Wine consumption in Hong Kong

At a recent lunch with Darren Rathbone, CEO and Group Winemaker of three Australian wineries: Yering Station, Mount Langi Ghiran and Xanadu from Australia, together with the Northeast team, and a few friends from the F&B and media side (Ali Nicol from Wine Times HK was one of them), the discussion turned from the general wine and food matching to the more thought-provoking of how to crack the Chinese restaurant market, have them to sell more wine leading to more Chinese to consume wine.

This topic comes up regularly but nobody has an answer. Is it that Chinese are just not into drinking? Darren replied with a definitive no. He said Hong Kong Chinese brought up or born in Australia, as far as he is concerned, drink like and as much as average Australian do, and they drink with Chinese meals. It’s only visitors and new immigrants who don’t drink that much.

Shane Wilkins, F&B Director from The Langham where there is a two Michelin stars T’ang Court, and Dennis Cheung, sommelier of Celestial Court in the Sheraton where we were having lunch, also chipped in, saying that both their Chinese outlets serve a fair share of wine, but admitted that the majority are high-end and BYO (Celestial Court charges a whopping $500/bottle corkage fee!).

The retained imports in 2014 was 29.38

There are ever increasing wine events and dinners in Hong Kong but the latest figures showed that Hong Kong wine import in terms of volume in the last few years was pretty stagnant and in fact slightly decreasing at 4.1-4.2 litres/capita (note that this is official net import figure, not consumption), meaning that consumers are not drinking more and the market is not expanding. Threading together other observations and discussions, it is quite clearly that there is only a small core of wine consumers in Hong Kong (mostly comprised of trade) who drink more than their fair drink and nearly every day, and then there is a bigger group of occasional drinkers who may drink anywhere between 1-4 times/month. The majority of consumers is drinking even less or nothing at all. I had the same conclusion two years ago and it hasn’t changed.

Judging by the comments of Darren, Shane and Dennis, it is not that Chinese don’t drink or cannot tolerate alcohol. So why isn’t the wine market growing? I really think we only have ourselves to blame, that we fail to make wine more accessible by talking jargons rather than enjoyment, thereby scaring away average consumer who feel they do not have adequate knowledge to try it.

Sadly, this ‘I know it all’ attitude seems to be infectious. Wine consumers who think they like wine and all enthusiastic to enrol in one of the many wine courses often graduate to view wine as a challenge that they have to guess the grape varieties and name all the aromas. Once they guess the first wine (correctly or not), they then move on to the second one. Worse, they often show off their acquired knowledge by talking about (guess what?) jargons and labels in front of their ‘normal’ friends, thereby intimidating them rather than aspiring them to drink wine. They change from wine lovers to wine snobs and forget that wine is about enjoyment.

The other issue is the F&B industry. House wine or wine by the glass is likely to be the first glass of wine for average consumer. However, most house wine is way overpriced for the quality. These first timers may not understand wine but they can certainly tell that the wine doesn’t taste good. For $80 a glass of bad wine, they’ll probably go back to beer or cocktail. I was told that one bar owner refused to change the house wine because he bought it for $19/bottle and sold it at $60/glass.

Another hurdle is availability. We eat Chinese/Asian food most of the time but unless we dine at the likes of T’ang Court or Celestial Court, wine is not readily available at our local restaurants. This further reinforce the misperception that wine is a special occasion beverage. If we can persuade these restaurants to serve wine by the glass at a fair price, I think the wine scene will be different. In fact, I would love to see our leading fast food chains serving wine by the glass with their evening meal combos in not too distant future.

Only by taking away the prestige image of wine can we truly expand the market. Let’s work on this together.

Wine HK, the second running

What a great way for wine lovers to end the year: a wine fair in balmy weather under the new Ferris wheel on the Central Harbourfront.

Compared to Wine & Dine, where visitors were mainly interested in food—long queues at the food counters but not at the wine booths—Wine HK was certainly more wine focused. Yet it managed to avoid the stiffness and time constraints of some wine tasting events. Consumers wandered around the semi-outdoor venue and tasted wine at their own pace, pausing for a bite at one of the eight food booths serving round-the-globe delicacies from yakitori chicken to steak sandwiches, before tasting more wine, all the while listening to festive music—although I have to admit the music bit could have been improved.

Courtesy Wine HK

Over 800 wines were presented by 33 companies. Some importers such as Links Concept, Jebsen, Montrose and Victoria Wines featured a range of wines covering several countries while others, including Chilled Wines, Red Mill, Schmidt Vinothek and wine ‘n’ things, focused only on one country or a couple of brands. Most visitors were clearly wine lovers and keen to know more about the wine they were tasting. There was also a VIP lounge furnished by Timothy Oulton where visitors could relax and enjoy some more exclusive wines.

Wine Times HK and Mumm, the official media and champagne partners respectively, ran a sabrage challenge where visitors learnt the trick of how to open a bottle of champagne with a blade. It attracted a crowd of eager triers, mostly ladies (somewhat surprisingly) including myself, surrounded by male-dominated onlookers. The best part of this challenge was drinking the champagne afterwards—12 bottles on Saturday! In addition, there was a Tasting Championship and Information wine sessions where visitors could do blind tastings and learn more about wine in general. Visitors could also vote for their favourite wines.

What I liked about Wine HK was the atmosphere. It was about lifestyle, fun, interaction and good quality wine without breaking the bank. That is certainly in line with my own ideas about promoting wine culture—letting consumers enjoy and learn about wine without pressure. Even Henry Tang paid a visit on Sunday. Judging by his conversation with Jeremy Oliver, Australian wine writer, Mr Tang seemed to approve of the event.

What’s more, all wines carried about a 20% discount off retail price and most were within the HK$100 to $300 bracket. Even wines in the VIP Lounge were affordable with most between HK$300 and $500 per bottle. I particular liked the concept of consolidated shopping and delivery. Instead of having to buy a minimum amount from one importer (usually about $1,200) in order to enjoy free delivery, visitors could pick as little as one wine from any given importer then pay a $90 delivery charge for a combined delivery of all their purchases. This encouraged purchases without jeopardising the sales of any importer. I bought over 30 wines from 12 importers! The organiser has yet to release the statistics but I could see there was quite a number of keen buyers.

Courtesy Wine HK

Understandably, there were a couple of things that I felt could be improved. The VIP lounge was by invitation only, but no one, including exhibitors, seemed to know how the system worked and who might got invited. I walked straight in unchallenged on the first evening, was refused entry the second day and was invited back in on the third! Actually, I’m not sure if a VIP Lounge is really necessary as the wines featured were mostly not much more expensive than those in the main area. As an alternative, perhaps visitors could pay an extra fee at the door to gain entry so at least serious wine lovers and buyers without invitations would not miss out. The other minor point was the two storey layout. Some visitors, although a minority, thought the whole second storey was for VIPs only and were not aware there were a lot more general tasting booths up there. I myself directed quite a few consumers to go upstairs.

Anyway, despite the flaws, Wine HK is definitely a worthwhile consumer event that I hope will become a signature over time. I’m looking forward to its third running.

Note: According to the organiser's Facebook post on 23rd December, there were 3,500 customers who together bought 24,000 bottles from 89 booths, an increase of 300% from the previous year. There were delivery hiccups (I experienced it myself) but nevertheless an encouraging result.

Towards a Hong Kong wine culture

I believe Hong Kong has great potential. However, although we drink the most wine in Asia (an annual 5 litres per capita), which is double that of the Japanese and five times as much as the Mainland Chinese, we are still trailing far behind other countries—only half of what the Americans drink (and 50% of Americans do not drink alcohol at all for religious and other reasons). Wine consumption in Hong Kong has been increasing ever since our Government abolished wine duties in 2008 but the growth rate is not fast. I, and most of us in the wine industry, drink over 100 litres per year, meaning that each of us is drinking for 20 people! I see two issues in Hong Kong: there are not enough real consumers, and those (I mean real consumers) who drink do not drink enough. The challenge to wine producers, therefore, is how to persuade the average Hong Kong consumers to drink more.

From a marketing perspective, Hong Kong is different from other countries. Whereas in most markets the entry level segment is the biggest, that is not the case in Hong Kong. We have a disproportionately big luxury/investment wine category at 28% by volume. And the biggest market by far is the mid-market, from HK$120 to HK$600 per bottle retail, with 60% (Debra Meiburg MW 2012 Hong Kong Wine Trade Guide). So for consumers who are interested in wine, price seems not to be a major concern. This might be explained by the ‘work hard, play hard’ altitude of most Hong Kong residents. We reward ourselves. Just look at the number of Michelin-starred restaurants in the city, and they are always full.

It seems that, unlike in other cash-strapped cities, Hong Kong people are willing to spend.  So why don’t more people drink? What it boils down to is that people just don’t understand wine. And, we in the industry don’t make it any easier for them. We talk technical stuff like tannin and acidity and we make them feel stupid if they can’t pronounce ‘terroir’ properly. In other words, we put consumers off wine by being too professional.

