"Wine frenzy grips Hong Kong" from South China Morning Post

"People like the fact that the wine is here in Hong Kong. You just go and pick it up."


"Liu Xuebiao, a merchant from Shenzhen, said wine he buys in Hong Kong for about US3$ a bottle can be sold on the mainland for 300 yuan, more than 15 times what he paid"


"Elswood, of Christie's, said the burgeoning wealth is "inflating a bubble" in wine. "When you're paying four, five times or even more than the reference price, then you have to seriously question the market knowledge of that buyer.

At Sotheby's April auction in Hong Kong, a 12-bottle lot of Chateau Latour 1982 fetched HK$338,800 or US$43,707. About two weeks later, New York-based Tribeca Wine Merchants ran a newspaper advertisement offering the same wine for US$2,250 a bottle.

He, strolling around the Hong Kong fair with a glass of wine, said: "Westerners drink wine slowly as a way of enjoying life. Just look around you. Mainland Chinese tilt the glass and pour it straight down the throat."