provide private wine storage facilities for their best customers.

"Some people can't even pronounce the name of the wine they're drinking," Fung said.   - Wyng Chow    Vancouver Sun    9 January 2003

Drinks for six cost $100,000, and five jobs Bankers 'didn't bat an eyelid when they got the bill'

HOW TO RACK UP A BILL OF $100,000:

The tab for six investment bankers at Petrus in London

1947 Chateau Petrus  Quantity: 1 Price: $28,000
1945 Chateau Petrus Quantity: 1 Price: $26,500
1946 Chateau Petrus Quantity: 1 Price: $21,500
Chateau d'Yquem dessert wine  Quantity: 1 Price: $21,000
1984 Montrachet Quantity: 1 Price:   $3,200
Glasses of Champagne Quantity: 6  Price:     $128
Bottles of water   Quantity: 10 Price:       $80
Bottles of Kronenbourg Quantity: 2  Price:       $16
Pack of cigarettes  Quantity: 1 Price:  $11.25
Glass of juice   Quantity: 1 Price:    $6.40

Source: The New York Times

Barclays Capital, the venerable British bank led by former Bank of Montreal boss Matthew Barrett, has fired five of six employees involved in a drinking extravaganza worthy of a citation in the Guinness Book of World Records. The five employees were caught trying to disguise their expensive night out as an ordinary business expense.

Dining at the renowned Petrus restaurant in London last summer, the group spent more than $100,000 on just five bottles of wine: a 1947 Chateau Petrus, a 1945 Petrus, a 1946 Petrus, a 100-year-old Chateau d'Yquem and a 1984 Montrachet. Added to the bill were two bottles of Kronenbourg beer, a packet of cigarettes and other small items.

The tab averaged more than $16,660 a head, smashing the previous Guinness record of $9,940 per person charged at London's Le Gavroche restaurant in 1997. It could have been worse: Petrus's owner, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, graciously waived his guest's food charges, which came to another $680.

   Owner Chef Gordon Ramsay       New York Times photo

He needn't have bothered. "They didn't bat an eyelid when they got the bill," Mr. Ramsay noted at the time.

But Barclays noticed.

After news of the outrageous expenditure hit the British press, the bank gave its six oenophiles a stiff reprimand.

Last Sunday, it was revealed that five of the employees had later tried to pass off their share of the bill as a business expense, leaving Barclays to foot most of the tab.

The five expense form offenders have been sacked. The one survivor, Iftikhar Hyder, is a Muslim and claims not to have touched any of the wine. "I've never drunk alcohol," he told the Mirror, a London tabloid. "I was only helping out with the bill and will be reimbursed. This has caused me enormous damage."

For Barclays, it is the latest in a string of public relations disasters. The bank has developed a reputation for greed and avarice. One of Mr. Barrett's most recent predecessors was branded "a libidinous drunk who could barely string a sentence together after lunch."

Since leaving Canada and taking the reins at Barclays two years ago, Mr. Barrett has managed to boost the bank's profits and goose its share price. He has been handsomely -- and many would say lavishly -- rewarded for his efforts. Mr. Barrett has been paid tens of millions of dollars while closing hundreds of Barclays branches, leaving dozens of British communities without a local bank outlet. The aggressive cost-cutting has earned him the nickname "Matt the Rat."

But he is not the only bank chief to draw eye-popping compensation while demanding that his employees cut their out-of-office expenses. Last year, for example, the investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston told staff to reduce the cost of entertaining clients. "Given current market conditions," read an internal memo, "try to keep dinners below US$10,000, particularly when no travel is involved."

A US$9,999 dinner hardly sounds penurious, but it is peanuts compared to the money some high flyers have spent in the past.

  Jonathan Player, The New York Times

Consider the Flaming Ferraris, a firebrand gang of Credit Suisse equity arbitrage traders who burst upon the London scene four years ago. They were young, cocksure and rich. One of them, James Archer, was the son of millionaire novelist Jeffrey Archer. Another, Adrian Ezra, was a former Indian squash champion.

