Australia wine finds niche in Hong Kong by Bloomberg | Today at 1:51 a.m. Wine barrels and pallets of bottles stacked at a winery in the Yarra Valley, Victoria, Australia, on Dec. 7, 2020. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by James Bugg. Australian wine companies may have hit a big roadblock in getting bottles to China because of sky-high tariffs, but the road to Hong Kong appears to be wide open. Shipments to the city rocketed 111% in the 12 months ending June 30, to $136.7 million, according to the latest data from Wine Australia. That compares with a steep 45% drop in exports to mainland China. The Hong Kong market still pales in comparison to the mainland, and China remains the largest wine market for Australia by value. But Hong Kong has now jumped to the No. 4 position, up three spots from a year earlier.