Red Obsession Page #5

customer from Macau called us up

and bought well over 80 cases

of Lafite 2008 in one go.

And he paid with cash.

That was the... that was a very

interesting transaction for us.

Lafite alone last year, we sold

27 million worth of Lafite.

On its own. One brand.

And that is out of 130 million,

140 million worth of sales.

So, that's how big that brand is.

Just the one. One brand.

Is China just another market?

Clearly no, because

the potential in volume

of this market creates a

real pressure on demand.

Probably at the scale

that the United States was

in the beginning of the '50s

and then on to the '80s and early '90s.

That's clearly the

same... the same scale.

And it's probably going faster

- even faster than the US.

Pressure from Chinese

consumers is now so great

that it's beginning to impact heavily

on the cellar stocks

of the great chteaux -

stocks that include

old and rare vintages dating

back hundreds of years.

The Chinese are

big customers of ours,

and we don't always let

them have what they want.

If you were to accept every

single customer's requests

on old vintages, this

place would be empty.

A customer from Asia has

contacted me recently -

emailed me every single

day for the last week

to sell him a case of

Mouton Rothschild '45-

which we sell at 18,000 euros a bottle.

So, he'd have bought at 23,000,

24,000 euros, including VAT.

Times by 12.

And he's basically insisting

on me selling him a case.

But, unfortunately, we can't,

so I've offered a bottle

and he's not wildly happy.

With demand

massively exceeding supply,

wine fever is fueling fierce competition

in the auction rooms of Hong Kong.

For many, it is becoming

a kind of an obsession.

I like to attend the auctions.

I like the bidding.

I like the excitement.

I just want to own it.

Whether I would drink

it or not, I don't know.

But there... it's something

that I really want,

and I have to get it.

When I'm bidding so aggressively,

I don't see anybody around me -

all I know is the auctioneer and myself.

No matter what, this is what I want

- I want to bring it home.

When I attended the

ex-Chteau Lafite auction,

it was a very rare vintage and I

think they only have one bottle.

And the auctioneer was going, like,

"300,000, 500,000, 700,000."

Then suddenly, I just raised my paddle.

I said, "1.5 million. "

Sold.

What we have now,

what we're seeing now,

is a generation of new consumers

that actually realizes that

wine is very underpriced,

and are paying the

comparable prices they would -

say, for example -

with a great Old Dynasty vase

or limited-edition painting.

And I think this actually

absolutely highlights

the incredible position

that the best chteaux,

the best producers in the world, are in.

They are in demand.

And if you're in demand, like

a movie star, like a rock star -

if you want a front-row

seat, you have to pay for it -

and there's nothing wrong with that.

If a dozen

mainland Chinese decided,

"I love this. This is

what I want to collect. "

and decided to buy everything

in the market place,

I mean, very soon...

...it only takes a few people

to corner the entire market

for that particular wine

from that particular vintage.

So, it's very easy to do.

And that means, for the rest of us,

the prices are going to be astronomical.

We're not going to be able

to even afford a glass.

Oh!

The worsening

eurozone debt crisis

is adding to the instability in

Bordeaux's traditional markets.

Some are now speculating

that Hong Kong's

overheated auction results

may have serious

long-term consequences.

You can just

see that it's just kind of

reaching a crescendo of some sort.

It runs the risk of being in a bubble,

and I think we are

in a bubble right now.

Well, most bubbles

do pop eventually.

And when wine prices correct,

they don't correct by 2% or 3%,

they correct by between 20% and 35%

- instantly.

Oh, there is no bubble.

Wine is just finally

realizing its true value.

There is no bubble.

You know, all of these...

I am so sick and tired of

these bubble conversations

because it is annoying.

We

are not totally stupid.

We know that... that things

don't go up to heaven.

I think it's very important to realize

that things can change

in both directions.

What we must protect is the wine.

With Bordeaux's fine wines

now elevated to luxury goods status,

it was only a matter of

time before it succumbed

to the world's most rampant and

notorious counterfeit market.

You can find today in China

more bottles of Lafite 1982

than there were produced

in 1982 in Chteau Lafite.

An empty bottle of

Lafite costs around $500.

That's what I heard.

That's why if I bring any

good wines to a restaurant,

I either bring the

empty bottle back home,

or I just ask them to destroy

the bottle right there.

I have been to a winery where

you can walk in the door,

open a portfolio of labels,

and choose what you

want on your bottle -

Lafite, Latour or Margaux.

They use our fame, they use our name.

Wherever

there is money to be made

out of luxury goods,

the people that are making

fakes come in behind it.

And in some respects, luxury

goods would not be luxury goods

unless the fakes existed.

I say when one of

my wines is faked somewhere,

I say, "Well, that's

the sign of success. "

It does not please me for that reason...

...but I have suffered so much

of fakes with Chteau Ptrus.

I spend so much time struggling

against the people whom

we think were the fakers

even if it is like a drug market

where we never know who is the big boss.

That... it's really an unpleasant

matter to discuss for me.

But fakes are not

a new phenomenon in China.

Even during the Tang

Dynasty in the 14th century,

China had problems of fake goods.

There are many instances

throughout Chinese literature,

paintings, art, sculpture,

where it's considered not faking,

but to be an honorable thing

to copy the work of an artist

that you admire and respect.

If you've lost the

connection to the past

which I think they have

to some extent here,

it's unavoidable -

if you've lost that connection

to your own architectural history,

you have to create new links.

And if you create new links,

where are you going to look to?

The chteau, the fairytale castle -

it fulfills a deep-seated longing

to join up to another

architectural history.

While some are

building replica chteaux,

others are more interested

in the genuine article.

Just the latest sign

of the global power shift -

Chinese investors scooping

up estates and vineyards

across Bordeaux.

Richard Shen is a good example.

He's the CEO of a Chinese

fine jewelry store.

There he is with Chinese

film star Zhang Ziyi.

She's a big fan of his wine.

Now, he purchased a chteau back in...

We always have

fear of the unknown.

You know, that has always been the case,

for so many years.

And, on the contrary, I

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