Q&8: Matt Bahen of De Bortoli

Australia wine returns to China.

The story “Australian Wine Finds its Feet in China” in Wine-Searcher has quotes from professor / marketing expert Ma Huiqin, Andrew Moody of Tyrrell’s, Baron Hong of importer / distributor Pran Wines and, last but certainly not least, Matt Bahen of De Bortoli.

In fact, I had so much extra material from Bahen, the North Asia sales manager for De Bortoli who just made his first trip to Beijing since 2019, that it justified a Q&8. See below.

But first, a quote each from the other three interviewees:

“[Australian producers] need to feed the trend of more white and light-bodied easy-drinking wines.” — Ma

“We had come to Vinexpo prepared with more red wine samples than white, but next time we will probably come with a fifty-fifty balance, or even more whites than reds.” — Moody

“Some cult wineries have had to allocate quotas from other export markets to us and quantities are very limited.” — Hong

Now, on to Bahen, shown below with fellow wine enthusiasts after a De Bortoli dinner in Beijing. He recently visited Guangzhou and Hong Kong, the source of the Q&8 material, followed by consumer and trade events with ASC in Shanghai and Beijing. De Bortoli was previously partnered in China with Torres.

On partnering with ASC in continental China, with whom he first worked from 2006 to 2009

“We made that decision about three months ago, maybe even a bit longer, so we are pretty happy about that. It feels like a homecoming.”

On returning to China

“I feel like a stranger. It seems like an eternity, the three years we were out of it. I hear it has changed in disappointing ways, half the value that it used to be, and a lot of moving down the value chain.”I

Photos: ASC

On macro changes

“My two observations on market changes, possibly naive, on the one side the bad realities of reduced market size and perhaps moving down the food chain.”

“But on the other hand, perhaps that means a reduction in the number of OEMs and that part of the industry that really reduces consumer confidence and brand awareness.”

“We, as a company, won’t be focused on that space. We are consolidating with two partners and I hope that’s representative of the industry as a whole.”

On general reentry strategy

“Step one in the process is just getting product in the door and on the ground. Once that’s in the warehouses and we are visiting the market and working with our partners to understand where we are being best received, then we will look at strategies. But at the moment it’s really just a reset.”

On promising niches

“Based on the first few orders, there have been a couple of exciting trends. The strong position our new partner ASC has taken with Pinot Noir and sweet wine, our flagship Noble One in particular, that to me is encouraging.”

“Pinot Noir was always a bit of a hard sell and Noble One didn’t move as well as its international reputation perhaps deserves, but it’s been the opposite lately. We’ve shipped a lot of Pinot Noir, we’ve shipped a lot of Noble One, and I hope that talks to a certain demographic.”

On rebuilding relationships

“We want to reestablish that very strong presence we had on premise, particularly in the hotel groups. We are talking about the Marriotts, the Hiltons, the Shangri-las. We had really strong cooperation with them in the years before the tariffs.”

On general promotion

“In terms of promotional activity, it’s all about awareness building. It’s a complete reset.

On reactions to Australia’s return

“I always thought it was a bit of hubris to say our wines served the palate best. But actually, we’ve been seeing it, there’s been very favorable comments about just that Australian style, about that lovely fruit-forward soft round character of our wines.”

Check out more Grape Wall Q&8s here.

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