It was in June 2000 when Greg De'Eb, a diplomat at the South African High Commission in Hong Kong, attended a conference organized by the territory's trade-development council asking whether the region could become the wine-trading center of Asia. It provided, he says, the genesis of an idea. If this small city-state was serious about attracting some of the greatest names from Bordeaux and Burgundy, then the collectors who bought these wines were going to need somewhere to store them.
2000年6月，时任南非驻香港高级专员公署（South African High Commission in Hong Kong）外交官的格雷戈里 迪耶布（Greg De'Eb）参加了由香港贸易发展局组织的会议，主题是探讨香港能否成为亚洲的葡萄酒贸易中心。他说这次会议启发了他。如果这个弹丸之地真心想吸引波尔多（Bordeaux）和勃艮第（Burgundy）最著名的葡萄酒品牌，那么购买这些名酒的藏家们就需要找地方贮藏它们。 With cellar space at a premium on the island, Mr.De'Eb, together with U.S. businessman Jim Thompson, decided to provide it. Their search took them to Deep Water Bay Drive, an unassuming road that snakes off the main thoroughfare that carries busy commuter traffic down toward the south of the island. 由于香港可做酒窖的空间稀少而昂贵，迪耶布与美国商人吉姆 汤普森（Jim Thompson）决定给人们提供这样一个场所。他们在深水湾径（Deep Water Bay Drive）找到了一个理想之所，深水湾径是从深水湾道上蜿蜒分出的一条不起眼的支路，深水湾道是通向香港岛南区的主干道，每天上下班时间十分繁忙。 It is here, 18 meters below ground, in a former British army munitions bunker, that much of Hong Kong's fine wine is stored. "We have between one billion and two billion Hong Kong dollars worth of wine stored here," equating to 100 million euros -200 million euros, Mr. De'Eb explains over a coffee in the club house at Crown Wine Cellars. "Which works out at around one million bottles, or 200,000 cases." Vinexpo亚太区葡萄酒和烈酒展览会刚刚在香港举行了迄今为止最繁忙的贸易展。这个理想之所就是如今的皇冠酒窖（Crown Wine Cellars），位于地面以下18米，曾经是英军的弹药库，如今这里贮藏着香港大部分的名贵葡萄酒。在皇冠酒窖的会所里，迪耶布边喝咖啡边解释说，这里贮藏了价值10至20亿港元的葡萄酒，相当于1至2亿欧元，总计大概有100万瓶，20万箱。 Twelve years on from that conference and not only has Hong Kong become the fine-wine trading hub of Asia but it is now the largest auction market for fine wine in the world. Following a move by the Hong Kong administration in Fepuary 2008 to remove a 40% import duty on fine wine, auction houses including Sotheby's, Christie's, Bonhams and Acker Merrall & Condit now sell more wine in Hong Kong than in London and New York put together. 2000年那场会议后已经过去了12年，如今香港不仅成为了亚洲高端葡萄酒贸易的枢纽，还是全世界最大的精品葡萄酒拍卖市场。随着香港当局于2008年2月取消40%的高档葡萄酒进口关税，包括苏富比（Sotheby's）、佳士得（Christie's）、宝龙（Bonhams）和Acker Merrall & Condit在内的拍卖行现在在香港卖出的葡萄酒比在伦敦和纽约卖出的总和还要多。 "I would say between 74% and 78% of what we have stored with us is from Bordeaux," says Mr. De'Eb. "This is followed by wines from Australia, Napa and, increasingly, Burgundy. In Hong Kong at the moment Burgundy is hot." 迪耶布说，我们这里贮藏的74%到78%的酒都来自波尔多，紧随其后的是来自澳洲和纳帕谷（Napa）的葡萄酒，勃艮第的葡萄酒也越来越多，目前勃艮第酒在香港很受追捧。 To underline this geographical shift from the mercantile trading routes of Western Europe and the North Atlantic, Vinexpo Asia-Pacific has just held its busiest trade show in Hong Kong to date. Last week, more than 15,000 wine professionals from 28 countries converged on the enclave to talk wine and the business of selling it. 亚太区葡萄酒和烈酒展览会（Vinexpo Asia-Pacific）刚刚在香港举行了迄今为止最繁忙的贸易展，这再次凸显了葡萄酒商业交易路线从西欧与北大西洋地区的东移。5月29至31日，来自28个国家的超过15,000名葡萄酒行家齐聚香港，探讨葡萄酒并交流相关生意经。 But when Mr. De'Eb talks about Burgundy or Bordeaux, he is referring to the greatest wines from those regions, such as Chateau Lafite Rothschild in Bordeaux or Domaine de la Romanee-Conti and Domaine Georges Roumier in Burgundy. When I visited a wine merchant in the Central district of Hong Kong, the shelves were filled with names one would more often encounter in a fine-wine auction catalog.
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