Meet with Queena Wong

QUEENA WONG

Frankly no! We didn’t often go out to eat, and when we did, my mother would drink orange juice.

QUEENA WONG

It wasn’t a wine, it was a person. I had been in London for probably a couple of years and I was having lunch at the Capital Hotel, a Michelin-starred restaurant behind Harrod’s. Matt Wilkin MS was the sommelier and as he poured my glass of Champagne in his full penguin suit and his left arm behind his back, I laughed and said “I can still see your arm!”. He had a broken arm and I thought he was trying to hide the cast – not realising that this is all part of traditional wine service.

He laughed, we had this amazing lunch and that’s where our friendship started. He taught me how to taste and is the reason I have such a strong affinity with sommellerie and hospitality.

QUEENA WONG

You have to be a wine lover first, if you are collecting to age your wine to drink later. If you are an investor, it’s possible to have no interest in wine and just view it as an asset. For me, that’s not my angle. I love to enjoy what the wine world offers me and it’s far beyond the fluid, it’s meeting all the amazing people and the social environment it gives you. 

QUEENA WONG

It’s really special. Here in the UK there are not very many of us – but there are lots of women in wine, and so many of them know more than I do. But in terms of buying wine, collecting it, ageing it, there aren’t very many of us.

QUEENA WONG

Curious Vines is now in its fourth year and is a women in wine industry network offering connection, mentoring and workshops. We also offer education support to Master of Wine, WSET Diploma, Court of Master Sommelier and Master Sommelier students. With minimal marketing we now have nearly 1100 members, mostly in the UK.

I was driven to set it up initially because I saw there were not enough women on the collecting side. I realised that that’s something the industry needs to spend time and money on, to attract that new, diverse consumer base. In many ways women are the untapped emerging market in wine.

Now the focus is on women working in the wine industry. In October 2023 we released the results of the first UK women in wine survey, which I am using as a catalyst to push for change and to see the issues highlighted in that survey addressed. The wine industry is quite male dominated, which is part of its historical legacy. We found that many women have experienced sexism and gender bias – of course this isn’t special to the wine industry. But our industry does have unique factors, which I call the unholy trinity: alcohol, lots of off-premises working and, often, the presence of a power differential.

It was also striking to see that nearly half of the women who responded to the survey said they had considered leaving the industry in the past 5 years. Fast forward 5 years and they may no longer be thinking about it, they may have left. And we all know that retaining talent is cheaper than finding and training new recruits.   

QUEENA WONG

Everyone knows I’m a massive Champagne lover and it’s still the most exciting region for me. The new growers that are coming out, the new styles that even the Grandes Marques are bringing out.  

Champagne is definitely the biggest section in my cellar. I love the smaller, artisanal Champagnes, but I appreciate they can be frustrating for consumers trying to buy them, as they are produced in such small quantities. They also can vary each year, versus Grandes Marques non-vintage wines, which maintain a more steady house identity.  

I also love Burgundy and I’m interested in exploring new areas – like the Canary Islands, which has wines with freshness and salinity that really express where they come from.

QUEENA WONG

I already have too much wine, but I will never stop collecting because we collectors love to buy and that means you have more to share.  

One of the things we don’t talk about in the wine industry is access to bottles as there are only a finite number made each year and they can be expensive. I try to use my collection to enable my friends (both men and women) to taste lots of different things. I use my privileged position as a collector to share bottles with people who would otherwise never be able to access them, giving them joy in experiencing great wines.