After 25 years in Hong Kong and 12 in Singapore, British wine merchants Berry Bros. & Rudd is a seasoned player on the Asian wine landscape. Charlie Rudd, a fourth-generation family member, now leads the charge in Asia.
BY JOYCELINE TULLY
It was an entire cellar dedicated to the quintessential Super Tuscan, Sassicaia. There were thousands of bottles, including magnums. There were even some extraordinarily rare large formats to boot, a fact that caught the sharp eyes of Charlie Rudd, regional manager and fourth-generation of Britain’s oldest wine and spirit merchant Berry Bros. & Rudd (BBR) founded in 1698. These were, as he puts it, “rare as hen’s teeth”.
“When asked why, the collector said it was his first bottle of Sassicaia that really blew him away,” Rudd recounts. And he’d been hooked ever since [on collecting only Sassicaia].” Indeed, it proved incredible foresight, given that vintages from this pioneering Italian winery is more in demand than ever, thanks to their complexity and aging potential.
For Rudd, then newly arrived in Singapore in 2019, it was a sign of the budding wine scene he would encounter in the city state. It was interesting for him to see such collectors on the wine scene here. Five years on, he remains struck by the remarkable thirst for knowledge and experience in wine not just in Singapore, but in the region.
Indeed, for Berry Bros. & Rudd, the proud bearer of two Royal Warrants, Singapore, Southeast Asia and the rest of Asia is a brave new world. Since it established its first Asian office in Hong Kong 25 years ago, Asia has become a key market. Although the company doesn’t have bonded warehousing in Asia, it offers the same services as in UK. In fact, BBR is planning for a year-on-year double digit-growth for 2024, driven by a growing interest and passion among Asian consumers for drinking and collecting fine wines and spirits.
While Hong Kong is probably the most competitive wine market in Asia, other emerging markets in the region are showing promise. Bangkok, for instance, offers new opportunities with the recent reduction of the wine tax in early 2024.
Despite its size, Singapore is another key Asian player. BBR’s Singapore branch was set up in 2012. “The market in Singapore has come a long way in a short space of time and is now operating as a regional hub across Southeast Asia,” says Rudd. But with its “island feel and two degrees of separation across consumers,” as Rudd describes it, the wine business here requires considerable cultivation and care.
“The network is extremely close and collectors, more often than not, know each other to some extent,” Rudd explains. “With such a close network of collectors, colleagues and friends, trust and proof of concept, exceptional service from soil to sip become extremely important with word travelling fast.” Fortunately for BBR, these are well-honed specialties.
In wine we trust
A family-run business to this day, the British company has long prided itself on the trust it builds with its clientele. And in an era where wine frauds and scandals have rocked the world, trust and provenance are imperative.
“By prioritising prevention through verification checks, we not only safeguard our brand reputation but also uphold trust with our valued customers,” Rudd explains. “We believe that these proactive steps in ensuring the authenticity of our products not only mitigate risks but also contribute to the integrity and longevity of the wine industry as whole.”
Indeed, the company is a market leader in authentication and security in fine wine, with a dedicated team of experts checking all the wines going into their warehouse, led by renowned wine detective Philip Moulin. According to Rudd, the authentication process begins with a formal check-in to determine where the stock is coming from before the team looks into five areas of rigorous inspection. These include looking at the label condition through an electric microscope and blue light tool, checking the bottle fill, verifying the cork condition, inspecting the capsule condition, and checking the colour of the wine etc.
These rigorous standards are key to the success of BBX, BBR’s online fine wine exchange that currently boasts about 40,000 bottles. Since its launch in 2010, BBX now offers the world’s largest collection of privately owned wine available for sale. Wine lovers with wines stored in bond at BBR can list their wines for sale, bid for their favourites, hunt down a special bottle and manage their cellars with a few taps on their keyboards.
To ensure that all wines on BBX are genuine, every bottle listed undergoes exacting verification checks. “Our wine inspectors assess each bottle using advanced technologies to verify the label, capsule, cork, bottle fill, and the colour of the wine,” Rudd explains. “Only once the wine passes these verification stages will it receive a provenance guarantee to be listed on BBX.”
Says Rudd on the evolution of BBX: “One of the biggest changes is that there is a healthy global demand – we’ve seen some interesting sales in Singapore of some excellent Grand Cru Burgundy from fantastic vintages.”
From a £40 bottle of 2019 Mai & Kenji Hodgson, Flotsam Rouge, Vin de France to the 2001 Musigny, Domaine Leroy, Burgundy that will set you back a whopping a £157,000 for a three-bottle case, there is probably something for every palate and wallet on BBX. No surprise then that Asian collectors far removed from the heart of the wine trade in Europe find a very useful resource in BBX.
Indeed, for newer collectors and more seasoned ones too, it offers a ready way to gain access to older vintages. “BBX has always been a success story in Asia,” Rudd shares. “It gives access to over 40,000 wines to collectors in the region, who are able to add to their collections rare wines coming from the most trustable source.” Given the growth of the exchange since its launch, it would seem that wine collectors in Asia and around the world agree.
