Comments on: Hail 2010, Year of More Liberal Booze

By: BangkokDan

BangkokDan — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 04:30:04 +0000

Agree Jaded, for once the market is on the consumer’s side.

These days you can get a very decent bottle of New World wines for 400-500 baht. Unthinkable some years ago.

For Penfolds or Jacob’s Creek you paid if not a third more or double.

Haven’t found a local bottle yet that surpasses the quality of better priced imports from Australia, Argentina or Chile, even though the Khao Yai wineries produce outstanding results since quite some time.

BangkokDan

By: Jaded

Jaded — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 04:19:05 +0000

When I first came to Thailand it was very difficult to find anything drinkable that was reasonably priced. That situation seems to have changed. For instance the Mont Clair you tweeted about recently is a decent enough table wine and relatively inexpensive if purchased in large enough quantities! The quality and the storage of wine seems to be improving and there is obviously strong demand. A friend of mine brought me to a local bar recently that sells a decent glass of locally made red wine for 40 baht. I have to admit that I didn’t believe it was possible until I tasted it. Buying Thai wine off the shelf has always been a bad experience for me but perhaps some of the local products are well made and its problems associated with transportation and storage that make the product undrinkable. I don’t know where the wine came from but I was told its local.

It’s true that its easier to get a decent glass of wine in any of the former French colonies that border Thailand but that’s because they know about wine. Thailand’s producers and distributors have been on a steep learning curve but I think the situation seems to be improving. I strongly disagree with Steve that only established wine producers can compete. In the 1970s Monty Python lampooned Australian table wines as having a “bouquet like an aboriginal’s armpit.” They were doing this at a time when the height of “sophisticated” bourgeois dining was a bottle of Blue Nun. The Aussie product, even when properly transported and stored, had to overcome strong prejudice to achieve its position of respect today. Asian winemakers have a similar struggle but their market is the fastest growing wine market on the planet and giving them this sort of competitive advantage should help accelerate improvement and develop the local market. We will all benefit from this although it’s difficult to imagine prices dropping much below 40 baht a glass …

By: Leosia

Leosia — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 07:20:10 +0000

When I visited Hanoi a few months ago I was pleasantly surprised. There were a few specialist wine shops in the old town with a very good selection (especially French of course) at prices considerably lower than Thailand. I don’t know the situation regarding import taxes on wine in Vietnam but it seemed to me to be a much better deal.

By: BigDummy Mirror » Cheap Beer, Wine and Liquor Coming to Thailand?

BigDummy Mirror » Cheap Beer, Wine and Liquor Coming to Thailand? — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 07:50:28 +0000

[...] http://absolutelybangkok.com/hail-2010-year-of-more-liberal-booze/ Some good news for a change. There’s a fierce price war between local alcohol producers and importers looming. Prices could fall, partially at least. Starting 2010 the Asean Free Trade Area Afta will be fully established. Afta reduces and – for some products – entirely drops import taxes. Darn free trade and globalization. Meaning imported alcohol will also be cheaper. Import duty on alcoholic beverages is cut down to zero, nullifying the customs tariff. [...]

By: Steve

Steve — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 03:41:04 +0000

As a wine lover myself this sounds like a very good move. Unfortunately it won’t include the wonderful wines of France, California, Spain, Italy, Portugal or anywhere else that makes decent wine. I believe it only includes Asean countries and I’m pretty sure there aren’t any world class wines coming from any of those countries. It is a step in the right direction though and we can only hope that tariff’s from other countries will eventually be lowered as well.

(BD: My hope is that imports via Asean, and be it rebottled imports/reimports, may enjoy zero tax. I’m sure local wine distributors will find a way.)