All too often we take for granted what is readily available, attributing greater value to the rare and inaccessible without subjecting it to the same kind of quality testing. The cachet of the exotic can be its own selling point: the word “imported” is often added to a description in order to justify a more elevated price, or simply to imply greater desirability.

In the days before Gauteng became the most important market for Cape wine (that, incidentally, was less than 30 years ago), imported wine accounted for a greater percentage of the Highveld’s premium domestic consumption. This may have been because the choice of what was available from the Cape was considerably less than it is today. It would also have had something to do with pre-Rubicon exchange rates.

In the early 1980s a young but decent vintage of Château Mouton Rothchild sold for a mere R14 a bottle. Nederburg Auction reds would certainly have traded for much the same amount. Even occasional wine drinkers of that era would naturally have gravitated towards the promise of anything imported on a wine list.  Probably they weren’t wrong, as long as they chose a reasonable price threshold. When a bottle of 1966 Romanée-Conti costs R30 it hardly makes sense to spend even a third of that sum on something quite ordinary.

Much has happened since then. The collapse of the rand has sent the price of quality international appellations well beyond the reach of the casual drinker. In the meantime, the focus on quality and the extraordinary growth in the number of top producers in SA has increased the premium local offering exponentially. A new generation of South African wine consumers would probably rather drink a good example of a well-known Cape wine than take their chances on an unknown import. In fact, we now have a kind of reverse snobbery where “local is lekker”, especially if you don’t have to pay over the top for the pleasure.

This situation is not without its contradictions. We know not to be seduced by the mere fact of vinous exoticism, but equally we are sceptical about the proposition of overpriced local wine. We say things like “Sauvignon Blanc shouldn’t really sell for more than R100 a bottle”, but those in the know pay a lot more for a Pouilly Fumé.

South Africans do not often treat wine with the same generosity evident in their car purchases. Compare this with Hong Kong, where the cars are generally less flashy but the tolerance for higher-priced wines means the spectrum of what is on offer has breadth and complexity. Though all wine sales are now duty free, there is very little worth drinking for less than R100 a bottle and a great deal that is consumed for more than R1 000.

This readiness to spend more on good wine yielded an interesting result when the wine duties were abolished. (Over a two-year period they reduced first from 100% to 50% and then were removed entirely.) Consumers didn’t buy cheaper, they simply traded up. It appears that wine drinkers in Hong Kong are more willing to invest in quality than the average South African consumer. With it there is an open- mindedness about appellation that may come as a surprise to those who stereotype this Asian wine hub as the most brand- conscious place in the world.

On a recent trip to Hong Kong to assess the effect of this new duty-free trading environment, I traipsed through several wine shops trying to determine what products (and which countries of origin) appealed to their customers. For a variety of reasons, SA appears to be particularly well positioned. Former trade attaché Greg Deeb is a proactive partner in one of the smartest wine clubs and wine storage facilities in Hong Kong. He has been a regular buyer at the Cape Winemakers Guild Auctions for several years. As a result, the prestige end of the South African wine market is familiar to a surprising number of serious consumers in Hong Kong. Walking through the storage bunker at Deeb’s Crown Cellars, it was surprising and pleasing to see a sumptuous array of wines from Thelema, Jordan, Kanonkop and Vergelegen packed in between the crates of Château Cheval Blanc, Château Petrus and Chambertin.

In the more boutique outlets such as Watsons, Thelema Cabernet is available for R300 — roughly the price of the second labels of classed-growth Bordeaux. Incidentally, Thelema’s Reserve Cabernet, The Mint, was on the shelf for R500 — about half what you would pay in the same shop for a bottle of Dom Perignon.

Vergelegen Merlot sells for R275 while Boekenhoutskloof Semillon — priced at R350 — fetches more than the seemingly more iconic Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc of New Zealand.

It is clear that brand SA is held in reasonably high esteem in Hong Kong. For them Chile is the discount category and Australia a source of reliable, but not overly desirable, reds. If we are to appreciate fully the quality of what we often take for granted in this country, perhaps we need to revisit our winelands but with international eyes.

From The Weekender 11 April 2009