Bordeaux out to educate Chinese, fight scammers(2)
"In terms of volume, for the first time last year China was our biggest market outside Europe," said Jullien. "The increase in China is more than making up for what we lost in the US."
"We are also seeing a new pattern emerging, with the kind of Chinese who buy yachts in Hong Kong now buying top vintages and opening them with their friends, rather than just using them as an investment."
Hong Kong only snapped up 25 percent as many bottles as the mainland last year, but the total value was comparatively higher, a testament to Hong Kong's high-end market.
Hong Kong used to add a tax of 80 percent to imported wine, but it removed this completely in early 2008, which means that holiday-goers from the mainland can now pay for their trips by taking home the legally permitted two bottles per person.
The import tax for wine brought into the mainland is 48 percent. Some 90 percent of all the wine sold in the mainland is made in China.
