Lallier Champagne from France launch
Law Hill Wines Limited launched its Lallier Champagne at the French Ambassador’s residence on Friday night. The wine company works very hard to bring its boutique products in, and Valentine’s Day was the perfect time to introduce their new Champagne labelled Rose and Brut from France.
The Lallier family started the wine business in 1906. Lallier operates from an elegant and traditional house with breathtaking views close to the vineyards in France.
Neil Underhill, a locally born Fijian Chartered Accountant specialising in the tourism sector, who is also a business owner of Fiji Coffee, said the company produced 400,000 bottles of wine a year and a lot of it went to the business class airlines, including Qatar Airways. Mr Underhill said he started his Coffee business 31 years ago.
“One of our big brands is champagne coffee and we will start off with Champagne Rose and followed by champagne Brut,” Mr Underhill said.
He said the business delivered coffee to master hotels and this led to a natural extension to go into a wine business.
“My passion for both coffee and wine started when I was in boarding school in Australia.
“Few years later, I started Fiji coffee and it supplies 95 per cent of the coffee in Fiji.”
Mr Underhill said Law Hill Wines Limited had the third share of the market.
“Rose and Brut wholesale price is under 100 per bottle. Retail must be 130 per bottle. We are bringing more wines and champagnes as well as we seek out small family owned wines,” Mr Underhill said. He said it was an amazing transformation where Fijians were seen to enjoy wines.
“I have observed that during public service pay day, wine is getting into our culture more and more and it is interesting that red wine is starting to replace beer.”