Hong Kong’s uptick in demand for fine wine ‘a promising sign’
Asian demand has “started to return” to the market according to Liv-ex – in part driven by buyers of Burgundy (particularly white Burgundy) in Hong Kong.
Speaking on a recent webinar, Liv-ex’s market analyst market intelligence Sophia Gilmour said notable producers and well-known, established names were very much in demand, along with Californian Cabernet (notably Harlem and Opus One), while first growth Bordeaux remained very important to Hong Kong.
Gilmour argued that in all likelihood this was due to Hong Kong merchants “finally running out of stock” after a six-year overhang, a depletion that was most noticeable in small production lines.
Buying, she said, had been “stop/start” but had “definitely increased” and merchant stockholders have a renewed need to buy in from Europe ahead of the Christmas period, which was “some cause for encouragement”.
UK merchants selling into Asian markets had already seen “renewed interest in high-end Burgundy”, Liv-ex account manager Henry Johnson confirmed. “Something that we haven’t observed in years”.
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The increased demand in Hong Kong was also being driven by lower interest rates, favourable prices and a good economic outlook, he noted. “With the Hang Seng flying, it seems to be concentrated in Hong Kong… [although] Mainland China is still very much sat on the side lines for now”.
However Gilmour noted that recovery of the fine wine market was not “dependent” on the return of the Asian market “in a way that we maybe thought it would be a few months ago”.
It was however “a light at the end of the tunnel” for the market, and showed “new paths forming towards it”,Gilmour concluded.
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