Chinese Turning Cash Into Wine

While reports of wine speculation in China and elsewhere are nothing new, this story in Singapore's Business Times is the first report I've come across since the Hong Kong Wine Exchange launched last month.

The practice of speculating on wine has become particularly popular in China. And what it reveals is an interesting encapsulation of many elements of the business climate that we often read about in stories on China.

Many affluent Chinese - worried about rising inflation, a roller-coaster stock market, and restrictions on real estate investment - are looking to alternative assets. Wine, a status symbol for new millionaires, is a hot choice.

[…]

One problem for China's investors, says [Liv-Ex Fine Wine 50 Index James] Miles, has been difficulty in selling their wine. Two local ventures may help.

One is the Hong Kong Wine Exchange, launched in October, a trading platform that allows member- collectors to buy and sell globally through the company's network of wine storage partners.

The other is the just- opened Shanghai International Wine Exchange, organised by the local government to be a bridge between investors and suppliers.

[…] The Shanghai exchange promises to filter out counterfeits and check documentation on provenance.

Since eliminating taxes on wine in February 2008, Hong Kong has become Asia's wine hub, with auction totals surpassing London and New York.

Fascinating--affluence, markets, entrepreneurship, state-run enterprises, taxes, and countereit products in just a few sentences--though I've no larger social statement to make beyond that. I just found the article interesting, and also thought it might provide me with a nice segue into pitching Matt Welch's thorough dissection in the December issue of Reason of the penchant of New York Times columnists to gush over Chinese (and other) authoritarianism.

Baylen Linnekin is the director of Keep Food Legal, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving and increasing "culinary freedom," the right of all Americans to grow, sell, prepare and eat foods of their own choosing. To join or learn more about the group's activities, go here. To follow Keep Food Legal on Twitter, go here; to follow Linnekin, go here.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Shanghai exchange promises to filter out counterfeits and check documentation on provenance.

They don't want their web domain seized, like the ones I used to buy my Chinese Pens jerseys from.

And the Business Times link doesn't work, but maybe I'm not clicking it right.

[kinnath]

I've read that some of the big names in the wine industry are starting to invest in China. Apparently there are some regions with the right soils and climates to grow fine grapes.

[John]

I read some where where the Chinese are doing to the wine market what the Japanese did to the art market, bidding up the prices of well known commodities to obscene levels. Just like the Japanese spent the 1990s buying Van Goghs and Monets, the Chinese are spending the 1s buying Bordeauxs.

[kinnath]

Yes. That's what I've read.

So if you used to have the money to spend 400 bucks on Chateau Margeaux, you're getting screwed now.

Doesn't have much of an impact on bottom feeders like us.

[Apatheist]

French wine is overpriced all the way down.

[Zeb]

I think that the Chinese are doing that with art now as well. If what the Antiques Road SHow tells me is true, the market for chinese art and antiques has gone crazy over the past 10 years or so.

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

I wonder if the Chinese have ever heard of tulips. I might just introduce them to another exciting idea.

[romulus augustus]

At least you can drown your sorrow by drinking your investment if worse comes to worse.

[Dr Zoidberg]

Once again, the conservative, sandwich-heavy portfolio pays off for the hungry investor.

Ahhh! I'm ruined!

[Hank]

What's with the seasonal love for Baylen? 9 posts (and counting) over the last 3 days, then 14 posts over 4 days back in June, and otherwise practically zilch.

It's like the way I play Civilization IV.

[Christina]

That's your first problem. You should be playing Civ V.

[Hank]

I'll play a 1UPT version of Civ the day Call of Duty folks agree to play a turn-based combat version of MW3. < /crotchetynerd >

[Christina]

I like 1UPT. I think it makes domination victories harder, which is the way it should be. I was not a fan of the Stack of Death. Plus I really like the addition of ranged units.

I'm a pussy libertarian. I don't like war, even in my computer games. So anything that makes waging it more difficult is alright by me.

[wylie]

It takes Baylen over 30turns to get a story ready, so...

[Anonymous Coward]

Baylen didn't build the Forge soon enough and has too few mines and workshops, so his production score is abyssmal.

If he's not careful, Ghandi will nuke his ass.

[Spoonman.]

Baylen was foolish and didn't build enough cottages.

[Zeb]

He's a "guest blogger".

[Baylen Linnekin]

This is true. But the Occam's butter knife theories above are more interesting.

[Terrorific]

The Japanese "invested" in golf club memberships for chrissake, leaving us with a shit-ton of empty golf courses. Look up Mobara, Chiba on google maps and have your mind blown by the sheer number of courses they fit into the area.

All on mountains and hilly as fuck.

[My Myself and I]

Wine Spectator had an article on this in this month's issue.

Actually, I've had some good wines from grapes grown in China and Japan.

[Kroneborge]

that chick is hot

[Colonel_Angus]

Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong are fucking not China.

[PRC]

Not for now...Just wait til we build us some aircraft carriers

[affenkopf]

Well Singapore is probably save even then. Hong Kong as well since they're already part of the PRC. Only Taiwan might get scared.

[PRC]

Yeah Taiwan is definitely screwed. My undergrad Chinese teachers were all Communist Party members and they were terrifyingly revanchist towards Taiwan.

[Dodgy Dojo]

Wow, OK man those Chinese folk are hot dude.

http://www.ano-post.tk