【英语生活】知名酒商在沪设立豪华葡萄酒会所

In a career that's flourished along with China's spectacular rise as a market for fine wines, entrepreneur Don St. Pierre Jr. has had his share of setbacks.

In 2008, the Executive Chairman of ASC Fine Wines spent nearly a month in detention in Shanghai during an investigation by city authorities into 'falsifying prices' among wine importers. No charges were ever filed, and Mr. St. Pierre describes the experience as 'character building.'

His fortitude is being tested again. On Saturday, Mr. St. Pierre presided over the opening of a five-story mansion in Shanghai's leafy former French Concession area dedicated to wine connoisseurship. ASC spent 28 million yuan ($4.5 million) on the sumptuous members-only club that was conceived when China's economy was booming -- and when prices of Lafite and other famous French wine brands were driven sky-high by Chinese buyers parading a national obsession with conspicuous consumption.

But the economy is now slowing. Making matters worse, President Xi Jinping has launched a government austerity campaign that's emptied out high-end restaurants and hotel banqueting rooms where expensive wine once flowed freely.

Mr. St. Pierre dismisses suggestions that his latest business venture is poorly judged. The timing, he insists 'is perfect.'

'When the tide goes out you see who's been swimming naked,' he told a news conference. Later, in an interview, he said that the boom years distorted China's wine market. An 'enormous number' of trading companies entered the import space, often without much knowledge of wine, leading to 'growing confusion.' Those companies are now in trouble, he says.

There's plenty of social activity at the so-called 'Wine Residence' -- although no swimming, with or without swimwear. That's because the basement pool in what was built as the club house of a luxury high-rise tower is now an enormous refrigerated wine cellar, with individual wine lockers for full members who spend over 150,000 yuan each year on wine at the club. (A 'social membership' is available for those who spend a more modest 75,000 yuan each year.)

The first floor of the stately 6,500-square meter building is a retail space, open to the public, where bottles start at an affordable 200 yuan. The higher floors contain lavishly appointed rooms for dining and wine tasting. The top floor has a dance floor and cigar room, where on Saturday night some of the world's most prominent winemakers partied with Chinese billionaires in an atmosphere much more in tune with Shanghai in the Roaring 1920s and '30s than the sober present day.

Mr. St Pierre co-founded ASC in 1996 with his father, Don St. Pierre Sr., an auto industry pioneer in China who formerly ran Beijing Jeep, a Chinese joint venture with Chrysler Corp. The company, now majority owned by the Suntory Group, had 1.2 billion yuan in revenue last year, of which more than 80% is in premium wines selling for 200 yuan or more.

ASC, says Mr. St. Pierre Jr., is less dependent than some competitors on sales to government channels. He believes that demand for wine will increase 'steadily,' but there will be 'ups and downs along the way.' Still, ASC is targeting a sales increase of 20% this year from last year, he says.

The company has taken a 10-year lease on the building at 15 million yuan per year and has an option to extend for an additional five years. A full-time staff of around 70 people will run the operation.

Christophe Salin, president of Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite), who also attended the opening ceremony, said wine sales to China were down.

'We know for a fact that for the top wines for maybe another year, we're not going to sell as we used to sell to China,' he said, but added that the wine would be sold to other countries.

There is a silver lining. 'It's an opportunity to get more people into the wine market,' he said because people would not have to 'pay great money to enjoy great wines.'

China will remain a key market, said Mr. Salin, noting that his company sells one third of its wines to Asia, 'and the fast growing market in Asia is China.'

ASC said sales of DBR Lafite in China grew by more than 20% in 2012 year-on-year and said growth would be 'stable' in 2013, without giving a figure.

Sales of wine in China reached 257 billion yuan, roughly $41 billion, in 2012, up 20% from a year earlier, according to research firm Euromonitor International.

Wine consumption per capita in China is still a fraction of that in other countries. Chinese drinkers consumed only 1.4 liters of wine per person in 2011, far below the French average of 53.2 liters per person, according a report issued earlier this year by London-based research company International Wine & Spirit Research. It predicts China's per capita consumption will increase to 2.1 liters per person over the next three years.

