Uncorked territory

Hong Kong has come a long way from the days when wine merchants wondered whether their wealthier customers would ever take an interest in anything other than big-name Bordeaux - or whether the less well-off could be persuaded to trade up from the cheapest available plonk.

Today, diversity of choice is matched by a growing diversity of taste. Those with money to burn are still putting it into ruinously expensive first-growth Bordeaux, but they are also interested in wines from other regions and less well-known estates. Conspicuous consumption is being replaced by real connoisseurship.

"We notice that our customers are more willing to try out wines outside Bordeaux or the first-growth wineries," says Jade Cheung, executive director of wine merchant Major Cellar. "In terms of regions, we see a share of the market has gone to the Rhone Valley, Italy, and Spain."

According to auction house Zachys, the big gainer from a levelling off of interest in Bordeaux has been burgundy. David Wainwright, senior managing director for Asia, sees parallels between Hong Kong today and New York in the early 2000s when he was working there for Christie's.

"I remember when burgundy really took off in New York and, to this day, top-end burgundy there is really hot property. People are still learning about it, and it's still on the way up in Hong Kong and Singapore. Japan is way ahead of us. They've been into burgundy for a very long time. It's early days, and I don't see it levelling off anytime soon," Wainwright says.