Former accountant Tony Mitchell aims to put the fun back into Hong Kong wine tasting - and he's started out with a $100,000 fling.
That's what it cost to start Vinovento in May, Hong Kong's first professional wine events company, focused on the management of events involving wine rather than the specific selling of wine.
His start-up costs have included office premises, a full-time administrative staffer, equipment for the office and that used at Vinovento events, marketing, business registration and website design and launch.
The company team is founder and director Mr Mitchell, Ashton Winkler and business partner Garry Smith. Previously Mr Mitchell was an accountant in Hong Kong for 12 years and before that in Australia.
He says many wine events in Hong Kong seem to be formal or pitched at an audience with a good knowledge, whereas many of Vinovento's events will contain more of a fun factor, which is slightly educational but with the focus on entertainment, so people can get groups of friends together and have a good night out and enjoy excellent wines.
'We will do wine quizzes and guess-the-wine competitions, as well as wine test matches - say a selection of Australian wines against South African or Californian,' he says. 'And we also do not want to just focus on expatriates, but the Chinese audience, so many events will also have, for example, a Cantonese-speaking master of ceremonies.'
Mr Mitchell is also co-proprietor of the Australian Wine Centre but stresses that wines from around the world will be featured at their events. 'Vinovento's first event featured Australian wines and we are now working on a Tuscan-themed wine event. We will be looking to bring all of the world's interesting wines to Hong Kong and this will often mean little-known wine regions which are producing really exciting wine.'