The Auswine Forum

Hi,

The day I leave town, wine becomes more affordable.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c83f50f4-e59e ... fd2ac.html

I hope this time the reductions are passed on to the consumer.


Cheers,

Festival

Yes

great news for Hong Kong based wine lovers.

Oh, and it makes importing your own wines, from your favourite e tailer really affordable and great value for money!

This is not just a great day for the wealthy speculator and Petrus-with-Coke brigade. This offers Hong Kong a chance to recapture its role as a place to enjoy a cornucopia of excellent food and wine - at reasonable prices. The zero duty will hopefully stimulate a spread in the appreciation of the infinite variey of wine and its potential for enriching all kinds of dining experiences - not just French or Italian cuisine.
It should also stimulate a huge expansion in the range of wines available here. The high duty - 80% only one year ago - encouraged merchants to exploit the 2 extremes of the market, supplying the rich with the finest wines irrespective of cost, and stacking supermarket shelves with the dregs of the French wine lake. The middle ground was a sure-fire money-loser. I hope the removal of the duty encourages a new breed of merchant, keen to represent less fashionable producers and regions.
One problem remains - will restaurants pass this cut on in their wine pricing? Today Hong Kong's English language newspaper, the South China Morning Post, carried a cartoon featuring a couple in a restaurant, with a wine waiter hiding behind a dais wielding a big stick, and the husband saying to his wife "I guess we won't bother asking if they're going to lower their prices now!".
This is the next battleground here. The restaurant sector lobbied for a cut in duty last year, promising to pass the cuts on to their customers. The duty was duly cut from 80 to 40% - and they renegued, pleading currency exchange problems and rising rents (admittedly a problem). With the removal of any duty at all, people will be watching closely to see which restaurants, if any, actually bring down their prices. If they don't, I see wine drinkers eating out even more at Chinese restaurants, as most do not even charge corkage, just operating a BYOB policy.