The Asian Wine Market: In conversation with Timothy Goh of Vinum Fine Wines
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Timothy Goh, Sales Director of Vinum Fine Wines Singapore, joins Sarah Kemp on The Wines Conversation #podcast to discuss the vibrant and growing Asian fine wine market. From trends to opportunities, hear how Vinum Fine Wines has established itself as a leading merchant in the region while expanding its presence in London.
🎧 Tune in at www.wine-conversation.com or your favourite podcast platform!
Vinum Fine Wines is one of Singapore’s most prominent wine companies, created by Desmond Lim, the owner of the famous Les Amis restaurant in 1995. Today it trades all over South-East Asia, as well in London, where it established a base back in 2009. Sarah Kemp talks to its sales director, Timothy Goh, about the Asian wine market and discusses how that market is developing for fine wine.
Singapore is an increasingly important hub for fine wine, with Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam on its doorstep, Timothy states. He believes that Hong Kong is now specifically focused on serving mainland China. The recent political unrest in Hong Kong has led to the financial sector moving to Singapore, which is more politically stable, and with the move, there’s been an increase in demand for fine wine. He points out that South-East Asia only began consuming fine wine 15 to 20 years ago. It was during the Covid pandemic that the wine scene exploded. This was helped in Singapore by the government funding courses to expand people’s knowledge, and one of the courses was wine.
Japanese consumers are the most advanced in their knowledge, Timothy believes, but he is impressed with the number of knowledgeable connoisseurs there are in Indonesia, many of them in their late 20s and 30s. The market that he thinks has the potential to explode next is Thailand.
Wine lovers in South-East Asia tend to be men, with the exception of Singapore, where there are as many women collectors as men. Mainland China has huge potential, but the difficulties of importing wine there makes the market problematic. It is an important market as many Chinese are already knowledgeable, and they have their own domestic wine industry, so there’s stimulus.
Burgundy is enjoying a golden moment in Singapore, and Timothy believes its lighter style is in keeping with the lighter foods that are enjoyed in the country. He is concerned about global warming affecting the alcohol levels in Burgundy “If it passes 14.5 percent, it is a question–alcohol levels are important,” he advises.
The wine styles under the radar so far are the Rhone Valley, and Italy, in particular the Piedmont, which he thinks has a huge future in South-East Asia: “Piedmont is tremendously undervalued.”
Vinum opened in Britain in 2009, when they realised that a significant number of Singapore customers bought their wines in London, and they wanted to bridge the gap. Vinum Fine Wines Managing Director Lee Crymble is British, and the UK side has grown significantly with 30 colleagues in the UK office. How do they compete with the established British companies? Timothy replies, “The people are the software of the company.” Integrity, honesty and customer relationships are the heart of the company’s philosophy, with word of mouth the best marketing of all. Brexit has made trading more difficult, but they have their own logistics team who are up for the challenge. He admits it would be difficult for a new company setting up business today.
His personal favourite region? Burgundy, but it is Piedmont that he is most excited about, which he believes has many similarities with Burgundy, including passionate generations of wine producers.
