Master of Wine Jeannie Cho Lee could tell instantly when she tasted fake wine at a Hong Kong dinner party. "Just from colour and the nose, once you taste it, it was confirmation that it wasn't the genuine wine," she said.
But not everyone possesses Lee's acumen. China's booming appetite for fine wine in recent years has fueled a rampant counterfeit market that industry insiders fear could be turning local buyers off.
"What we're seeing across the country is a proliferation of knock-offs and copycats and outright counterfeit as the imported wine industry really explodes in this market," said Ian Ford of Summergate Fine Wines in Shanghai, adding that counterfeiters are taking advantage of inexperienced Chinese consumers.
China has become the world's fifth-largest consumer of wine, ahead of Britain, according to an International Wine and Spirit Research study. It forecasts 54 percent growth from 2011 to 2015 -- the equivalent of a billion more bottles.
That means supply and demand in the Chinese market can have a significant impact on global prices.
The cost of high-end wines was down more than 20 percent year-on-year in late February, according to the Liv-ex 50 Index, which tracks Bordeaux wines. The plunge has been attributed to a range of factors, including a pull-back following a strong surge in prices and market turmoil in Europe.
Some believe fake wine may have played a role by denting Chinese consumers' confidence in the product.
"It has definitely been a contributing factor because there has been a drop-off in demand for some of the wines which have been particularly affected by counterfeits -- for example Lafite Rothschild," says Thomas Gearing of Cult Wines, a London wine investment firm.
"As someone has their fingers burnt by buying counterfeit wine, they are going to lose their desire to continually buy that wine."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment