On 27 February 2008, Hong Kong announced with much fanfare the abolition of excise duty on liquor with alcohol content at or below 30% (it was previously 40%) and the city's ambition to become Asia's wine hub. This government-led decision was designed to inject new economic dynamics and GDP growth into the city, allowing all aspects of the wine industry to flourish under this ruling. According to Euromonitor International, the HK wine market stood at US$ 1, 543 million in 2016, based on wine sales that recorded 6.5% per annum growth during the past 5 years (or 33.8 million litres). The same report forecast its continuous growth at 9.8% per annum in value, from 2016 to 2021 (or 3.1% per annum growth in volume). Hong Kong has firmly established itself as a successful wine trading hub, with a staggering number of wine importers, presence of world-class fine wine storage facilities, wine logistics companies and impressive wine auction results that would oftentimes beat London and New York. In 2016, wine auction sales in Hong Kong totalled US$ 92 million, according to Wine Spectator.
The WSET was also attracted by HK's wine hub status to open its first international office in Hong Kong in November 2016, leveraging from its proximity to the high-growth mainland Chinese market. Wine education, whether at professional level or targeted at amateurs, has become a must-have qualification, for most city executives and industrialists. To sustain the wine economy, Hong Kong needs to produce a regular stream of workforce with requisite level of wine knowledge. This has spurred the mushrooming of wine schools and wine courses in the city, leading to an increase in the number of wine industry professionals, qualified sommeliers and educated wine amateurs. Qualified sommeliers are quickly snapped up by the city's latest fine dining venues, to keep alive the gastronomic scene in Hong Kong, fueled by the awarding of Michelin stars and social media verdicts.
An average-sized apartment in Hong Kong is not the ideal place for home entertaining. As such, Hong Kong has developed a strong BYO culture, whereby almost all restaurants allow you to bring your own bottles, at corkage fees that range from friendly to intimidating. While there is no official data, it would not be difficult to imagine that Hong Kong hosts more wine-tastings and wine dinners per square metre of usable space than any other metropolis in the world, despite being far from holding the spot for the highest per capita consumption in the world. Wine consumption is restricted to a privileged minority percentage of the 7.5 million population. The average wine connoisseur in Hong Kong can be invited to a wine tasting or wine dinner every evening of the week. There is no room for lonely hearts and wine hermits. Hong Kong has successfully bred a community of fine wine devotees who can roll off the tip of their tongues the top wines from Burgundian domaines, reach out to the wine world's Who's Who via Whatsapp and boast a collection of trophy bottles.
Given the small percentage of real wine consumers in Hong Kong, the trade in Hong Kong is marked by a significant amount of it being re-exported. Growth has been significant since 2007. For example the imported value recorded HK$ 5.7 billion in the first half of 2017, compared to HK$ 1.6 billion in 2007. In volume terms this represented 30.3 million litres of wine imported in the first half of 2017, with about 43% of this re-exported. However, the growth is starting to deviate from a linear path, the imported value for this period actually showed a 9% decrease. The exported volume also saw a 24% decline, compared to a 9% growth in the same period last year. (Source: HKTDC Research, 4 September 2017)
Looking at the big picture, Hong Kong has fulfilled its lawmakers' prophecy of becoming a fine wine hub in the last decade, but what about its wine culture? Wine to many remains a subject of curiosity, a luxurious commodity that is only revered but not tasted. We have few dedicated wine bars in Hong Kong, and most drinking holes would need to double up as coffee and sandwich outlets during the day to pay for the high rentals. (https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2018/02/why-does-hong-kong-lack-true-wine-bars/)
Have some of us lost sight of what wine really is? It is a beverage first and foremost, albeit made by ingenious alchemy using interesting grape varieties and the skill of knowledgeable winemakers. Throughout history, it has fulfilled its role of pleasing the gods, nobility and government leaders, but its real destiny is to become a part of the everyday culture of people, providing spiritual enrichment to us humans when consumed modestly and responsibly. It is made to be enjoyed, with friends and family. Every bottle of wine has a history and a soul that is meant to evoke in us an emotion, an inspiration and most of all, an awareness of its ingenious creation. It is time Hong Kong started to embrace wine as part of our multi-racial culture, just like we have embraced French, Italian, Spanish and Japanese cuisines into our weekly food regime. This notion may help fuel the next decade of Hong Kong's wine industry development, while avoiding the phenomenon of falling consumption and dwindling sales in some developed cities, and the negative impact of falling re-exported sales.
The WSET was also attracted by HK's wine hub status to open its first international office in Hong Kong in November 2016, leveraging from its proximity to the high-growth mainland Chinese market. Wine education, whether at professional level or targeted at amateurs, has become a must-have qualification, for most city executives and industrialists. To sustain the wine economy, Hong Kong needs to produce a regular stream of workforce with requisite level of wine knowledge. This has spurred the mushrooming of wine schools and wine courses in the city, leading to an increase in the number of wine industry professionals, qualified sommeliers and educated wine amateurs. Qualified sommeliers are quickly snapped up by the city's latest fine dining venues, to keep alive the gastronomic scene in Hong Kong, fueled by the awarding of Michelin stars and social media verdicts.
An average-sized apartment in Hong Kong is not the ideal place for home entertaining. As such, Hong Kong has developed a strong BYO culture, whereby almost all restaurants allow you to bring your own bottles, at corkage fees that range from friendly to intimidating. While there is no official data, it would not be difficult to imagine that Hong Kong hosts more wine-tastings and wine dinners per square metre of usable space than any other metropolis in the world, despite being far from holding the spot for the highest per capita consumption in the world. Wine consumption is restricted to a privileged minority percentage of the 7.5 million population. The average wine connoisseur in Hong Kong can be invited to a wine tasting or wine dinner every evening of the week. There is no room for lonely hearts and wine hermits. Hong Kong has successfully bred a community of fine wine devotees who can roll off the tip of their tongues the top wines from Burgundian domaines, reach out to the wine world's Who's Who via Whatsapp and boast a collection of trophy bottles.
Given the small percentage of real wine consumers in Hong Kong, the trade in Hong Kong is marked by a significant amount of it being re-exported. Growth has been significant since 2007. For example the imported value recorded HK$ 5.7 billion in the first half of 2017, compared to HK$ 1.6 billion in 2007. In volume terms this represented 30.3 million litres of wine imported in the first half of 2017, with about 43% of this re-exported. However, the growth is starting to deviate from a linear path, the imported value for this period actually showed a 9% decrease. The exported volume also saw a 24% decline, compared to a 9% growth in the same period last year. (Source: HKTDC Research, 4 September 2017)
Looking at the big picture, Hong Kong has fulfilled its lawmakers' prophecy of becoming a fine wine hub in the last decade, but what about its wine culture? Wine to many remains a subject of curiosity, a luxurious commodity that is only revered but not tasted. We have few dedicated wine bars in Hong Kong, and most drinking holes would need to double up as coffee and sandwich outlets during the day to pay for the high rentals. (https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2018/02/why-does-hong-kong-lack-true-wine-bars/)
Have some of us lost sight of what wine really is? It is a beverage first and foremost, albeit made by ingenious alchemy using interesting grape varieties and the skill of knowledgeable winemakers. Throughout history, it has fulfilled its role of pleasing the gods, nobility and government leaders, but its real destiny is to become a part of the everyday culture of people, providing spiritual enrichment to us humans when consumed modestly and responsibly. It is made to be enjoyed, with friends and family. Every bottle of wine has a history and a soul that is meant to evoke in us an emotion, an inspiration and most of all, an awareness of its ingenious creation. It is time Hong Kong started to embrace wine as part of our multi-racial culture, just like we have embraced French, Italian, Spanish and Japanese cuisines into our weekly food regime. This notion may help fuel the next decade of Hong Kong's wine industry development, while avoiding the phenomenon of falling consumption and dwindling sales in some developed cities, and the negative impact of falling re-exported sales.
