AsiaLIFE

Jesus may have turned water into wine, but in Cambodia wine merchants are trying to convert whisky drinkers to the vine. Words by Mark Bibby Jackson.

In the past few months first Clovis Taittinger, son and heir of the iconic champagne company, and then Georg Riedl, possibly the world’s most famous glassmaker, visited Phnom Penh as part of their Asian tours. Mere coincidence? Or is this a reflection of an emerging Cambodian wine market?

“People in Cambodia are generally becoming richer than they were, and they are consuming new things and getting to know wines and champagnes,” says Tattinger, who is clear about the potential the country represents. The brand has been established in the country for 17 years now.

Nobody knows the Cambodian wine industry better than Jeroen van Daalen. The managing director of Red Apron first came to the Kingdom 15 years ago, initially working in the hotel industry before moving to Celliers d’Asie. He established Red Apron eight years ago.

Van Daalen believes it is wrong to consider the country’s wine consumers as one homogenous group. Instead it is multi-layered. Traditionally the top end of the market has consumed a high quantity of spirits, such as cognac and whisky, but this has changed over the years.

“There is a general perception that red wine is much healthier and is still something you can share around dinner,” says van Daalen.

Well-known vintage wines such as Château Lafite and Château Latour now dominate the elite market that used the preserve of XO cognac. However, Van Daalen disagrees with the common held perception that rich Khmers preference for renowned brands relates to a desire to demonstrate their newfound wealth. Instead he believes it is a product of their culture.

“They are not doing it to show off,” he says. “People want to be good hosts and they want to show the respect they have for their invitees and the more premium products you put on the table, the more respect you show to your guests. It is much easier to do that with brands that are well known.”

Determined more by social norms than personal preference, this is a market that is not easily shifted - a view shared by Darren Gall, director of AK Wines, who has been based in Cambodia for around three years.

“There has always been that group of people in the market who drink very high end wine,” he says. “I don’t see a great shift in their preferences. They tend to be brand drinkers and they are drinking icon brands particularly Bordeaux and some champagnes.”

While the elite might be sticking to vintage Bordeaux, the emerging market of Khmer middle class wine drinkers is not so rigid. Gall believes this is in part due to the number of young Cambodians returning to the country who have developed a taste for wine overseas.

“They have spent time abroad and they are coming back with a more international view of drinking wine,” he says. “They are drinking sparkling wines from around the world, they are drinking white wines, rosé wines. They tend to drink different wines for different occasions.”

This relatively new market does not see the value in buying a wine based simply on its label, and consequently exercises a greater flexibility in the choice of wine. It is also increasingly female.

“Wine is the ‘It’ beverage more and more over spirits and beer, particularly to Khmer women,” says Roger Gaffney from The Warehouse. Drinking wine is seen as being more sophisticated than guzzling a bottle of beer, or knocking back a shot of Johnny Walker.

“What they are looking for is ‘Will I look good drinking it and will I enjoy it?’” he adds.

Although The Warehouse only opened in Phnom Penh a year ago, Gaffney has already noticed a growing Khmer market. Like van Daalen, he attributes the growth in wine sales as being in part due to health considerations.

Like Gall, he has also noticed a trend towards drinking white wines and sparkling wines, especially among women, something he partially attributes to the increase in refrigeration. Men still prefer full-bodied reds. Gaffney estimates that 80 percent of wine sales are red. There has also been a shift from old world wines towards new world, with mid- to high-range Australian wines proving particularly popular.

“They give you more bang for your buck,” he says. “There is a more immediate mouth fill.”

While accepting that returnees have had some effect on the wine market, van Daalen believes it is still driven by those who have lived here all their lives. Although they might have a personal preference for white, sparkling or rosé wines, which he accepts are better suited to the Cambodian climate, they will still buy red wines while entertaining, placing the perceived preference of their guests ahead of their own. Nothing demonstrates this better than Khmer weddings, where whisky and beer are still de rigueur, regardless of what the bride and groom prefer to drink.

So while there might be more variety in the Cambodian wine market, the future of full-bodied Bordeaux and branded whisky seems secure. As van Daalen observes, “this country is changing in certain aspects so quickly, and in certain aspects so slowly.”