Dateline: Asia - Brief Article

Business was flagging at the China Coast Sports Bar at the 1,000-room Regal Airport Hotel in Hong Kong. Then the food and beverage manager, Michael Au, got an offer he couldn't refuse. WineandCo, the French-based wine buying and Web site company, offered a package that included everything from providing all wines to training the staff.

These days, Au is happy. He's not only selling a lot more wine, but attracting far more customers. "People in Hong Kong love wine," he says, a discovery that other hoteliers are making as they rush to transform sweaty old pubs and empty lounges into up-marker wine bars.

The new-look China Coast Wine Bar has a lot to offer. WineandCo staff went into the place and revitalized it. Jazzy colorful chalk signs give witty wine sayings on blackboards around the bar. There are 24 wines by the glass and this will be increased to 60.

The advisory team did computer links that advise what wines go with what dishes. Ask staff for advice about wine and they are likely to explain why Sauvignon blanc goes with that grilled fish.

"It's so exciting," trilled a Filipina bar attendant, advising me to taste the Californian Stonehedge Caberner-Merlot blend selling at US$6 a glass.

Au says it's a good deal from his point of view. He gets a huge range of wines, picked by experts. He has advisors giving his staff regular lessons and training sessions. He's seeing more customers asking for wine. And he's seeing his profits grow. It used to be that food was 60% of revenue. That's now been reversed and he's selling lust as much wine.

Argentine Wines Wow HK

When a dozen Argentine winemakers held a tasting in downtown Hong Kong recently, they expected about 50 beverage managers, restaurant owners and wine critics to turn up. Instead, the event was like a pop concert or a major sporting fixture; people were crammed shoulder to shoulder in expansive Mezz Restaurant.

"There's a growing interest in Argentine wine," says American importer Laura Budlong, whose Force Eight cellars has spearheaded Latin American sales into the Far East.

A year ago, only the major producers like Trapiche and Luigi Bosca were on the Asian scene. Recently, there has been an influx of medium-sized and boutique producers.

There was almost a rugby scrum atmosphere around the table where winemaker Graciela Reta was showing her range of Malbec, Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.

When importers tasted the wine, discovered the price and found she had no agent in Hong Kong, there were instant offers of representation.

Aussie Trophy Wine

The most famous wine name in Australia now appears on a bottle. It honors a much-loved figure on the Australian wine scene who died in 1962. The Jimmy Watson range of wines is drinking well at Maman 's wine bar in the regal Kowloon Hotel.

Jimmy was a legend in wine. He began his wine bar in Melbourne's Lygon Street (lined with exquisite Italian restaurants) in 1935; it was soon the focus point for many of the city's politicians, academics, policemen, journalists and business leaders.

From the start, he began stocking what he considered the best Australian wines--young, dry reds, with a softness and tannin character that made them potentially great aging wines. A man with few pretensions, he labeled the large bottles "Red Ned" or "Extra Grouse Plonk" which means extra good wine in Aussie dialect.

When he died, many of the regulars gathered in Jimmy Watson's Wine Bar to lament the departure of a poetic raconteur with his feet planted firmly in the sawdust behind the bar. As emotions rose and the levels dropped in the Shiraz and Cabernet bottles on the bar, somebody made a suggestion. Why not take up a collection and start an annual award at the Royal Melbourne Show where the state of Victoria shows its agricultural expertise and named it after Jimmy? Excellent, everyone agreed, and poured another glass.

The award caught the imagination of the nation. Ever since, picking "The Jimmy Watson" has been a highlight of the Australian wine calendar. When the winning winery is announced, there's a stampede to snap up the vintage and stack it in a thousand home cellars.

The Jimmy Watson Trophy is not the most serious award presented at Australian wine shows. But it's the one that means most to the average wine-lover. It signifies reliability, and the sort of wine that Jimmy and most Australians like to drink.

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