Dateline: Asia

Wines & Vines, June, 1999 by Kevin Sinclair

An imaginative move by the long-established China trading House of Jebsen is educating winelovers in Hong Kong - and significantly boosting sales of quality wines. The Jebsen Fine Wine Club was formed at the start of the year with membership restricted to 100 top existing customers. Its influence is considerably larger than numbers would suggest.

Gavin Jones, general manager of Jebsen Wines, began the new service, hiring Luca Luise, an engaging Italian hotel food and beverage expert, to run it. Both men are surprised and satisfied with the response. So are members.

Focusing on quality wines that sell at reasonable prices, the pair target the mid-market level which in Hong Kong means wines in the US$10 to $30 bracket. That includes Beringer, Renaissance and Glen Ellen.

It's free to join, but by invitation only. Members are all existing customers who have a sales record of buying reasonable wines. The aim is to educate, inform and entertain people who want to know more about wine, explains Jones. "You don't have to be an expert to take part, just be interested and keen to have a drink," he says.

Adds Luise: "If we get a shipment of great private reserve wine, then we'll tell Wine Club members first." But the main idea is to get members involved socially, to taste wines, talk about wines, expand wine knowledge. This is done through seminars, wine dinners and tastings, most of them involving visiting winemakers.

If the owner of a noted Californian winery passes through Hong Kong, for instance, and if Jebsen carries his wines, he is invited to speak at a tasting, explaining his vintages to club members.

The club concept is one demonstration of the fast changing pattern of wine sales in Hong Kong. Gavin Jones points out that the sleepy old days have long passed when wine merchants sat back and waited for the phone to ring so they could fill their order books.

Much more aggressive retailing, notably by the Big Two supermarkets (Wellcome and Park N' Shop) have revolutionized the business. These days, the wine merchants have to work closely with the supermarkets and other retailers. That's where the bulk of less expensive wines are being moved.

It's in the key mid-market bracket that wine merchants now have the greatest impact, good wines, largely from the New World.

Jones, an Englishman who first came to Hong Kong to work as chief buyer for a major Californian wine and food retailer, has been in the wine business for more than a decade.

Luca Luise, a Venetian, worked at renowned hotel restaurants in Asia including the Hong Kong Jockey Club, which has one of the finest cellars in the Far East.

Qantas Wines

Where's the logical place to find the widest selection of prime Australian wines? Ask Len Evans, the ebullient guru of Down Under vintages, and he'll tell you to look to the heavens; the panel he chairs recently selected 30 distinguished wines for Qantas airline's first and business class services.

The range of wines include some of the most noted labels produced in Australia, as well as a startling selection of tiny boutique wineries that even Evans had never heard of until he began this year's tastings.

Qantas invited more than 900 Australian winemakers to submit wines for the blind tasting. Some are tiny operations whose wines are now showcased on Qantas international flights. Instead of concentrating on the major producers who can reliably supply 10,000 cases of wines for economy class, Evans and his three fellow panelists also focused on tiny boutique vineyards which could spare 200 cases for first class and 1,500 needed for business class.

The judges were looking for determinedly Australian wines. Apart from a French champagne, all wines are native sons. "We want people to start enjoying Australia from the moment their plane takes off," Evans quips.

The panel settled on a range that comes from all major regions in five states. With the pioneering wine guru on the panel were Ian McKenzie, chief winemaker of Southcorp Wines, Jim Brayne, winemaker for McWilliams and John Hanley, who represents the palate of the people. All have been involved in wine judging for years; Evans has helped direct Qantas wine selection for 35 years.

Of course, supply had to be considered, and there was a budgetary limit. But by and large, the wines picked are among the best Australia has to offer. The big boys and the famous are represented by labels like Orlando, Tyrrells, Seppelt, Grant Burge, Wolf Blass, Leconfield and Geoff Merrill. But there are also relatively little-known names like Pertaringa (a superlative Shiraz) and a Pinot grigio from Iron Pot Bay.

The Qantas policy of sticking to serving Australian labels has been a major boost for the winemakers of an entire continent. Apart from the occasional French bubbly which Evans insists a quality airline must have in its flying cellars, the national carrier has given three decades of tremendous support to the industry.

What about the oft-repeated claim that some wines taste different in a cabin at 35,000 feet than they do in a tasting room at ground level in Sydney? Len Evans answers with his typical brusqueness. "Bloody nonsense," he says.