Asians, particularly from Hong Kong and China, have dominated the fine wine market in recent years, while Americans have been net sellers, say auctioneers. For speculators, the climate-controlled vaults can mean a difference of thousands of dollars in the value of their bottles.
Provenance, or the history of how and where a bottle was kept, is important because it's impossible to know the quality of a wine without opening it. Visible inspections provide limited protection against counterfeits, and even bona fide labels may have been ruined by heat or humidity during handling.
Army Bunker
A 1982 Chateau Lafite Rothschild, which received a perfect score of 100 by wine critic Robert Parker, with good provenance sells for more than $12,000 per bottle, while one of dubious heritage may only fetch $500, according to Greg De'Eb, general manager of Crown Wine Cellars, which opened its first cellar in Hong Kong in 2003, 60 feet underground in a former World War II munitions bunker.
Crown now has three sites, including a 44,000-square-foot facility it built for more than $10 million that houses two of the three record bottles of Lafite. Their exact location is kept secret even from the bottles' owner, De'Eb says.
Part of the appeal of the new vaults is that they offer more than storage, with some selling wines or offering club facilities that members can use.
One recent Tuesday evening, 12 of Crown's members and their guests dined on foie gras, beef carpaccio and porcini mushroom risotto in the library at a blind tasting of 12 red wines contributed by the group, including a 1988 Chateau Beychevelle, a 1992 L'Avenir from South Africa, and Brazilian 2005 Miolo Lot 43 that stumped the entire gathering.
European View
Still, some collectors are keeping their bottles in Europe, says William Chan, senior wine consultant at the Hong Kong unit of London-based Berry Bros. & Rudd.
"There is still a perception that storage facilities in Europe are more developed or better than in Hong Kong and people feel the provenance is better," he says.
To compete, Hong Kong introduced the first government quality standards for the industry in 2009.
"Hong Kong needs to show we can offer quality storage," says Hubert Li, 34, general manager at Hong Kong Wine Vault, who advised on the standards. Formerly with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Li started the vault in 2008 on two rented floors of a local warehouse with four partners, including V-Nee Yeh, co- founder of asset manager Value Partners Ltd. They now occupy seven floors and plan to open another unit in Kowloon this year.
The growth of the business also attracted Hong Kong-listed developer Hanison Construction Holding Co., which opened its Collezione Wine Cellars in October 2010 in Sha Tin, near Hong Kong's biggest horse-racing stadium. The 5,000-case site, which uses radio frequency identification tags, or RFID, to provide a record of handling, is close to capacity and there are plans to expand next year, says Marketing Manager Dick Chan.