Hong Kong may import Bordeaux Fête le Vin

Hong Kong wine officials want to bring the Bordeaux Wine Festival to the island.

The three-day Bordeaux Fête le Vin attracted 450,000 visitors last week, and trade representatives in Hong Kong see it as a good way of developing the region's burgeoning interest in wine.

'We want to facilitate exchange between institutions, clubs, restaurants, hotels and we want to fill in the gaps in terms of the wine education courses that already exist in Hong Kong,' said Yvonne Choi, Hong Kong secretary for economic development.

'We need wine education for frontline staff, as well as for business people,' said Choi, who was in Bordeaux last week for talks with the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce. She also visited the Fête le Vin.

'We would need to adapt it a bit, add more of a gourmet food element, and make it a joint Hong Kong Bordeaux festival, maybe along the harbour, but the target would be visitors from mainland China and the rest of Asia,' Choi told decanter.com.

There are 7m people in Hong Kong, which earlier this year dropped tax on imported wines to zero, boosting imports by about 150% to date.

The island was ranked the 13th largest importer of Bordeaux by volume in 2007, and it is keen to become the wine trade hub of Asia. Trade representatives are also eyeing China and its population of 1.3bn people who, they say, are starting to open up to wine imports.

Sophie Kevany
Bordeaux, France