dbHK interview: Hugues Rondouin, LQV

Hugues Rondouin the man behind LQV one of Hong Kong’s most successful wine bars, discusses the rise in popularity of wines from Jura and Singapore’s strong wine market.

It’s hard to walk around Hong Kong nowadays without stumbling upon – or into – yet another a tiny wine bar championing France’s ‘forgotten grapes’ or under the radar wine regions, however the gentle-mannered Hugues Rondouin from Mazamet in south west France can claim to be one of the earliest to plant the seed in Hong Kong.

After establishing Le Quinze Vins (LQV) in Paris’ Odeon quarter in 2010 which subsequently was voted Best Wine Shop in France by La Revue de Vins de France, Rondouin turned his attention to Hong Kong where he had lived previously from 2006 to 2009 working in the finance sector – “like every other French person in Hong Kong.”

LQV in Swatow Street, Wan Chai duly opened in 2014, as a retail shop and wine bar that found a niche in between fine dining restaurants and more casual spaces and then in 2015, Rondouin opened another in Central’s Gage Street.

“In Paris I noticed that wine bars hosted tastings only around once a week and I thought, ‘why not have a tasting every night?’ In Hong Kong consumers were – and still are – so curious that I thought it would work and not many other places were doing the same thing.”

Crucially, various producers in France were already eyeing Hong Kong as a potential export market since the abolition of wine import duty in 2008 and so Rondouin capitalized on his networks and introduced some of France’s lesser known regions and appellations to the unsuspecting Hong Kong public, starting with 800 references.

The 1,500-label strong wine list is still unapologetically France-centric and heavy on the Burgundy offerings – but other world-class producers such as Egon Muller, Gaja and Bass Phillip get a look in. Everything is sourced directly from the domaines with other Hong Kong restaurants buying stock from Rondouin.

While not placing too much importance on biodynamic or natural wines, Rondouin said that for 2016, the number of customers asking for biodynamic wines had increased as general wine knowledge became correspondingly higher.

“Wines from Beaujolais and Jura are becoming really popular as they offer something else apart from Burgundy and Bordeaux as well as from whites from Savoie. Also with the reduced yields from Burgundy recently, the prices are higher and people are looking for alternatives.”

In August this year, Rondouin also opened the latest LQV enterprise in Singapore’s bustling Boon Tat Street, an arguably more established wine market than Hong Kong, despite the tax.

“Before Hong Kong, Singapore was clearly in the lead for wine consumption. The unfortunate thing is that it’s astronomically expensive for drinking wine because many in the on-trade hide behind the tax when really it only amounts to about HK$55 a bottle.”

Rondouin plans to visit Tokyo and Seoul early next year possibly to eye up potential sites, though he said that Hong Kong’s two LQVs would still be the main focus.

“Hong Kong has become so diverse now and consumers are becoming a lot more open minded. There are wines here that you can’t find anywhere else.”’

The interior of LQV in Swatow Street, Wan Chai