Originally Posted by
onobond
The wine thing, especially (expensive) reds is a generation symbol with the Chinese. Beeing in Hong Kong less than 2 months before turn-over in 1997, we went to genuine Chinese restaurants. At the large round tables for 8-12 persons it was an obvious difference, most guys in the 50+ generation drinking Hennessy XO or Martell XO, the fewer tables with the younger guys had Chateaux Petrus, Chateau Lafitte-Rotschild, Chateau Haut Brion or similar on the tables.
Returning last year, we saw a couple of tables (in 5 days) with 80+ aged guys drinking Cognac, 1st and 2nd Cru red Bordeaux were plenty around us in the majority of tables.
Kind of topical for me as I'm sitting in Cognac (or rather, in a "chateau" in a town adjacent to Cognac) as I type. So is Cognac really going out of style? I have to wonder what the impact is of reduced Chinese consumption as some 80% of the stuff is exported.