Burgundy and Bordeaux in battle for Chinese market

By 2010-12-30 11:09:08

The 2010 Hospices de Beaune barrel auction has seen Burgundian producers draw the battlelines in the fight for share of the burgeoning Chinese wine market.

‘China is something we’re really targeting,’ said Michel Baldassini, president of the region’s generic marketing body, the BIVB, in a pre-auction press conference.

Announcing a budget of €400,000 to ‘conquer the Chinese market’, Pierre-Henry Gagey, co-president of the BIVB and head of negociant giant Louis Jadot said the region’s commercial focus was firmly on Asia.

‘We need to be there,’ he said, ‘Otherwise the New World producers will gain ground.’ He was most outspoken in addressing the Bordelais approach, however.

‘The prices we’ve seen for top-end Bordeaux are astonishing. But there’s also a huge volume of cheap Bordeaux flooding the market. There’s very little in the middle, at €8–10, and that’s where we need to be. That’s the future, the real potential in China.

‘I believe Bordeaux has made a mistake by exporting such huge volumes of cheap wine to China. We need to emphasise our quality, our terroir – and you can’t do that for €3.’

From cnwinenews.com