Their name was inspired by a cocktail they favoured, a combustible concoction of rum and blue curaao. The Flaming Ferraris spent prodigious amounts of money drinking the cocktails and entertaining clients and friends in some of London's swankiest restaurants and nightclubs.

They delighted in dressing up for paparazzi as film characters and posing in front of exclusive establishments such as Nobu, a Japanese eatery in London's Park Lane. "They work hard and play hard," one of their friends told the Daily Mail in early 1999. "In return for that, they get very well paid. Credit Suisse must be delighted with them."

Well, no. Credit Suisse was embarrassed after the Flaming Ferraris began holding pyjama parties and food fights, and bragging in public about the size of their annual bonuses.

The party ended in 1999. Mr. Archer and two of his mates were suspended from Credit Suisse amid allegations they had attempted to manipulate the Swedish stock market. They were subsequently fired and banned from trading securities.

Stories of runaway expense spending at Canadian investment firms are not unknown, but they seldom see print. "It's not like the wine doesn't flow, but we aren't ostentatious," says one Toronto-based securities analyst, with Scotia Capital Inc.

Not so on Wall Street. Last year, a pair of free-spending traders stunned a lunchtime crowd in Manhattan's Nello restaurant, tipping back a number of cocktails and then ordering two bottles of fine wine, a 1995 Chateau Margaux and a 1988 Chateau Lafite Rothschild. According to their waiter, Louis Pinheiro, they were celebrating the successful conclusion of a large business transaction.

"They were very happy," he recalled. "They were willing to share this happiness with everybody."

After piling up a US$8,843 bill, the diners tipped Mr. Pinheiro US$16,000. On purpose.

Mr. Pinheiro handed part of his windfall to some colleagues and invested the rest in the stock market.  -  by Brian Hutchinson    National Post     27 February 2002

Five British Bankers Lose Their Jobs Over Hefty Wine Tab

In a story that has captured the interest of the major news services, five investment bankers from Barclays Capital in the United Kingdom have been fired for lavishing £44,000 -- about $62,700 -- last July on a celebratory meal at Pétrus, the trendy London restaurant backed by superstar chef Gordon Ramsay. It was not the food (which the restaurant ultimately comped), but rather the Château Pétrus-intensive wine bill that provoked their employer's ire. In fact, the not-so-savvy revelers grossly overpaid for their prestige bottlings.

Among other beverages, the Barclays five (a sixth, a junior executive, was spared the sack) quaffed down three exceedingly rare and costly bottles of Château Pétrus from the 1945, '46 and '47 vintages. They commenced their meal with an unspecified Montrachet 1982 or 1984 and capped it off with a "100-year-old bottle" of Château d'Yquem, presumably a 1900 or 1901.

Problem was, they spent way more than the wines are currently worth. According to the average prices listed in Wine Spectator's fourth-quarter 2001 Auction Index, the '47 Pétrus, for which the restaurant charged $17,500 could have been picked up at auction for $2,415. The '45, which cost $16,500, recently fetched just $4,600, and the '46, for which the restaurant levied $13,400, currently commands $3,150 on the block.

Had the Yquem been a 1900, it is worth about $1,750 instead of the restaurant's price of $13,100. If instead it was a 1901, its current hammer-price is $1,125. As for the Montrachet, which cost them $2,000, it could be worth somewhere around $750, depending on the producer and vintage.

In total, the markup on the five dinner wines exceeded 500 percent -- an outrageous sum even by luxury restaurant standards -- and one that should have caught the eyes of the Barclays number crunchers.

Given the $50,000 disparity between the wines' auction value and their final cost in the restaurant, the ex-bankers would have been wiser to engage Gordon Ramsay himself (instead of Pétrus' executive chef) to prepare a private meal with the identical wines (savvily procured at auction) far away from the prying eyes of the London business press.   -  by Peter D. Meltzer   WINE SPECTATOR   February 26 2002

 


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