Hong Kong’s biggest wine retailer Watson’s Wine has become the official importer and distributor of the “disruptive” Chablis brand Grand Calcaire for the Hong Kong and Macau market, as Burgundy continues to reign supreme in the city.
Launched in 2021, Grand Calcaire is a collaboration between the two cousins of Burgundy’s illustrious Delaunay family – Laurent Delaunay, president of French wine group Badet Clément, and his winemaker cousin Dominique Gruhier.
The two cousins are both from the fifth generation of the Delaunay family, a renowned family of Burgundy negociants and producers in the Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune who have played an important role in the region since 1893. Laurent today also runs the family’s Edouard Delaunay estate in in Nuits-Saint-Georges.
The pair carefully identiied the best vineyard plots, often selecting shaded north-facing plots as well as the misty slopes with Kimmeridgian clay-limestone marl soil. It is this typical ‘cool terroir’ character that they sought out to allow them to craft what they call “disruptive new wines”.
The wines’ packaging also broke ranks from conventional designs. It features an international style which is uncluttered, distinctive and communicates the brand name itself which translates as “high-end mineral wine.”
“We are very excited by this first partnership between Watson’s Wines and Badet Clément. We are confident that Hong Kong and Macau leading wine retailer and E-commerce platform, is the perfect way to bring to wine connoisseurs our newest wine project Grand Calcaire,” says Olivier Hui-Bon-Hoa, Regional Director of Asia at Badet Clément. The group owns estates in Burgundy, Languedoc, Provence and Rhone Valley.
Watson’s Wine will start by selling Grand Calcaire Chablis 2019 and Chablis 1er Cru Fourchaume 2019 this summer in Hong Kong and Macau.
“The family has a rich tradition and sound understanding of the Burgundy terroirs,” adds Jeremy Stockman, Managing Director of Watson’s Wine. “Chablis offers superb value in today’s Burgundy wine world, with unique minerality and cool-climate characteristics.”
The wines are made at the Domaine de l’Abbaye du Petit Quincy winery in Chablis, owned by Dominque and founded by Cîteaux monks in 1212 during the Golden Age of the Cistercian Order.
