How to curate a wine cellar that will make any oenophile swoon: experts from Hong Kong’s Restaurant Petrus, Amber, Embla and LQV offer grape advice, just in time for Christmas
- Navigating the world of wine can be confusing for a new collector or casual drinker, so we spoke to experts at the helm of some of Hong Kong and Macau’s best wine cellars to get an insider’s view
- Hear from the chief sommeliers at Shangri-La, The Landmark Mandarin Oriental and Macau’s 8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana, plus Hugues Rondouin, founder of the French wine bar and shop group LQV
You can’t judge a book by its cover, but for Terence Wong that is not true when it comes to the label on a bottle of wine. Intuitively, he recommends any neophyte begin there.
As area sommelier for the Island and Kowloon Shangri-La hotels, Wong curates a wine list for the one-Michelin-starred Restaurant Petrus that spans 1,800 labels and multiple wine cellars. He always starts an examination of any wine with a deep dive into the details revealed on the label.
“The label contains a lot of information, including ABV, type of grape, region, winery location, special label design,” explains Wong. “Certain high-valued bottles are marked by iconic labels. Every label and logo has a unique story.”
Wong says he and his colleagues do extensive research to understand the history behind each label. With more than 10,000 bottles in the Restaurant Petrus collection, it is considered a vital part of the team’s training to memorise the wine map, and participate in weekly stock checks and tasting sessions.
At Amber, The Landmark Mandarin Oriental’s vaunted French restaurant, the 2,000-label wine list has a focus on French domains but is broad enough to cover most wine regions. Dirk Chen, the hotel’s director of wine, believes that this diversity is key.
“We want our wine lists to be versatile for everybody,” he says. “Our extensive list at The Landmark Mandarin Oriental ranges from some of the best wines in the world that fetch six figures to more affordable options [like ones at the hotel’s sommelier-led casual dining restaurant, Somm] that are under HK$100 a glass. The must-have criteria is that they are tasty and pair well with our restaurants’ signature and seasonal dishes.”
A similar story of breadth and depth can be found at Galaxy Macau’s one-Michelin-star 8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana. There, chief sommelier and general manager Marino Braccu curates a 1,600-label wine list.
“Our wine list goes very deeply into Italian wines, but also has a wide selection from regions all around the world,” he says. “The list never changes; it only gets developed – to extend our Italian wine selection, and also get the best from other nations.”