Lull in luxe liquor may be blessing in disguise
Recent news reports suggested that consumption of expensive alcohol may be showing signs of life, after shipments of cognac from France to China jumped 42 percent in the first nine months of 2015. Those figures from industry association BNIC presumably brought smiles to the boardrooms of liquor giants like LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton and Remy Cointreau SA, but managers of high-end restaurants and bars in Beijing tell China Daily they aren't seeing a bump in their sales yet.
That French brandy, presumably in Chinese warehouses, is seen as a bet on better times in 2016.
Meanwhile, some grape growers in China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region have reported having trouble selling all of their 2015 harvest - even though this vintage is predicted to be a stellar year.