To make wine truly popular, we need to make it enjoyable. Coke is a highly precise drink with the exact same amount of syrup and pressure in every can, but the company doesn’t bother consumers with this. Consumers enjoy Coke because it is refreshing and they explore the different flavours and brands of soft drink to find their favourite. Starbucks didn’t lecture us about the correct temperature at which to drink coffee when they first came to Hong Kong, and now see how many coffee bars there are here! Wine may be slightly more complicated because of the many grape varieties and producing countries but it’s not impossible to make it simple and accessible. How about light and refreshing, soft and fruity, chewy and spicy, bold and savoury? These are descriptors that any consumer can grasp and imagine.

We don’t have a wine culture but we can develop one. We love food and we understand flavour pairings—look at all the different kinds of chilli sauce we have. So food is the logical key to introduce wine to consumers. But not those stiff, technical pairings that again put people off. Fongyee Walker, a friend and wine consultant based in Beijing, says that the Chinese always describe a meal as being comfortable or uncomfortable. They like enjoying food with friends and without worrying too much about manners. Food and wine pairing gives an excuse for consumers to try wine in a relaxed environment and build their confidence. A Chilean Pinot Noir can be just as good as a Barossa Shiraz to match with stir-fried beef with noodles in black bean sauce. It all depends on the individual consumer’s preference.

We eat Chinese meals most of the time but, sadly, not many mid-market Chinese restaurants offer wine. I hear lots of excuses, but I wish and hope that Chinese restaurateurs will one day soon realise the potential of having wine on the menu. The wine list doesn’t need to be long and winding—six to eight is adequate to start with—but the wine must be of good quality. People may not be able to tell the difference between wine varieties, but they know when a wine is not good. For me, a wine by the glass programme is the ideal way to start. It’s all about quality, not quantity. And in fact a few pioneer outlets have already demonstrated that having wine available not only increases their turnover but also customers’ loyalty.

We didn’t drink cappuccino 20 years ago, yet now the espresso machine is a trendy home appliance. I believe it’s only a matter of time before wine will be a normal item on the dinner table. After all, it’s a much better match for food than lemon tea!

The industry must unite to develop the wine culture. This is the only way to sustain a heathy market, benefiting everyone from producers and importers to restaurateurs and consumers.

Eddie on the right track with fun-and-enjoyment mantra

Photo courtesy of Ali Nicol

Did you know that even though there are no vineyards in Hong Kong we do have a handful of winemakers living here? Apart from myself—although I don’t think I should really be counted since I don’t make wine for a living at the moment—there is Eddie McDougall, a Eurasian Hong Kong-born flying winemaker who makes his own wine in Australia using grapes from King Valley and the Pyrenees and is the owner of The Flying Winemaker, a wine store cum bar cum school in Lan Kwai Fong.

Eddie had a series of activities lined up for the launch of his latest wine recently. The wine was originally named Umami, but for technical reasons he could not register that name so chose to market it under his own name: Eddie McDougall. So don’t be confused when you see the name Umami in a much more prominent position than his own on the label.

At one of the launch events organised by the The Elements Club, we had four of Eddie's wines with a Chinese dinner. I particularly liked the Frederica’s Pinot Gris 2010. The wine was barrel-fermented in old barrels, lees-stirred and matured for eight months. The flavours are intense yet well-integrated. Its structure and relatively high alcohol of 13.8% make it a nice pairing with heavier seafood or stir-fried pork dishes (we had it with wok-fried prawns with Sichuan chilli sauce and deep-fried scallops coated with taro crust 川汁蝦球，荔茸帶子).

Little Pig Rosé 2010, using the nickname given him by his grandmother, has an attractive pale pink salmon colour. I was expecting a soft delicate wine but instead my first impression was of something savoury and structured. Eddie explained that the wine, from Merlot grapes, underwent cool temperature fermentation and was aged for 12 months, so no wonder it developed the characters that Eddie highly recommends be paired with Cantonese style barbecued pork (叉燒). A delicate rosé would not stand up to the pork's robust flavour.

Eddie’s wine philosophy is that wine should be fun and enjoyable and that good quality wine is not necessarily expensive and out of reach. I totally agree. Indeed this is what I would like to promote in Hong Kong—a wine culture that values quality over price, enjoyment over pretentiousness, and, above all, sharing over showing off. I would love to see that one day, hopefully in the not too distant future, it is the norm that consumers have their rice box dinner at home in front of the television with a glass of wine rather than a can of soft drink. I have been discussing this with a few people recently, including Eddie and Betsy from Northeast and I think they share the sentiment. I hope we can start to generate enough support from other like-minded people to make this happen. Let me know if you agree.