Reporter's log Rebecca Lo

'I don't want to talk about the Euro; I'd rather talk about wine," says Athens-based Paul Pavlides, general manager of Delight Trading, a company specializing in the export of wine, spirits and olive oil from Greece's many islands.

Pavlides has an office in Xiamen's Siming District, where his team carefully researches current trends in the Chinese market.

The product he is launching at Vinexpo 2012 is a refined spin on the popular national spirit Metaxa. A heady combination of brandy and Greece's best vintage muscat, the elegantly minimal glass bottle appeals to the Chinese preference for avant-garde design.

On the palette, it has that rush of warmth associated with mellow nights, with lingering notes of sweet fruit that immediately puts you into a happier state of mind.

Naturally, drinking brandy at 11 am will make anyone happy. But it is all in a day's work.

Pavlides' products are some of the highlights at this year's Vinexpo 2012. The Hong Kong fair tag teams with its elder sister in Bordeaux, which is held on odd numbered years.

Since December 2011, every single spot at Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Center's 10,500-square-meter floor area has been booked - and the dominant country holding court is France.

French was spoken more often than Chinese on the fairgrounds, and Grand Cru master classes were standing room only events.

Over in the Portuguese collection of distributors and labels, Portugall Wines' Lisbon based export director Paulo Marques is introducing some of his best vinho verde and vinho tinto from Douro, Dao, Bairrada and Alentejo - and it turns out that you can judge a wine by its label.

I select the prettiest in the bunch, and he agreed that it is also one of his top vintages.

"You can still get pretty good, reasonably priced Portuguese wine from Macao," Marques notes.

Positioned at strategic point-of-sales hotspots such as Macao Ferry Terminal's many duty free shops, travelers are spoiled when it comes to choice for reds and port.

Marques hopes to supplement that with smaller, more boutique wineries that would appeal to sophisticated wine aficionados.

"The state of the Euro doesn't really affect me very much, since I'm concentrating on finding business outside of Europe," says Giovanni Oliva, the Asia sales and marketing director for Grandi Vini d'Italia Group.

With an office in Singapore but most of his time spent on airplanes and airports, Oliva represents eight family-run wineries from six regions across northern and central Italy including Piedmont and Tuscany.

His biggest market is still Japan, and he believes that Italy's lukewarm reception in Asia has something to do with his homeland's policy of producing quantity over quality during the mid-20th century.

"That's completely changed now," he says. "Italy has grape varieties that exist nowhere else. Before, we were just calling it wine. Now, we talk about where they come from and what they consist of."

At a master class hosted by masters of wine Bob Campbell and Gerard Basset, we tasted a total of 10 flights of New Zealand Pinot Noir from regions as diverse as Wairarapa and Central Otago.

While most connoisseurs argued for the wine with the most promise, I liked the Villa Maria Single Vineyard Taylors Pass Marlborough Pinot Noir 2010 best - because it was the one immediately drinkable and the softest on my palette.

Most people in China don't cellar and we are so used to buying New World wine for immediate consumption that to taste ones while trying to gauge their potential was somewhat of a novelty.

In contrast, at Beringer's master class held by its winemaker emeritus Ed Sbragia, we were judging wine by their taste that very second.

Four flights of 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon were up for contemplation, and we traveled through Napa Valley from Mount Veeder to Mount Howell. We ended with a private reserve - what Sbragia refers to as "more than a sum of its parts."

I agreed with Sbragia that it wasn't as interesting or complex as the Bancroft Vineyard, with its 3 percent Cabernet Franc to help elongate the finish and give it an edge.

And Sbragia sums it up best when he shrugs and says: "In the end, a good wine is one that tastes good."

(China Daily 06/03/2012 page5)