Signature French Wines: a new online fine boutique wine store for Hong Kong and beyond

Signature French Wines: a new online fine boutique wine store for Hong Kong and beyond

At the beginning of last April, working as their Brand Ambassador / Sommelier, I helped to launch a brand new website called “Signature French Wines” at the KEE Club in Hong Kong. 

“Signature French wines” is an elegant and sophisticated new high-end boutique wine retail store online, designed to appeal to high-standard customers, offering a small yet growing and interesting high quality and carefully selected portfolio of wines to the Asian market, based and predominantly focus on Hong Kong and Mainland China (for now, but this is only the beginning).

Strategically named to be easily remembered and obviously focusing on French wines, “Signature French wines” offers at present mostly Burgundy wines, and a few more labels intentionally selected from other regions like Alsace, Bordeaux, Rhone and Languedoc to broaden the portfolio and extend the choices for the customers.    

Targeting the high-end market of individual buyers, “Signature French Wines” is representing the wines within the portfolio of “Domaine des Grands Vins de France”, a Producer/Negociant company based in Nuits-Saint-Georges, the wine capital of the Côte de Nuits located in the northern part of the Côte d'Or, the limestone ridge that is at the heart of the upper Burgundy wine region.

"Domaine des Grands Vins de France" Bourgogne Pinot Noir, "Signature French Wines" card and my indispensable "Laguiole" Sommelier (corkscrew as it is more commonly called)

“Domaine des Grands Vins de France” possesses about 6 hectares of vines in the vicinity of Nuits-Saint-Georges where the founders, Jean-Yves Lehner and Christophe Grieshaber, have established their headquarter and the cellar where they vinify, age and bottle all of their wines.      

They produce, vinify and age about 30+ wines from the most renown Burgundian appellations, villages and crus of Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune area, including the ones offered by “Signature French wines”.

Despite the wines produced from their own vineyards, “Domaine des Grands Vins de France” also buys young wines and grapes from various producers and wineries located in Burgundy but also other regions in France to produce wines under their own label and brand.

Consequently, all the wines produced by "Domaine des Grands Vins de France" do not specify a specific producer or winery on the label, because they are all produced, vinify and age by “Domaines des Grands Vins de France” at their facility in Nuits-Saint-Georges. (I repeat myself, I know, but I would like to stress this point across for people that may still ask: but who is the producer again?”)  

The portfolio of “Signature French Wines” has been divided in mainly 4 categories implying quality and price ratio, for a more interesting and comprehensible understanding of the wines and the website structure itself.  

“Prestige Collection” 8 Burgundy wines available (2 whites and 2 reds) :

2006 Chassagne Montrachet,

2006 Corton-Charlemegne Grand Cru

2006 Volnay

2004 Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru “Les Crots”

2008 Bonnes Mares Grand Cru

2007 Savigny-Les-Beaunes 1er Cru “Les Peuillets”

2006 Pommard

2004 Nuits-Saint-Georges

“Burgundy Collection” 8 Burgundy wines available (3 whites and 5 reds)

2006 Bourgogne Chardonnay Grande Cuvee

2006 Chablis

2000 Meursault

2007 Bourgogne Rouge Pinot Noir Reserve Privee

2008 Bourgogne Rouge Hautes-Cotes-deNuits

2002 Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru “Aux Thorey”

2006 Nuits-Saint-Georges

2000 Chambolle-Musigny

“Discovery Collection” 6 wines from other French regions (2 whites and 4 reds)

2009 Gewurztraminer  Alsace

2009 Pinot Blanc Auxerrois Alsace

2009 Julienas Beaujolais

2007 Côtes-du-Rhône Rouge Cuvee Grande Reserve Rhone Valley

2010 Chateau Laborie Bordeaux Rouge

2009 Vin de Pays Cathare “Les Grandes Terres” Languedoc

"Signature Collection" 2 sparkling wines N# 8 and other wines with other N# coming soon

NV Signature N#8 white sparkling Loire Valley
NV Signature N#8 Rose sparkling Loire Valley 

I invite you to go to the website at “Signature French Wines” to find more details about availability, prices, pictures and more info about the wines. All the wines are only available through the website as they do not have a physical store in the street, hence the great prices on their wines. "Signature French Wines" guarantees all deliveries made through their website in Hong Kong to be delivered within 24 hours. They are not going through an importer and a distributor, the traditional way, they are importer / online retailer which also allow them to offer wines of great quality at very competitive prices. 

