Burgundy bet big in Asia

Burgundy’s popularity in Asia is gaining momentum and Bordeaux auction prices are correcting themselves as Asian consumers get savvier.

Speaking to the drinks business, Charles Curtis MW, head of wine for Christie’s in Asia, said that Burgundy was certainly “the next big thing”.

He explained that, increasingly, collectors were explaining how they were buying wines such as Domaine de la Romanée-Conti to invest and the likes of Rousseau to drink.

“They’re really branching out quite a bit,” he said. “There’s a huge movement in many directions among the avant garde wine collectors here but the mindset is very much Burgundy, Burgundy, Burgundy.

“It’s the next thing. We did a dinner with a retrospective of 1970s Burgundy and we had two DRCs out of the 14 wines but other labels that aren’t so well known here. That dinner sold out quicker than anything we’ve ever done even with a price of HK$23,000.”

Curtis thought that the market for Burgundy had “inched up” by 10%-15% in recent years while that of Bordeaux had actually declined by some 10%.

He explained that there had been a correction in prices of late with some wines that were previously fetching “crazy prices” such as 1982 Lafite seeing prices go down by 30%.