More Hongkongers have been collecting and investing in wine since the tax on it was abolished in March last year. They see wine as a tangible stock with a relatively stable value. And, while the economic downturn has tempered what was a rapidly expanding market for the import, sale and storage of wine, interest in all things vitis continues to soar.
But wine lovers looking to start a wine collection should not let pure enthusiasm go straight to their head like a cheap chardonnay. Without doing your homework, walking the straight yellow line to the cellar door may become a boozy stagger that ends in an expensive hangover.
'Collecting wine is hard work,' says Shirley Chiu, managing director of a wealth management company and wine collector with about 1,500 bottles in her collection. 'If you don't care about and can afford making mistakes, then collecting wine is just like shopping. But if you can only handle a small margin of error, you must do your homework.'
That homework starts, happily, with drinking a lot of wine. 'For a successful personal wine collection, you must first enjoy drinking wine. Try as many different wines as possible, then filter out the ones you definitely don't like, then further refine what you do,' says Ms Chiu, who believes blind tastings are especially good for identifying and remembering wines.
The growing appreciation of wine in Hong Kong means there are plenty of options to access a range of wines and expand your knowledge. Many of the city's top restaurants have wine pairing dinners, while bars such as Tastings in Central have wine dispensers so you can pay for a small taste of a range of wines, including rare ones. There are also a growing number of wine courses, from beginners up, and auction house Bonhams Asia launched its Wine Education Scholarships for professionals in the food and beverage industry this year, a first for the city.
Meeting people who share an appreciation for wine is another way to learn more. The Crown Wine Cellars in Shouson Hill, where Ms Chiu stores her wine, hosts wine-pairing dinners in which members each share a bottle from their own collection.
