In a further sign of how enthusiasm in Asia for investing in fine wine remains, an online fine wine exchange and portfolio management business has created a Hong Kong-focused website.

Wine Owners, launched last June, announced that from yesterday, prospective and existing members in Hong Kong will have Wine Owners HK, a bespoke region specific branch of www.wineowners.com site.

The rollout of a the Hong Kong-focused platform comes at a time when, despite some pullbacks, investing in fine wines such as the houses in the Bordeaux and Bergundy regions of France remains one of the more exotic features of the “alternative assets” space, alongside fine art, jewellery and classic motor cars. The rising affluence of Asia has helped driven demand for names such as Mouton-Rothschild, Latour and Margaux. Performance of fine wine at auction can be tracked through services such as the Liv-Ex exchange in London, for example.

Wine Owners says collectors manage on average HK$800,000 ($103,156) on the dot.com platform, with a growing number accessing the fine wine exchange to buy and sell directly in a secondary market with fellow collectors, wine merchants, brokers, consultants and funds.
 
The Hong Kong portal will display, as a priority, wine offered for sale in Hong Kong, alongside unrestricted access to European offers. The platform also calculates delivery charges from major Hong Kong warehouses, taking tax effects into account.
Pricing information and graphical analysis on 160,000 fine wines can be analysed in HK$ as well as other global currencies.

Wine Owners says it currently has 8,000 users, collectively managing more than $1.0 billion of fine wine collections.

"We strongly felt we needed to recognise and reward the support of wine businesses in Hong Kong, and wanted to introduce ourselves to local wine consumers - amongst the most passionate wine collectors in the world - as an exciting way for them to fully appreciate their treasured assets” said Wine Owners founder and chief executive Nick Martin.