Michael Tse is the go-to guy when it comes to Australian wine. Since bringing his company, Everwise Wine, to the mainland 12 years ago, it has expanded to sell French, Spanish and now Italian bottles, but Tse still makes a point of sourcing all the Australian produce himself.
We spoke to Tse about differences between the best Australian wines out there, what grapes to pair with South Chinese food and the gradual easing of tariffs on importing wine to the mainland.
How did your wine business start out?
I didn’t study wine when I went to uni, I studied electronics and computers, and I made my money from those. I’ve always been drinking wine, so at first I started the wine business purely as a hobby. I had quite a large collection of wine and I just swapped with friends…
I wanted to change my career. In the computer business it’s very hard, you have no friends, you can’t share any secret. So I made a career change to wine and started from there to import.
When we first started, we only did Australian wine and a little bit of New Zealand. Even back then, 20 years ago, in Hong Kong – even in Hong Kong – Australian wine was nothing. They all drank French wine, pretty much like a few years ago in China. Even now, people know about Australian wine, but pretty much say that French wine is the best. And at that time there was only French wine in Hong Kong too. So we made our name with Australian wine, and even today we’re still known as the Australian wine expert. We call ourselves an Australian wine specialist.
In Hong Kong, we actually sell more French and Spanish wine than Australian wine, but the image is [that] Everwise wine is Australian wine… Because of my background in Australia, our image is Australian wine, and this is our strength… I source all the wine myself, I go to visit them, I taste them.
What wine do you sell most of in China?
We sell mostly Australian wine, with a little bit of French, although we have a cheaper range of French wine and the volume is very high, but they are just for banquet wine or some type of gift. Our main focus is still Australian wine.
What is the difference between the wine business in HK and on the mainland?
My mind is in Australia and my knowledge is from Hong Kong. I tried to apply the same concept to China and failed in a big way. When I first started, I had a bar in Shanghai, I had a few shops. I started from Shanghai first before Guangzhou, and we had two offices there. And finally it was just too hard. I mean, the whole custom is different, the way of doing business is different.
The retail shops I have in Hong Kong, people will come in to buy wine. Over there [in Shanghai] – we changed location quite a few times, quite a few shops – no one walked into the shop. So that was wrong, that was wrong, the whole concept of having a shop, of wine, people will come in, that was wrong. It has to be based on the relationships, friends and, you know, you need to do wine business like that. So big learning curve, big learning curve.
Coming back to the south, in Guangzhou, helps a bit because I can speak the language much better – I can’t speak much Mandarin, so when I go to Shanghai I have my PA next to me all the time to interpret.
Is there a particular Australian wine you would recommend?
The image is that South Australian wine is the most talked about, especially from the Barossa Valley… They are bigger style, which basically is an icon for Australia style being big and heavy, and the color is like black rather than red.
However, I have a belief that the best wines from Australia are not necessarily from South Australia. They may be from Victoria, and maybe some from Western Australia, from Margaret River and that type of places. They have a much cooler climate…
For everyday drinking, especially for Chinese food, you need a cool climate wine. And I always say drinking a pinot noir from Victoria is the best. It’s much softer, much more complex. While if you look at the American-style of cuisine – big steak, chips, burger – you might need a South Australian wine.
What is the ideal wine to pair with dim sum, a South Chinese favorite?
I drink quite a lot of white wine as well, and I think a lot of the Chinese cuisine should go with white wine more than red wine, even though if you go for the red wine you should go for some softer wine. For dim sum, that type of style, I would go for a Riesling or a Semillon, a little bit more sour, a little bit more acid, to really help the texture.
What are some of the things you’re most excited about coming up this year?
We’ve had really strong growth in the last few years while some other wine companies, they are suffering because of the sudden shift from the super premium wine, used for gifts or to show off, to everyday, real drinking wine. In 2016, we will concentrate more… on Italian wine. We will still focus on Australian wine, but branch out more.
And also we will branch out to do more for private clients. Previously, wine was pretty much for entertainment… but I can see more and more people, just private individuals, they are drinking wine for enjoyment…. We want private customers to drink wine at home or very, very casually with friends. And I can see it’s not a big thing yet, but it is starting for local Chinese.
How do you plan to encourage that?
Firstly, through my own contacts, but also through online, through WeChat. We will do more cross promotions with companies like Alibaba, Taobao, to branch out to a different level of market… They have a much wider platform.
The only problem for us is that our wines are all good wine, all quite expensive wine comparatively. Right now, the online platforms are concentrating on super cheap wine, like RMB100 for three bottles – I don’t even know how they can afford the shipping costs! So that will be a challenge for us, to go in but at a different price level. We will also work with Wine Australia to give wine courses.
Have you considered adding Chinese wine to your portfolio?
Actually, I have some very good friends who have a vineyard in China and do very good wine, but the interesting thing is, quality wine made in China is also quite expensive too, even more expensive than Australian wine! So they are very premium.
The bulk of Chinese wine is very low quality, so I’m not talking about those, but there are some good wines, and they are very expensive too. So right now, until they really settle down and have a good production or whatever they might do to bring the price down to be competitive... I won’t look at it.
"I don’t even know how many taxes there are, but in total we pay about 48 to about 50 percent"
The taxes China places on imported wine are notoriously high. Is the situation loosening up at all?
It’s getting better. China and Australia have signed an agreement that starting from 2016, so from now, the import tax of 18 percent will slowly drop to 0 by 2018. But that’s only the import tax, and you know China has – I don’t even know how many taxes there are, but in total we pay about 48 to about 50 percent. And this is only taxes, and there are different charges as well. When you bring in the wine you need to get the certificates, and there are quite a few of them – and they all cost money.
That’s insane!
Hong Kong has zero tax. And tax is one thing, but also the cost of bringing wine to Hong Kong is very low: the customs are so quick, you don’t need certificates. Food law in the originating country – if you pass the food law over there, you can import to Hong Kong without additional labels for wine. In China, you have to put the Chinese label, you have to get the certificate, so many things.
Is it quite common for wine to get stopped at Chinese customs?
I have seen people, especially those bringing cheaper wines, being stopped many, many times and just bounced back. So you need to be careful, especially with wine from France, the lower quality wine. They often have some problems.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to start getting into wine more?
Drink with friends. And drink with people who already know something about wine… Whenever I ask my son or my daughter, “What do you think about this,” they answer, “It smells like alcohol.” Which is true! But if you drink with someone who says, mm, don’t you smell some mint as well or a hint of chocolate – of course there is no mint in there, there is no chocolate added to the wine; we are just talking about common terminology. They do not smell like mint, they do not smell like strawberries, but give you that idea. Once you have that, you can say, ah, this is what you mean by strawberries. If you don’t have anyone to coach you, it’s very hard to pick up those names.
And also, there are a lot of fruit names used in Europe and overseas – we don't have those fruits here. So we can develop our own terminology too, and Hong Kong does a really good thing about that.
You really need to drink with friends who know a bit about wine, go to wine appreciation courses and that type of thing, and once you pick it up to a certain level, it’s easy…
Drinking with a few people means you can have more than one bottle of wine, and you can see the difference. If you are not familiar with it, you cannot remember how a wine tastes, but if you took two side by side, you can tell the difference.
For more information on Everwise Wine, visit the official website.
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