By William Stolerman
Bacchus & Century is the first luxury wine shop in Hong Kong to offer 101 consecutive years of French vintage wines.
The two partners, Eric Liu and Rene Wong, have compiled an extraordinary collection of over 10,000 bottles from 1900 to 2000. They'll personally find you a bottle to match your tastes and the setting, whether it's a dinner party or a 50th wedding anniversary. Mr Liu said: "Wine is the only present with a vintage on it. It's perfect for marking an occasion."
They have solely focused on French wine because that is the region they know best. Mr Liu explained: "We concentrated on French wines and champagnes, because you can't be knowledgeable enough about absolutely everything."
Bacchus & Century stock a lot of wine that is impossible to find in Hong Kong. Mr Liu said: "A lot of wines I sell don't exist anywhere else." Pleasingly, once you've found a wine you're interested in, they'll get out all the bottles so you can inspect them and pick the one(s) you'd like to take home.
The most appealing feature at Bacchus & Century is that they clearly enjoy providing the customer with exactly what they want, even if the customer doesn't know exactly what that is themselves. Mr Liu revealed that though some customers are very specific about what they want (plenty of people have only been interested in Lafite) many have a rough idea of what they desire but want some guidance.
My Liu is very knowledgeable and combined with
his effervescent passion, it makes him the man for the job. A lovely moment for him is when the buyer says: "I trust you." Invariably after they have drunk it, they trust him even more. A point which is acknowledged by the amount of repeat custom Bacchus & Century has generated in their first few months of trading.
While munching on some very tasty nibbles, guests invited by to an intimate gathering last night were lucky enough to sip on a Margaux 1970, a Mouton Rothschild 1977, a Haut-Brion 1973, and a Taittinger Collection Vasarely 1978 vintage. Which was still bubbly.
So if you're looking for a bottle that harks back to the year of your nuptials, or you're throwing a superlative dinner party and still wondering where to go wine shopping…
www.bacchuscentury.hk