In comparison to most street wine retail stores in Hong Kong, which (in most case scenario and in my honest opinion after trying quiet a few of them) mostly offer poor storage condition, rarely talkative and not knowledgeable staff; “Signature French Wines” online store presents the wines under a different light with informative elements relevant to your interest such as grape variety, type of soil, region, food pairing, service temperature, etc…, in a short, condensed and professional manner like a Sommelier or any other wine professional will do. 

You can also go to “Domaine des Grands Vins de France”, to have a better understanding about who they are and what they produce. Make sure to arm yourself with a French dictionary as their website is only available in French.

Both, "Signature French Wines" and "Domaine des Grands Vins de France", aimed to offer their customers complex, structure and well-crafted wines that are reflecting their Terroir of origin and the typicity of the varietals, with the elegance and classicism especially renown to Burgundian wines. 

Signature French Wines Promotion and Events

Since the launch at the Kee club last April, the adventure and my role as Brand Ambassador / Sommelier for both “Signature French Wines” and “Domaine des Grands Vins de France”, aside of my daily responsibility as Restaurant Manager / Sommelier, brought me to participate to other events to do the promotion and marketing for both Brands and pour the wines for customers in order to help them discover the portfolio.

We were presents on the Azimut-Benetti booth, at the “Hainan Rendez-Vous”, a billionaire life-style exhibition of luxury yachts, private jets and prestigious cars cleverly located in Sanya, where the Chinese jet-set seems to spend a great deal of time on their vacation, like a Chinese Cote d’Azur-like.

Hainan Rendez-Vous 2012 entrance

Azimut-Benetti Boats at Hainan Rendez-Vous 2012

The Azimut-Benetti dock and booth in the background at Hainan Rendez-Vous 2012

Bugatti booth at Hainan Rendez-Vous

Lamborghini at Hainan Rendez Vous

Porsche at Hainan Rendez-Vous

Ferrari at Hainan Rendez-Vous

Azimut Boat with the hotel where I stayed in the far left background

“Hainan Rendez-Vous” took place from 5th-8th April in Sanya (Hainan Island, China), drawing China's ultra-high net worth individuals to the Riviera-like shores of Sanya for an unforgettable experience of intensive networking, fabulous entertainment, big ticket shopping and lifestyle discovery. The Azimut-Benetti Group chose Signature French Wines for their 150 guests and press, who savoured 2004, Saint Veran 2008 and Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2007.

"Domaine des Grands Vins de France" wine selection presented by "Signature French Wines" and poured by myself inside the Azimut-Benetti booth at Hainan Rendez-Vous

The Signature French Wines team (including myself) also did two events at “The Cat Street Gallery” in Hong Kong. 

One for the Peter Yuill’s exhibit on April 19th, where more than 200 of Hong Kong’s chic and stylish art lovers attended The Cat Street Gallery for “Fading Glory,” a pop up solo exhibition by this Honk Kong-based Canadian artist. The guests nibbled on delicious canapés and sipped wine sponsored by Signature French Wine: its N°8 Brut and N° 8 Rosé.

The last one was also at the Cat Street Gallery, at the beginning of this month for Mark Demsteader “Muses” painting exhibition, where once again a nice crowd had the chance to admire the painting while tasting N° 8 Rosé, 2008 Saint-Veran, 2006 Bourgogne Chardonnay, 2007 and 2008 Bourgogne Rouge.

"Domaine des Grands Vins de France" wine selection presented by "Signature French Wines" during the last 4-5 events including the one at the KEE Club in Hong Kong

I will surely write another post to describe all the above wines that we tasted, however for today I will just describe the most appreciated and most successful of them probably due to the location of the different venues and occasion: N° 8 Rosé.

NV Signature N° 8 Rosé Brut Sparkling wine Loire Valley France

Produced under strict Traditional Champagne method from a blend of red grape varieties from the Loire Valley, N° 8 Rosé boasts a light, pale salmon-melon colour with small and lively bubbles.  The fresh and inviting nose offers light, delightful floral and fruity aromas of red berries like cherry and raspberry with blossom notes. Rather delicate and simple, enjoyable and versatile, uncomplicated and gentle with fruity nuances without being sweet, the palate has a good balance between the refreshing acidity and the agreeable fruitiness. No point to be fussy, it is one of these no-brainer sparkling wines that proves particularly handy when you want to offer a good quality bubbly to your guest without having to pay the hefty prices for real Champagne.

Enjoy!

LeDomduVin

For more info, photos, events dates and details go to www.signaturefrenchwines.com and www.domaine-grands-vins-france.fr

I may not write about all the events that I will do, but I will surely continue from time to time to contribute and participate to this type of events as their Sommelier / Brand Ambassador, so stay tuned for more events and wine promotions with Signature French Wines and Domaines des Grands Vins de France on their respective website and on my blog.