Page 25 - Sphere No.22 (Aug 2008)

SPHERE 23
HE BUSINESS of selling fine wine in Hong Kong has been transformed in recent years. The market
has achieved a level of sophistication unknown in Asia outside Japan. The reason? Hong Kong wine
expert and educator Simon Tam, Director of International Wine Centre, has no doubts.
“Watson’s Wine Cellar has single handedly created whole wine categories in Hong Kong, because of the way
the business grew and the number of shops opening,” he says emphatically.
“There has never been more champagne sold in Hong Kong. There has never been more French wine. There
was never decent quality German wine in the quantity and variety now available before Watson’s came. I think
in the last five years Watson’s has really done Hong Kong a great big fat favour.”
Many things have changed in the Hong Kong wine trade since 1998 when Watson’s Wine Cellar opened
its first outlet, but perhaps the single most notable difference is that the stores, and their competitors, now
cater to much more discerning customers.
There is now a critical mass of well informed wine enthusiasts who buy on a basis of real product knowledge
T
GEPERFORMERS