Winebuzz

Hong Kong’s 5-Floor Wine Vault

Hubert Li grows larger wine storage facilities in Hong Kong.

Hubert Li opened the Hong Kong Wine Vault nearly two years ago where he was able to turn his love of wines into a profitable profession: a 5-floor, 30,000 square feet wine-storage facility. “We originally started the business for our own use,” Mr Li beams. “But we have expanded because demand for such facilities has been so great. My partners had quite a lot of wine stored abroad, but the removal of the wine tax meant they wanted to bring it all here, so they could see it and sample it when they wanted.’’ The storage facility is in Wong Chuk Hang, just outside the Aberdeen Tunnel currently has only 3/5 floors in use while maintaining it’s current 40 clients. The entire facility has 150 cellars and a storage capacity of 150,000 bottles.

Li says that this is all due to removing the wine duty. Li says that they never would have entered the business without this but is delighted at how things have been turning out.

“Our customers are highly knowledgeable …and people …now can have their collections close to them. The industry here is booming;”

Gregory De’eb, General Manager of Crown Wine Cellars, Hong Kong’s first wine storage facility agrees with this notion.

“A lot of the wines flowing into Hong Kong are not for consumption. And strange as that may sound, that is a good thing. They are coming in for wine storage, for wine cellaring, and that has meant a much greater need for an expansion of the industry. The wine has to be kept somewhere, and you have to then support that industry…”

Click here to read the full story at hktdc.com