Hong Kong reclaims crown as global hub for high-end Bordeaux wine

Last year Hong Kong accounted for 16 per cent of high-end wine sales by value from Bordeaux, the famed wine growing region in southwestern France

The mainland slips to the No 2 spot for high-end Bordeaux as trade war concerns, economic slowdown, weigh negatively on demand

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Hong Kong’s return as the world’s leading consumer of high-end Bordeaux wine has been enabled partly by re-exports of the French product to the mainland. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 7:17pm, 26 May 2019Updated: 12:09pm, 27 May 2019

Hong Kong has become the top export destination for high-end Bordeaux wine for the first time since 2011, knocking China from the No 1 spot.

Last year, the city accounted for 16 per cent of wine sales by value from Bordeaux, the famed wine-growing region in southwestern France, according to the Bordeaux Wine Council.

Hong Kong ranked top of the league tables for sales of high-end Bordeaux by value in 2011, before being overtaken by the UK for one year, and then the mainland from 2013 through 2017.

The equivalent of 10 million bottles were exported to Hong Kong last year, worth 327 million euros (US$366.4 million). This marks a 3 per cent rise in value when compared to 2017, and almost all of it was red wine.

Demand for fine wine as a whole has increased, according to Adam Bilbey, Asia head of Sotheby’s Wine, referring to bottles costing around HK$1,000 to HK$3,000 (US$127.40 to US$382.20).

“Over the last 12 to 18 months we have seen incredible growth in the fine wine market full stop, and that has been driven out of Hong Kong,” said Bilbey. “What we are seeing is more fine wine being drunk, not stock held, on a regular basis in Hong Kong, and it is far broader in client base than we have ever seen before.”