Wine education directed at the right audience will help create the right sentiment about wine, sparking more interest in a diversity of styles and price points. Is there more the government can do to help incorporate wine into the culture of Hong Kong? Has the once a year Wine & Dine Festival, approaching its 10th anniversary in October 2018, helped towards this goal or it has only benefitted the few with resources to put up a booth? Perhaps the government is quietly reluctant to make wine a popular cultural aspect, for fear of moral decline or social debauchery?
Fine wine merchants/importers have their pre-determined missions and pre-selected and targeted customer segments and private clients. While barrier to entering the wine selling sector is not high, rental prices remain as deterring as ever as in 2007 to ensure a continuous threat to the long-term survival of many wannabe neighbourhood wine retail shops. A number have shunned brick and mortar to turn to the online space, which still requires word of mouth to secure a loyal client base through the ethers. The duopoly in Hong Kong's supermarket retail sector features a selection of wines but the bottles may need more encouragement to find themselves more frequently in shoppers' baskets.
The generic bodies certainly have vested interest in growing the wine culture in Hong Kong. At one level, they are not so much at conflict with each other. The bigger the pie grows, the larger is everyone's share. Alas, most of them view the growth potential of the Hong Kong market as limited. While they have not totally given up on Hong Kong's spoilt palates, more budget has been allocated to nurturing the more acute and curious palates of mainland China with younger and more eager involved consumers.
Hong Kong, limited in space and in population, may remain that fine wine hub we were destined to be, and fine wine consumption will continue to thrive amongst the privileged few. The overwhelming success of Hong Kong's fine wine business has drawn some quiet undercurrents of discontent with the state of wine affairs in Hong Kong. One such manifestation is the recent organisation of VINsurrection, a collective of 7 local wine importers that specialise in high quality artisan wines to showcase the diversity of Hong Kong's wine scene at an annual tasting. The event organisers declare this as the antidote to stuffy, buttoned-up tastings.
Fine wine merchants/importers have their pre-determined missions and pre-selected and targeted customer segments and private clients. While barrier to entering the wine selling sector is not high, rental prices remain as deterring as ever as in 2007 to ensure a continuous threat to the long-term survival of many wannabe neighbourhood wine retail shops. A number have shunned brick and mortar to turn to the online space, which still requires word of mouth to secure a loyal client base through the ethers. The duopoly in Hong Kong's supermarket retail sector features a selection of wines but the bottles may need more encouragement to find themselves more frequently in shoppers' baskets.
The generic bodies certainly have vested interest in growing the wine culture in Hong Kong. At one level, they are not so much at conflict with each other. The bigger the pie grows, the larger is everyone's share. Alas, most of them view the growth potential of the Hong Kong market as limited. While they have not totally given up on Hong Kong's spoilt palates, more budget has been allocated to nurturing the more acute and curious palates of mainland China with younger and more eager involved consumers.
Hong Kong, limited in space and in population, may remain that fine wine hub we were destined to be, and fine wine consumption will continue to thrive amongst the privileged few. The overwhelming success of Hong Kong's fine wine business has drawn some quiet undercurrents of discontent with the state of wine affairs in Hong Kong. One such manifestation is the recent organisation of VINsurrection, a collective of 7 local wine importers that specialise in high quality artisan wines to showcase the diversity of Hong Kong's wine scene at an annual tasting. The event organisers declare this as the antidote to stuffy, buttoned-up tastings.
This is not jealousy, simply a desire for a more balanced and interesting lifestyle. In the press release about the 3rd edition of Bourgogne Week in Hong Kong, BIVB sent messages to Hong Kong's trade and consumers to focus on lesser-known village and regional appellations, that offer a rich and varied portfolio to satisfy Bourgogne enthusiasts, at much more attractive prices. A key motivating factor behind this appeal was the concern of meeting demand with successive vintages of reduced volumes.
I believe Hong Kong is eager to show the world that our market has matured since 2008. Education feeds curiosity and breeds interest. Our trade needs to offer new experiences to our consumers. We need to educate our younger generation of wine consumers about diversity and the culture of wine.
I am excited to see that there is a lament of the lack of a wine culture because improvement can only come from this.
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