A Hong Kong Haven for China’s Pricey Wines

Fergus Fung swipes his card across a sensor and waits as his face is scanned by a computer to verify his identity. A steel door opens, and the Hong Kong entrepreneur enters a vault that holds his treasures: bottles of high-end Bordeaux and Burgundy. This is the Hong Kong Wine Vault, where the temperature is a constant 13C, the humidity is 75 percent, and the insulation on the walls, ceiling, and floors is 4 inches thick. “The facial recognition thing is a bit gimmicky,” says 35-year-old Fung, founder of the WOM guide to Hong Kong restaurants. “But with any wine cellar, security is a key issue.”

Hong Kong Wine Vault is one of more than 15 repositories for high-end quaffs set up in the past three years in the city. Since Hong Kong axed wine duties in 2008, it has overtaken London and New York as the world’s biggest auction market for top wines such as Château Lafite, Domaine Romanée-Conti, and Krug. Imports surged to $858 million last year, from $185 million in 2007. Auction house Sotheby’s hasn’t had an unsold bottle in the city in its last 15 auctions and broke the world wine price record in October with three bottles of 1869 Château Lafite-Rothschild that fetched HK$1.8 million ($230,930) each. “It’s exploded, and you need logistics to support that,” says Robert Sleigh, who runs Sotheby’s Asia wine business. “Now there are world-class wine storage facilities in Hong Kong.”