Usually we don’t review private places, but this place is definitely worth mentioning. Owned by a friend of ours, The Hong Kong Wine Vault is primarily a wine storage facility. Located in an old warehouse building in Wong Chuk Hang in Aberdeen, Hong Kong, they occupy three floors, 5-7 with two more to come. But unlike other storage facilities like Crown Cellars, here you have full access to you wines 24/7 via smartcard access and state-of-the-art facial recognition security. With cellars starting at 40 sq. ft. (HK$2,650/month), it’s the best excuse to ship all the wines that were stored overseas…and to buy more. With zero tax on wines and no more excuse of no space, why not?

But their services don’t stop there. The owners fitted the 7th floor with a very nice function room named the Havana Room, equipped with card tables, a lounge area, a 60 inch flat screen TV for all the sports fans and of course a dining area. Tonight we enjoyed the cooking from one of the caterers, Cecile Lin. The full kitchen is catered for Chinese cuisine, however, they are also renovating another room downstairs for western food, which should be ready by Christmas.

Tonight we started off with some very delicious appetizers, pork neck cubes (粒粒豬頸) and prawn toast (蝦多士) served with 1996 Pierre Peters Champagne. These were so good we had to stop ourselves from eating too much as we knew there would be more good stuff to come.

The chicken (口水雞) was the most memorable, tender and juicy…mouth watering. That’s why it’s called 口水雞, literally ‘saliva’ chicken. The beef was a bit tough and the sea urchin fried rice was a bit dry. What would a dinner be in a wine vault without wine? Besides the Champagne, we were treated to 1995 Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos, 1990 Domaine Robert Ampeau Meursault-Perrieres, 1990 Chateau Lagrange and 1990 Chateau Gruaud Larose.

The ‘main course’ was a very good finish to the enjoyable dinner. A coffee jelly with milk (咖啡奶凍) topped off with a little Kahlua…smooth. The best part was the accompanying dessert wine, 1996 Chateau d’Yquem.

There are also several other recommended caterers on their list including French and Vietnamese. The best thing is that you would never run out of wine, as your cellar is just next door

15/20 (for the food)
19/20 (for the ambiance)

Hong Kong Wine Vault
5-7/F Ha Lung Industrial Building
52 Wong Chuk Hang Road
Hong Kong
T: +852 2870 1800
F: +852 2870 1866
E: info@winevault.com.hk
W: www.winevault.com.hk

091107 HK Wine Vault - 7th floor entrance

091107 HK Wine Vault - Wall decoration

091107 HK Wine Vault - Table setting

091107 HK Wine Vault - Tasty appetizers

091107 HK Wine Vault - Chicken 口水雞

091107 HK Wine Vault - Turnip cake 蘿蔔糕

091107 HK Wine Vault - Korean style ribs 韓式牛小排

091107 HK Wine Vault - Cod with tofu 鱈魚煮豆腐

091107 HK Wine Vault - My 'pizza' 我的薄餅

091107 HK Wine Vault - Coffee jelly w/ milk 咖啡奶凍

091107 HK Wine Vault - Wines for the evening