Côte d’Or, Burgundy, France

Are great Burgundies Asia’s new wine obsession?James Suckling is convinced

At a recent lunch hosted by Peter Lam in Hong Kong, the tycoon served four excellent Burgundy and two superb Bordeaux wines. The Burgundies were: 1996 Coche-Dury Meursault Perrieres, 1985 Armand Rousseau Chambertin-Clos de Bèze, 1985 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (DRC) and 1962 Leroy La Romanée. The Bordeaux were 1997 Haut-Brion white and 1961 Palmer.

Top-selling DRC wines

“I poured the Bordeaux for you, since I know you like it so much,” said my host Lam. “I hardly drink it any more.”

The top wine collectors of Asia are now obsessed with Burgundy. Wine merchants say their best customers are now drinking the likes of drc and Leroy instead of Lafite Rothschild and Cheval Blanc.

The best vineyards of Burgundy – along the Côte d’Or – cover about 28,500 hectares. It’s from there that the finest chardonnays and pinot noirs originate. The gentle hillsides of the Côte d’Or produce refined and structured wines. Not only are the best highly drinkable when young, they also age extremely well.

The most memorable wine in my life as a wine critic was a bottle of 1864 Bouchard Père et Fils La Romanée. The red was in perfect condition and tasted of red fruit, but had a deep and earthy character like rare and expensive black tea. I can still taste it now after almost 20 years. And I drank it with the 80-year-old priest who owned the vineyard in Burgundy.

Combine the region’s best wines with the complexity of the wine producers and vineyards, and it makes for the most fascinating study in fine wines. It is like going to the Louvre in Paris as a young art student and spending the rest of your life studying its collection. If you love Burgundy, then you understand that you will never know enough about it. It’s just too complex.

The production of the best wines is also very limited. A first growth like Lafite or Latour may make 15,000 to 25,000 cases of wine in a given year, while a prime Burgundy such as drc will produce only a few hundred bottles. Some producers only make one barrel of a given wine.

“Bordeaux is not interesting anymore,” says Hendra Anwar, a well-known Indonesian collector who lives in Hong Kong and Los Angeles. “Burgundy is a fascinating subject and the wines are much rarer. You give more face to people if you pour Burgundy.”

Some say Burgundy’s top wine estate, drc, is now the wine of choice in the inner circles of Beijing and Shanghai. “It’s less interesting to give Lafite or serve it to an important person in the government, if they know that it’s being consumed or given to mid-level officials as well,” says Peter Viem Kwok, a Hong Kong-based businessman with connections in Beijing and across China.

Proof of the growing Chinese regard for the best Burgundies comes with the rocketing prices for rare wines at Hong Kong auctions. A two-day Acker Merrall & Condit sale last November – featuring one of the finest Burgundy collections ever, from the cellar of celebrated New York collector Don Stott – brought in almost US$14.5 million. Dozens of lots comprising leading Burgundies were sold, including drc, Georges Roumier, Domaine Dujac, Armand Rousseau, Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé, Clos du Tart, Domaine Leflaive and Emmanuel Rouget.

Acker Merrall & Condit CEO Kapon with a bottle of 1990 DRC

“We are thrilled with the unparalleled results of the sale, the most important Burgundy sale ever,” says John Kapon, ceo of Acker Merrall & Condit. “The results are testament to the growing demand for Burgundy in the international marketplace – and prove that Chinese wine lovers have diversified their interest and taste in appreciation and collecting.”

Don’t expect prices for the best wines from Burgundy to go anywhere but up. A Hong Kong wine merchant says he sells leading examples for two to three times the price of a year ago. Last year a bottle of 1985 Armand Rousseau Chambertin-Clos de Bèze sold for about US$1,300. Today it goes for roughly US$3,850.

The hottest names in white Burgundy at the moment include, in order of preference: drc, Coche-Dury, Domaine Leflaive, Domaine Guy Roulot, Marquis de Laguiche (Drouhin) and Domaine Niellon. And among the reds: Henri Jayer, drc, Armand Rousseau, Georges Roumier, Leroy, Domaine Méo- Camuzet, Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair, Domaine Dujac and Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé.

The upper echelon of wine collectors in Asia is now buying small, insider names as well as more famous labels. They encompass the likes of Domaine Fourrier, Philippe Pacalet, Domaine Cécile Tremblay, Pierre Morey, Domaine Robert Groffier and Anne Gros.

Of course, they purchase grand crus such as Mazis-Chambertin and Richebourg, but they are just as interested in wines from lesser-known vineyards such as Vosne-Romanée Petits Monts and Chambolle Musigny les Amoureuses. Interestingly, they buy across the board in young vintages, while also buying more of the finest, such as 2009, 2008, 2005, 2003 and 2002. The older wines they purchase are usually from the best years, such as 1991, 1990, 1989. Research suggests they don’t like more aged Burgundies such as 1969, 1959 or older.

The question now is whether this groundswell will carry on to all Burgundies and whether more mainstream Asian wine lovers will buy them. I was recently at a tasting at Watson’s Wine Cellar in Hong Kong, whose sales remain dominated by Bordeaux. “Burgundy is growing, but our customers still buy mostly Bordeaux,” says Jeremy Stockman, senior fine wine manager at Watson’s. “But if they do start buying more Burgundy and it really does catch on in China, then there is not going to be enough wine.”

Visit James Suckling at: www.jamessuckling.com