As I push past all the shoppers at Causeway Bay, dodge bus-loads of mainland Chinese tourists and pass numerous bustling restaurants, I note that this is not quite what I was expecting.
I am very pleased to be working in our Hong Kong office with Jo Purcell and our brilliant team here. Jo joined Farr Vintners in 1997 to set up our Hong Kong office, making us the first UK merchant to do so. Nearly thirty years on it remains a huge part of our success.
I knew that the region was one of the last to have strict quarantine procedures in place which restricted coming and going. This understandably affected the city’s famously bustling atmosphere and the hospitality scene in particular was feeling the heat.
Much of the news regarding Hong Kong has been on the gloomy side over the past few years, though I’ve been very pleasantly surprised by a city that feels back to business. There is real buzz and optimism about the city, complemented by an inflow of young people taking advantage of just how easy it is to settle in and enjoy this place.
Hong Kong is rightly known for its effervescence and ability to reinvent itself and this was immediately clear: a good example is the recently completed Kai Tak Sports Park on the site of the old airport runway. The 50,000 seat stadium recently hosted Coldplay (along with their kiss-cam) and a pre-season, North London derby between Arsenal and Spurs.
The relocation of the airport away from the city has meant much taller buildings can now be built on Kowloon side since there aren’t planes coming into land. One of the more recent constructions is the M+ art gallery, opened in 2021 with heavy involvement from Henry Tang. It is a very Tate Modern-esque design and the number of exhibitions running concurrently is impressive.
One of the effects of Covid has been a newfound love for walking/hiking on the plethora of walking trails around Hong Kong. With the closure of gyms, this was one of the few physical activities that locals could do and it has remained popular - thanks in part to the newly built waterfront walk. Meandering all the way from Kennedy Town to Quarry Bay, it’s a great way to take in the skyline – the views help you ignore the pain while going for a run.
It is the vivid contrasts that are so exciting in Hong Kong for me, more than any other city in the world. You can leave your skyscraper office in the middle of a financial hub and be on a hiking trail in 10 minutes by cab, the beach in 15 minutes, or you can go just next door to the wet market and see fish, prawns and razor clams splashing about before being purchased by hungry locals.
I don’t like the word ‘foodie’ but as someone who definitely likes to eat, Hong Kong is something else. From brilliant local dim-sum and dai-pai-dong bbq spots all the way up to Robuchon, Simon Rogan et al. There is an abundance of options at each level and a blog on my favourite food and wine spots in the city is in the pipe.
Wine-wise, it is clear to me that, since Covid, there has been a shift towards living in the here and now rather than spending for future consumption. This mentality of ‘if not now, when?’ is pushing collectors to focus on drinking rather than accumulating. Young people are spending more per bottle but want there to be an experience attached - either through tasting new regions, new winemaking styles, or food and wine pairings.
Historically speaking, the channels for buying wine in Hong Kong were limited, so most drinkers of great wines were those buying from merchants. Over the past ten to fifteen years, and notably since the removal of all wine duty in 2009, there are more and more places to buy from and a greater range available than ever before. Hong Kong is a real wine-drinkers haven.
The market is now one of the world’s most sophisticated; where maybe once the majority gravitated towards just a few names in Bordeaux, there is a real curiosity for what’s new, for knowledge, for something different, and this has led to an explosion of casual restaurants and wine bars with well-sourced wine lists, carrying some of the hottest and most exciting producers making wine today.
This burgeoning scene, along with more and more people returning to Hong Kong, makes for a genuinely engaging atmosphere in many of these places – there is an energy that matches renewed enthusiasm and optimism amongst those living here.
