Immortal Bordeaux 永远的波尔多

By Yanyun Wang

Bordeaux is the wine tutor for Chinese wine lovers in some ways. As early as the wine market is blank in China, Bordeaux foresees the importance of Chinese market. Right now, Bordeaux is thriving in China, which is a legend.

Based on the data from CIVB, China becomes the largest import country of Bordeaux. In the same year, the import quantity of Bordeaux in America is 1.47 hundred million, which declined 60% than 2009. Since the wines from other areas are considered by the wine lovers, Bordeaux has a mini crisis, however, Chinese still has special feeling about Bordeaux .

The high price of Bordeaux in China is also a surprise. Hong Kong becomes the center of wine auction, and most of the products are Bordeaux. The total price of auction in Hong Kong is more than the total of London and New York. In America, people prefer the wine with lower price but has good quality from other regions. The price of Bordeaux for one bottle is $13.86, but in America, Japan, Belgium and other countries, the price is lower than $10. In the year of 2010, the highest price of Bordeaux for one bottle is $37 in Hong Kong!

So what is the reason that Chinese wine lovers admire Bordeaux so much?

Sébastien Lecocq and Michael Visser from INRA reveals that the price of wine has little contact with flavor, the most important factors that affect the price are fineness, grade and year, these objective criteria. So Chinese wine lovers have a very deep understanding of Bordeaux, and the good quality makes them so interested in Bordeaux.

As we can see, Bordeaux still has a long journey in Chinese wine market. Even the domestic wines are developing, but Bordeaux will always be the treasure for Chinese wine lovers.

在中国葡萄酒世界，波尔多最先还是以师者及友人的姿态出现在我们的面前。早在中国葡萄酒市场还是一片空白的时候，波尔多人就预见了中国市场的重要性。如今，波尔多在中国葡萄酒市场一枝独秀，堪称传奇。

根据波尔多葡萄酒行业协会（CIVB）的数据，2010年，中国的波尔多葡萄酒进口量和交易额均名列榜首，中国已成为名副其实的波尔多葡萄酒第一大进口国。同年，美国的波尔多酒进口额为9900万欧元（约合1.47亿美元），较2009年下降60%。2013年，虽然随着法国勃艮第、德国、意大利以及美国等产区的顶级葡萄酒被纳入了人们的选择范围，导致波尔多葡萄酒有所下滑，威胁到了其霸主地位，但这并不妨碍世人对波尔多葡萄酒的敬仰。

波尔多葡萄酒在中国市场的高价也是体现其一枝独秀的标志之一，香港已经成为全球的葡萄酒拍卖中心，拍品以波尔多酒为主导，其拍卖额已经超过伦敦和纽约两大拍卖市场的总额。在美国，由于经济尚未完全走出低谷，加之当地人更青睐其它产区的低价好酒，导致波尔多在美国的市场并非像在中国市场般鼎盛。中国进口波尔多的单瓶均价在13.86美元左右，而美国、日本、比利时等国进口波尔多的均价都在10美元以下，如果将中国和香港市场分开统计，数据更加惊人——2010年，从香港进口的波尔多葡萄酒单瓶均价高达37美元！

那么，到底是什么因素导致中国葡萄酒爱好者如此钟情波尔多呢？

法国国家农业研究所（INRA）的Sébastien Lecocq和Michael Visser的研究表明，葡萄酒价格与口味之间的相关性很小。他们曾做过一个对比，先让专家们随机品尝1000多瓶波尔多和勃艮第的葡萄酒，然后再通过使用价格公式进行对比研究，结果发现葡萄酒价格在很大程度上都取决于如成色、等级和酿制年份之类的客观标准，而对口味和气味的判断则显得很随意。这样看来，中国消费者对波尔多葡萄酒有着较为全面的认识，其在中国葡萄酒爱好者心中的地位无人能撼。

可以预见，未来波尔多酒在中国仍然会走得顺风顺水。虽然众多其他产区的葡萄酒正在涌入中国，中国本土的国产品牌也正在不断壮大，但绝佳成色的波尔多酒依然会成为葡萄酒爱好者追捧的瑰宝。

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