Chateau Guiraud to host Chinese festival

Sauternes estate Chateau Guiraud will be hosting Bordeaux’s inaugural Fete de la Lune d’Or (Golden Moon Festival) on September 12 aimed at the increasingly large Chinese, Hong Kong and Asian community who are working in Bordeaux.

Augustin Lacaille brand ambassador for Guiraud, told Decanter.com, 'We know the competition is intense, and we want to work as closely as possible with our partners over in China. We realised that more and more of them would be coming over to Bordeaux this year during the harvest, and the Moon Festival coincided exactly with our harvest at Guiraud.

‘It seemed a great occasion to celebrate it with them - and we decided to extend it to celebrate with the Chinese and Asian community in Bordeaux,’ he added.

Also known as the mid-autumn festival, the occasion is marked by the giving of pastries called mooncakes, and gifts.

Despite mooncakes traditionally being consumed with Chinese tea, in recent years gifts have included bottles of Bordeaux, which has led to rising sales before the festival.

However, trade in the run up to celebration has not been as brisk this year, according to Simon Davies, head of marketing Fine and Rare.

‘Over the last few years we have seen spikes in sales a month or so before a major festival but the effect has not been so marked this year, which seems to be because Hong Kong is already well stocked,’ he told Decanter.com.