Cup runneth over in Hong Kong's wine hub plan

Hong Kong - A wine school, a wine museum and even wine tourism are among the plans being considered by the government to make Hong Kong into a wine hub for the region, a media report said Friday. Other proposals include the conversion of a munitions store and heritage sites into wine cellars, the South China Morning Post said, quoting Finance Minister John Tsang. 'We are identifying heritage sites that may be used for storage as well as many other wine-related activities, such as a wine school, a wine museum and venues for wine appreciation events,' Mr Tsang said. He added that the conversion of an underground munitions tunnel on Hong Kong Island into a public wine cellar and a private club was a 'good working example' of what was possible. The tunnel was redeveloped into a wine centre by Crown Worldwide, a Hong Kong-based removals and logistics company. Mr Tsang said the Tiger Balm Garden theme park in the Kowloon district of Hong Hong or a munitions storehouse on Stonecutters Island could be ideal places for conversion into wine-orientated facilities. Nicholas Pegna, manager director of wine merchant Berry Bros & Rudd, said using heritage sites for wine related activities would benefit the community and tourism. 'It may include a museum, a wine school and a wine centre with commentary and wine tasting. I do encourage the idea for the public use of old buildings because it is preserving the heritage,' Pegna said. Tsang pointed out that Hong Kong investors own about a million cases of fine wine overseas with about half stored in facilities in Britain with the rest stored in France, Spain, Germany and the US. Conservative estimates predict that given the right facilities and incentives about 50 per cent of this could be brought to Hong Kong for storage or trading. The government has already ended all taxes and customs controls on wine so that traders no longer need a permit to import, export, store or manufacture wine. This comes as a research report for Hong Kong's Trade Development Council forecast that the value of wine consumption in Asia, excluding Japan, is forecast to double to 17 billion dollars by 2012 and rise to 27 billion dollars by 2017.