EINNEWS, December 3—Tough economic times may be keeping consumers’ hands on their wallets in the U.S. and Europe, but things look decidedly different in China, where consumers have developed a taste for fine wine and are pushing up prices.
Worldwide, the price of wine has jumped 5 percent in 2010, according to the widely used Bordeaux Index. That beats the price of oil, up 3 percent, and even gold, which is up 2 percent.
Most of the new demand for fine wine is coming from Asia,
particularly China, according to Gary Boom, managing director of Bordeaux Index.
At a Hong Kong Sotheby’s auction in October, bidders paid a record-shattering $8.4 million for fine and rare wine.
Among the vintage wines sold, well above estimated prices, were 3 bottles of 1869 Lafite-Rothschild,
“When you see the prices that were achieved last night,” a Sotheby
spokesman said, “it recalibrates the market.”
Read more news about wine prices at http://beverages.einnews.com/news/wine-prices.
For more beverages news, visit Beverage Industry Today (http://beverages.einnews.com), a beverages media monitoring service from EIN News.