Wine Future Hong Kong 2011: Top 20 Tweets from Day One

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By Jim Boyce

A “who’s who” of writers, wine makers et al were on hand as Wine Future Hong Kong 2011 started today. Whether you think the right people are panelists or there should be more local representation, whether you expect the event to be informative and transformational or an ivory tower love-in, expect plenty of coverage. Mere mortals can follow from afar, including via Twitter and Weibo, as I did from a cafe in Beijing. Here are what I consider to be 20 top tweets, using the tag #wfhk11, all accompanied by an inane comment from me. I’ll post another list tomorrow. (You can follow me on Twitter here and here and on Weibo here.)

• @Nowandthen @winehero Mobile technology has given rise to the birth of the professional shopper: the consumer who knows the price of everything. [Now if we can only develop that technology so it will barter for us.]
• CloverHillWines “every time you open a bottle of wine, cheap or expensive, always respect what’s in the bottle.” [And by “respect”, I think he means finish it.]
• PhHUGON “in asia people know 2 words about wine bordeaux and Parker” @PanchoCampoMW [And Champagne. Now, how many Chinese words does the average Wine Future panelist know? Or Korean or Japanese or Thai?]
• Gabriella Opaz @rebeccagibb #WFHK11 New Media Panel: “Ironically, it was all old media types talking about new media rather than new media experts.” [How dare you! James Suckling has over 11,000 Twitter followers!]
• @rebeccagibb: A rather disappointing start to #WFHK11. Am hoping for better tomorrow. Find out what I thought http://www.rebeccagibb.com [C’mon, you guys. Stop disappointing Rebecca!]
• @richardsiddle V strange watching [movie director] Francis Ford Coppola on stage at #WFHK11. I bet he wishes he could say “cut” to some of the speakers. Me included. [I also bet he’s thinking about whose bed is going to get the horse’s head tonight. @rebeccagibb?]
• @thewinehub: “if you don’t like journalists, don’t invest in a winery” Jose Ortega [Better yet, also invest in a magazine.]
• @bigpinots: “[the]consumer is king!” Richard Siddle << shows what my dad knows; he always said Elvis was! [OK, @bigpinots, if you are not going to be serious, we might have to ask you to leave…]
• @ilkka_siren: wld B interesting 2 know if thr’s anything new since last Wine Future & has somethng bn accomplished? [Hong Kong is now a wine “hub”. Does that count?]
• @grapewallchina [my] prediction: biggest #wfhk11 impact will be 100s of attendees soon portraying selves as Asia / China wine experts. [Yes, I included my own tweet. How arrogant…]
• F. Coppola  ‘New World’ term not appropriate. Italy was new world for the Greeks. [Also, what is China, given its ancient history of making wine?]
• @PhHUGON: Many have been laughing at french & their terroir stories. New world countries are all coming to it now. [I guess we have to find a new reason at laugh at the French. How about this?]
• winekorea88: Solid points by @winehero Need to connect with consumer so they see wine as their world, not old or new world. [Or, and I’m just throwing this out there, Wayne’s World.]
• charles_perez: @simontam’s view is about Christie’s customers, #China’s main market as some commun line but #chinese expert will be better ! XIEXIE [Wait, are you saying the average Chinese consumer doesn’t patronize Christie’s?]
• WINEMAKER_35RT @thewinehub: if you don’t have love for #wine you can turn your investment to something else, another commodite… @PanchoCampoMW [Yes, and if you don’t love soy bean futures, don’t invest in them, either]
• @NikByrne: 26 billion litres of wine produced in 2010. Average price of each bottle sold in UK in 2010 was $2 (before tax and duties) [I wonder what the average for China is after factoring in this stuff.]

Oops, that’s only 16, not 20. I’ll try and do better tomorrow….

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