Tasting at Pavillon Dauphine in Paris
Posted On October 23, 2009 at 1:08 pm in Paris Tastings
The Salon des Professionals du Vin at Pavillion Dauphine was held this past monday in Paris. It was a manageable sized tasting of 30-40 producers from every major winemaking region. The event is held principally to attract wine shop owners and restauranteurs in Paris area but there were also others like me looking for interesting new wines to bring into the US and other export markets.
Pavillon Dauphine near the Bois de Bologne in Paris
I ran into a colleague there who has imported wines into the US for 30 years and he explained that he has recently started exporting French wines to China. He spoke about the difficulty of with getting deals done with his counterparts which would be all but impossible without the help of his Chinese girlfriend. Hong Kong is fast becoming a center of fine wine auctions since it eliminated all duties and taxes on wine. Most of what he’s selling is the very cheap stuff to mainland China.
Big wine brands far and wide salivate about establishing a foothold in the worlds largest consumer market where wine consumption have grown 61% since 2003. Tastes lean toward red wines and wine drinking is seen as a sign of wealth on prosperity. France so far has done quite well accounting for 40% wine imports. A Bordeaux producer I recently spoke with was just signing a long-term contract to supply 30% of his production to a Chinese company. A friend of mine also knows a French wine agent based in China who has sold dozens of forty foot containers of inexpensive wine in China. Besides the fine wine collectors based in Hong Kong much of the current opportunity in China seems to be for the mass produced plonk.
It will be interesting to see how the market develops over time. Will it be dominated by big brands? Will Chinese consumers’ tastes evolve away from mass produced cheap wine? Will more independent importers and distributors of small production wines find a way to become established there?
Some Highlights from the tasting:
Le Domaine des Masques, Cuvée Essentiele, 2007, VdP Bouches du Rhone
Interesting blend of Syrah/Cabernet – good new world style with lots of fruit, grapes from cooler high elevation sites in southern Rhone.
Domaine des Roches, Cremant, Blanc de blancs 2008
100% chardonnay, 6 months bottle aging, dry, very good acidity, biscuity, lemon-lime flavors