Union Des Grands Crus De Bordeaux In Hong Kong

The Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux were in Hong Kong today showcasing their wines from the 2010 vintage at the Grand Hyatt Hotel on their Hong Kong leg of their Asian tour that included Singapore, Taiwan and Chengdu.

The Union was formed in 1973 with the desire to make the best wines in Bordeaux and their visit to showcase the most recent vintage was extremely popular here today with over 500 members of the trade and media tasting in the afternoon with the public session starting later this evening.

Many of Bordeaux’s top wineries were in town and the general consensus is that the 2010’s are drinking extremely well – something we wrote about back in November when Jebsen Fine Wine did their tasting of the 2010 vintages.

In a country where Bordeaux reds are still put on a pedestal, it was surprising to hear many local Chinese tasters remark at the quality of the 2010 white wines. White Bordeaux is not overly popular here in Hong Kong, but we get the feeling the tide may have just turned slightly after today’s tasting and we foresee a bright future for whites in general this summer season.

In all, 81 producers were in Hong Kong from all areas within Bordeaux – none of the first growth wines were present at the tasting – with the tasting session getting busier and busier as the afternoon wore on. Of the wines we thought were looking very good were the Chateau Beychevelle, Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte, Chateau Gruaud Larose and the Chateau Clerc Milon.

However, the stand out wines for us this vintage were the Sauternes and Barsac with the Chateau de Fargues, Chateau Coutet, Chateau Doisy Daene and Chateau Guiraud topping the favourite list for us.

It was, of course impossible to taste every single wine, although it seemed that those present were doing a pretty good job at trying! With such a fantastic selection of wines of offer there was certainly a lot of choice for those in attendance and further proof that, when events like these are put on, people make the effort to come and taste Bordeaux.

After the lull in wine trade over the Chinese New Year period, the business is well and truly back in full swing which is great to see. All we can do here in Hong Kong is thank UbiFrance for putting on the event and thank all those who came over from Bordeaux to allow us to taste the quality on offer. The 2010’s look great and there is such diversity in their drinking and cellaring potential with many ready to drink now, whilst others, not surprisingly are destined for the cellars around the city.