Page 31 - Sphere No.12 (Aug 2004)

SPHERE 29
trict, the gulf between the average punter
and connoisseur even extends to floors.
At street-level are the affordable New
World vintages. With few priced over
HK$200 and some bottles as low as
HK$88, the wines are in everyone’s
range, despite the 80% government tax.
Step up the stairs, however, and you
know you’re going to be spending more.
Here, customers explore the pricier “Old
World” of French champagnes , Bordeaux
and Burgundies alongside up-market vin-
tages from the Rhone Valley, Germany,
Spain and Italy.
There are still bargains to be found,
with champagnes costing from HK$200
and some decent French country wines
at half that price, but most vintages are
beyond most budgets – especially in the
temperature-controlled Fine Wine
Room, which is stocked with Grand
Crux, Premier Crux and ancient Italian
rarities, and where a Chateau Lafite
Rothschild 1982 will set you back
HK$10,900. Here, each bottle is not only
kept inside the room under lock and key,
but has its own individual security tag.
With around 9,000 wine-producing
chateaux, and 13,000 wine growers in the
Bordeaux region alone, Fine Wine
Manager Jeanette Peterson’s role is cru-
cial in ensuring that the Fine Wine
Rooms stock the very best vintages the
world has to offer.
“Fine Wines is a very specific area,” she
says. “It can be difficult to get access to
them because of worldwide demand. We
travel regularly to Bordeaux and other
regions to taste from the barrel and per-
suade suppliers of the importance of our
company. Customer relations is also very
important. Because of the high cost, they
want to talk about Fine Wines before
they buy.”
A new concept within this Fine Wine
retreat is a mini-club-style seating area
with wine magazines and reference
books so enthusiasts can relax and take
time to select what they want. Music
plays in the background and customers
can also watch Plasma TVs for informa-
tion on current promotions, wine pro-
duction techniques and vineyards. Also
scheduled are regular “Meet the Maker”
tastings with touring winemakers and
chateau owners.
“As a specialist retailer, we are a bit like
a cigar divan,” Nothhaft elaborates,
“we’re trying to make the customers feel
at home. It’s all part of upgrading our
overall concept and culture. Like
Starbucks or Pacific Coffee, we’re pre-
senting wine in a modern, consumer-
friendly way that suits metropolitan soci-
eties. Why sell wine from cellars anyway?
We want to make Watson’s Wine Cellar
a place customers want to come back to.
If you push customers in and out, they
tend to feel uncomfortable and leave
W hen Thomas Jefferson sailed
back to America from
Europe in 1789, he travelled
with a selection of fine French wines.
To ensure that no one would substitute
his bottles for inferior vintages during
the long voyage, the future President
of the United States personally signed
each one.
Today, two of those original bottles,
a 1784 and a 1787 vintage , are
the oldest in Badaracco’s im-
pressive collection.
“Their value would be whatever
someone was willing to pay,” says
General Manager Stefan Graf, “but
the company is not selling.”
Founded in Lugano on the Swiss-
Italian border in 1879, the company is
today a leading wine trader with one of
the largest vintage wine collections in
Europe, which numbers approximately
750,000 bottles.
Celebrating its 125th jubilee this year,
Badaracco was bought by Hutchison
in 2001 as a springboard into the
European market.
The acquisition was seen as a good
investment as the price was close to the
value of its store of rare and prestigious
vintage wines.
The collection includes one of the
world’s biggest selections of large-for-
mat (three-18-litre) bottles of old
wines, including a classic range of rare
40-50-year-old Italian vintages.
Badaracco specialises in acquiring
private collections from all over
Europe, both privately and at auction,
for onward sale. The Badaracco Price
List is a valuable guide for wine buyers
everywhere and the company receives
daily orders from collectors and
for special events.
The company also supplies quality
vintages to Watson’s Wine Cellar
and is set to play a signifi-
cant role in expansion
plans into the European
retail market.
An increasing demand
for wine tasting at
Badaracco’s cellars sees
regular groups of up to
60 people attending.
On the staff of
15 is Paolo Basso,
the world’s No 2
sommelier. He will
take part in the
World Sommelier
Championships
in Athens dur-
ing the 2004
Olympics.
Badaracco also
produces Ratafià
del Ticino, a tradi-
tional Swiss-Italian
walnut liquor.
G OOD, BETTER, BADARACCO