ASC Fine Wines圣皮尔精品酒业斥资人民币2,800万元在上海前法租界打造的品酒大厦。
随着中国作为高端葡萄酒市场引人瞩目的崛起，沈品同(Don St. Pierre Jr.)的事业也风生水起，但他并非没有经历过挫折。

Fanfan Wang/The Wall Street Journal这家会员制俱乐部内的餐桌2008年，在上海市有关部门调查葡萄酒进口商“虚报价格”的行为期间，身为圣皮尔精品酒业公司(ASC Fine Wines)执行董事长的沈品同在上海被拘留了将近一个月。他没有受到指控。沈品同说，这段经历影响了他的性格。

他的毅力如今又一次受到考验。上周六，沈品同主持了一个致力于葡萄酒鉴赏的五层豪华会所的开张仪式，该会所位于上海绿树成荫的前法租界地区。圣皮尔精品酒业斥资人民币2,800万元打造了这个豪华的会员制俱乐部。构思这个俱乐部之时，中国的经济还在高歌猛进，拉菲(Lafite)和其他知名法国葡萄酒品牌的价格也因为中国买家对炫耀性消费的执迷而被推高到天价。

但是中国经济现在正在放缓。更糟的是，习近平号召政府部门厉行节约，这让高端饭店和酒店的宴会厅冷清起来，而这些场所曾经消费了大量的昂贵葡萄酒。

有人说他建立这个俱乐部的商业决定不明智，沈品同不以为然。他坚持认为，目前的时机再好不过。

他在新闻发布会上说，退潮之后你才会发现谁在裸泳。他在随后的采访中说，繁荣的年份对中国的葡萄酒市场造成了扭曲。大量贸易公司进入进口领域，他们通常没有掌握很多葡萄酒的知识，因此越来越迷惑。他说，这些公司现在陷入麻烦了。

在这个所谓的“藏酒轩”将举办大量社交活动──不过没有人游泳，无论穿不穿泳衣。这栋豪华的摩天大楼里原本有一个地下游泳池，是作为这个奢华建筑的俱乐部的一部分修建的，但现在已经成了一个巨大的有冷冻设备的酒窖，所有会员在这里都有一个独立的葡萄酒柜，这些会员每年要在俱乐部花15万元购买葡萄酒。（每年花费人民币7.5万元的顾客可以获得“社交会员”的身份。）

这座气势恢宏的建筑总面积6,500平方米。大厦的第一层是一个对外开放的零售商店，这里的葡萄酒的起价为大众可以接受的200元。楼上则设有装饰豪华的用餐和品酒房间。建筑顶层有一个舞厅兼雪茄室，每周六晚上，世界一些最有名的葡萄酒制造商与中国的亿万富翁在这里开派对，与清醒的当下相比，这里的气氛更像喧嚣的上世纪二三十年代的上海。

Fanfan Wang/The Wall Street Journal大厦内景沈品同1996年和父亲圣皮尔(Don St. Pierre Sr.)共同创办了圣皮尔精品酒业公司，他父亲在中国是汽车行业的一个先锋，曾经负责运营北京吉普(Beijing Jeep)，这是克莱斯勒公司(Chrysler Corp.)在中国的合资公司。圣皮尔精品酒业目前由三得利控股公司(Suntory Holdings)控股，去年的营收为12亿元，其中超过80%来自售价超过200元的高端葡萄酒销售。

沈品同说，与一些竞争对手相比，圣皮尔精品酒业不那么依赖对政府渠道的销售。他认为，对葡萄酒的需求将不断增长，但在这一过程中会有一些波动。尽管如此，他说，圣皮尔精品酒业今年的目标是销售额同比增长20%。

这家公司已经签订了这栋建筑10年的租赁合同，每年的租金为人民币1,500万元，可以续租五年。会所由一个大约70人的全职团队负责运营。

罗斯柴尔德男爵拉菲集团(Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite))的总裁萨兰(Christophe Salin)也参加了开业典礼。他说，对中国的葡萄酒销售已经下降。

他说，我们知道，对于顶级葡萄酒来说，或许又会经历一个在华销售情况不及往年的年份。但他补充说，他的公司将向其他国家销售葡萄酒。

但也不是没有好消息。萨兰说，这是一个让更多人进入葡萄酒市场的机会，因为人们不再需要为购买优质葡萄酒花很多钱。

他说，中国仍然是一个重要市场。萨兰说，他的公司有三分之一的葡萄酒销往亚洲，而中国是亚洲增长最快的市场。

圣皮尔精品酒业称，罗斯柴尔德男爵拉菲集团2012年的在华销售额同比增长了20%以上，2013年的销售额将“稳定”增长，不过他没有给出具体数字。

研究机构欧睿信息咨询公司(Euromonitor International)的数据显示，中国2012年的葡萄酒销售额达到人民币2,570亿元，较上年增长20%。

中国的人均葡萄酒消费量依然只是其他一些国家的零头。伦敦的国际葡萄酒及烈酒研究所(International Wine & Spirit Research)今年早些时候发布的一份报告称，2011年中国人均葡萄酒消费量仅为1.4升，远低于法国人均53.2升的水平。该机构预测，未来三年内中国的人均葡萄酒消费量将增至2.1升。