Yes, it could be one of those double-take inducing headlines from the Onion, but then it wouldn’t be true and Jane Anson says it is.
Anson is a Bordeaux-based wine and travel writer who blogs about the world’s most interesting wine region at newbordeaux.com. Her site also offers essay-length treatments of subjects no one takes up with quite the same insight and panache. Recently, she reported on the growing Chinese presence in the Bordeaux wine market and how a thirst among Chinese for the highest profile classed-growth labels is driving prices for them to unheard of levels. Prices set by top chateaux for their 2010 releases may eclipse set for the 2009s by as much as 30%.
Because Chinese wine-buying is still strongly linked to entertaining and gift-giving occasions, Anson says, “consumers there are primarily interested in making a ‘safe’ purchase that can confidently convey a suitable level of prestige, status and respect,”
In other words, it’s not a matter of the quality of the wine, but the halo that comes with owning and serving creme de la creme Bordeaux – and being willing to spend almost any amount to acquire it.
The Chinese Invasion (as it has been called) may already be damaging Bordeaux’s traditional sales and distribution system and endangering critic Robert M. Parker’s acknowledged role as prime arbiter of price and quality there. Parker seems to be aware of the implicit threat. He’s recently criticized the top chateaux for raising prices.
Those who have for so many years bemoaned Parker’s outsized influence on top tier Bordeaux and its price may be delighted to know he may soon be toppled as wine hegemon there — but a little less inclined to celebrate when they realize his replacement is some Shanghai moneybags who likes his Chateau Latour with a splash of Captain Morgan.
Originally posted on Boston.com