At last, what all wine lovers in Hong Kong have been waiting for! We wholeheartedly welcome the Financial Secretary’s recommendation to remove wine tax.

With continuing growth in fine wine sales in China, Hong Kong is uniquely positioned to capture a growing share of the international market and people will now choose to store and exchange fine wine here.

Hong Kong now has a golden opportunity to serve as Asia’s undisputed wine hub, which can only contribute business and tourism dollars to the SAR. For consumers, the first step is ensuring that customers benefit as soon as possible. We’re implementing price reductions of 22% this week that reflect the wine tax removal and our commitment to the marketplace and our customers.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this and will be posting further information this week, so don’t forget to log back on to the blog for more details.

Finding fine wine is about to get a whole lot easier.

We’re completely overhauling our multi-award winning website and making it better than ever.

We are committed to providing you with the ultimate online fine wine experience and by listening to customer feedback, we are enhancing the core fundamentals of bbr.com so you’ll be able to see what you want, when you want and in the way that you want.

We’re introducing all kinds of new features including an Interactive Advanced Search, Top Sellers, Popular Searches, Wish Lists as well as extensive guides to Bordeaux, Burgundy and Wine Investment.

See Preview - featuring screen shots of your new site, and don’t forget to log back on to see a flash preview of the new site - coming soon to a screen near you!

In my last post:

Parallel Palates from Burgundy to Borough

I promised you exclusive interviews of our Burgundy Buyer Jasper Morris MW with his Burgundian producers. 

Left: Jasper with the Bret Brothers

Now you can re-live my tour of Burgundy and discover the faces behind the wines, with photos, recorded cellar-talk and, of course, the lowdown on their latest vintage - Burgundy 2006.

In addition to re-tasting the 06s, Jasper also discovers how the wines acquire their own, individual personalities.

• Take my virtual wine tour now!

The Fine Wine Market enjoyed an eagerly anticipated boom from late 2005.  Prices had been somewhat flat for a couple of years and the top wines, particularly those from the 1996 & 2000 Bordeaux vintages, were beginning to look exceptionally cheap.  By early 2006 the bull was up and running, fed by massive demand from the “new” markets, investment funds and private customers increasingly aware of the value, both in drinking and investment terms, of the best wines in the world.

At the same time, we were waiting for the 2005 Bordeaux vintage to be released.  We had been hearing great things almost as soon as the grapes had been picked; talk was that we would have a legend on our hands.  Trips to Bordeaux in early 2006 to taste these young legends in the making confirmed the hype - this was a truly exceptional vintage.  The wines were released slowly, at prices that we hadn’t imagined, and they sold as quickly as we could offer them - we sold 1,000 cases of Lynch-Bages on the day that it was released.  Prices continued to rise, and the boom continued into 2007.  Customers buying wine in February and March 2007 quite often found that their investments had “washed their faces” even before the invoice had been settled.

The market slowed a little in August 2007, which is nothing unusual - the majority of Bordeaux negociants take the month off and much of the wine trade follows suit.  However, the September pick up was late in arriving - some chaps with salaries larger than most of us had a bit of a problem with some bad debt.  The “credit crunch”, as the media called it (thankfully not “creditgate”) was on the front page, and stayed there.  Try to find an article on this without the words “the first run on a bank in living memory”.  The economy, or at least the financial markets, became rather nervous.

There is little or no correlation between the financial and fine wine markets, though the doom and gloom in the financial pages and on the television news did make some buyers a little more cautious.  On the surface, the wine market has remained fairly flat since.  Prices for a few wines have softened a little - though this can easily be put down to a few merchants discounting a little to get stock moving, a bit of nervous selling by small investors, and some cautious buying prices on the part of some trade buyers, some very happy to exploit the situation. 

Look beneath the surface, however, and a great deal of wine has been changing hands: there has been no shortage of trade - there is no glut of first growth claret.  Demand for the top wines remains strong, the current highlights being the 2005 vintage (still) which will be arriving in the UK over the next few months, and, as ever, there is remarkable demand for all vintages of Lafite (and the second wine, Carruades de Lafite) in the Far East. 

I personally believe that the market is having a much-needed “breather”.  How long this consolidation will last is a key question, though my thoughts are that this period represents an excellent buying opportunity for those with the conviction and the cash to make the most of it.  The fundamentals remain unchanged: fine wine is a tangible, luxury asset that more and more of us aspire to own and enjoy.  Demand is rising, and once a vintage has been harvested its supply is constantly dwindling.

Since moving to the big smoke in a little house near Borough Market, I’ve been taking full advantage of the fantastic local produce. Just a stone’s throw away the epicurean delights called yet again this weekend, forcing me to succumb to the sensational scents of the bustling market.

You just can’t beat good ingredients cooked by people who really understand food, and on Friday my flatmate (apparently a Master Chef in the making) knocked my socks off with a meal fit for the most particular of palates.

First up was a melt-in-your-mouth fresh pasta dish which oozed lashings of sumptuous St. Gall and parmesan cheeses from Neal’s Yard. This rich dish with broccoli beautifully paired with a bottle of 2006 Viré-Clessé, Sous les Plantes from the Burgundian Bret Brothers  (right). From 70 year old vines, the sumptuous array of tastes and textures stood up beautifully to the rich cheese.

But the real treat was yet to come; a perfectly pink rack of lamb from the Ginger Pig, each cutlet dusted with sprigs of roasted rosemary and perched alongside a refreshing pea and mint puree, a tower of the crispiest of spuds and a sumptuous sweet plumb sauce. Having just got back from a tasting trip in Burgundy, I knew what I wanted with my lamb…and the delicious bottle of 2004 Morey-St. Denis from Dujac Fils et Père was it!

The first sip instantly brought me back to the vineyards I visited a week earlier (Left: With the oldest vine in Burgundy at Arnaud Ente’s La Sève du Clos) and indeed the equally fantastic food found in every Burgundy kitchen, and kudos has to go to my friend Gareth for acheiving that of the Burgundians - the very fine art of food (and wine) appreciation.

Without wanting a rich dessert, but our sweet-teeth getting the better of us, we rounded off the evening with some of Berrys’ Sauternes. While placating the sweeties, its refreshing acidity made it a favourite all-round.

PS. While out there, I also recorded some podcasks of our Burgundy Buyer Jasper Morris MW out and about with wine growers in the vineyards and cellars. Don’t miss them on our podcask page - coming soon!

Above: Tasting wine & recording Jasper & Patrice at Patrice et Michele Rion