Luís de Herédia: Portugal produces some world class wines

Debra Meiburg belongs to one of the world's most exclusive clubs: Masters of Wine, the elusive top qualification for wine appreciation. It is not faint praise when she says she would "love to see more Portuguese wine take centre stage," adding that it has increased in quality "by leaps and bounds." Luís de Herédia, a Macau-based wine expert agrees that Portugal produces some world class wines and that standards have substantially increased and that it is still extremely good value.  "Portuguese wines for MOP500 could be 2000" for similar quality from major internationally known wine houses. For wines in the MOP150-200 the cost "could be 50% to 100% more."

But in Hong Kong where big spenders invest fortunes in their wine cellars and bankers galore splash out on expensive wine, Portuguese wine, surprisingly, is relatively hard to find. "Soon that will change," says Herédia because there are a number of companies aggressively chasing the market, for example, Portuguese wine giant Sogrape and because of the success of Hong Kong wine fairs.

So why are Portuguese wines not more prominent in the market? Meiburg gives several reasons. Firstly, as agrees Herédia, the unfamiliarity of the names the producers and grape varieties. Secondly custom -a "well-established history and fascination with french wines" at the top end adds Meiburg, and popularity of "super low-end wine (for banquet type events)This is changing now, of course due to the elimination of duty, and we are finally seeing a mid-priced market emerging (Hurrah!), but the residual is that we have a fairly risk averse wine culture."

One company that  is promoting that change this week is Hoover Wines who have organised a Portuguese wine tasting at the Zeffirino restaurant Regal Hong Kong Hotel Causeway Bay on Saturday, at 7 pm, to include the famous Mouchao, ranked a few years ago by the Financial Times newspaper as one of the top ten red wines in the world. Organiser Michael Kwok says that different tastes of Portuguese wines  would become more attractive here echoing both Meiburg -"tantalising diversity" – and Herédia – "large variety" as plus points.

With Asian buyers aggressively buying much of the top lots at this year's auctions in Hong Kong, London and New York, the territory is mooted by some industry experts leaders to become the wine hub of Asia. Leading biennial. wine fair Vinexpo expanded successfully into Asia via Hong Kong in 2008 followed by the first Hong Kong International Wine and Spirits Fair which will be repeated this November.