香港酒游记之二——饮酒牌照

几乎每个人都认为香港是美食美酒爱好者的天堂，甚至如有些酒友说的不如就住在香港，以省去每年来来回回背酒的麻烦。确实，在此次香港之行前，笔者也是有过同样的想法，较之内地，香港自2008年起免除红酒关税后，已成为亚洲乃至全球最令人注目的市场，（连伦敦都有消费税），堪称世界上喝酒最便宜的去处；而且香港的葡萄酒市场较为成熟，酒款的选择性很广，更是能够买到许多的高性价比酒款。

但是香港真的是天堂吗？！这次在香港的一些见闻改变了我的一些看法。离港前一天, 原本想买支酒在葡萄酒专卖店饮用，转遍了香港大大小小的葡萄酒专卖店，都被告知”本店只有外卖，没有堂吃“。 细问之下才知道香港不像内地，葡萄酒专卖店若没有饮酒执照，就不能在店里饮酒，只能“试饮”,即喝一杯，若被查到有顾客在店里喝完了整瓶酒，就会被罚款，因此没有一家店愿意承担这样的风险。于是乎我们最终很是郁闷的在美酒汇“试饮”了一下酒，然后将剩下的酒带到只有马克饮料杯的茶餐厅配餐喝了。

在内地，你可以在几乎任何一家葡萄酒专卖店买完酒后在店内享用，并且还提供配套服务（葡萄酒杯、醒酒、开瓶、冰桶等）， 没有那么多繁琐死板的规定和限制。看来在香港喝酒还得找有杯卖酒的地方啊！

Travel in Hongkong 2—on-licence

Almost everyone thinks Hongkong is the paradise for good food & fine wine, even some wine lovers want to live in HK so that they do not need to return and back between Shanghai and HK to take the fine wines. In fact, prior to this travel to HK, I’ve got the similar idea, when compared to China mainland, HK have relieved the tax since 2008; thus, HK currently become the most attractive as well as cheapest place for drinking in Asia even all over the world (even London has consumption tax); also HK’s wine market is relatively mature, which as the widely range for alternatives, also for more choice for worthwhile wines.

However, is HK exactly the paradise?! This time in HK, some experience has changed my mind. The day before I left HK, I visited lots of wine shops because I wanted to purchase a bottle of wine and drink in the wine store. Unfortunately, I was told that“only take away, can not drink in the shop”. The reason I got when I asked for the details was that drink in the shop is only available within the wine shops which has the on-licence, or if the shop without on-licence allow the customers to finish the whole bottle, it will be heavy fine, of course, none one wants to shoulder this kind of risk. Therefore, we can only drink a glass of wine in the wine shop, just for taste & try. Finally, we fragrantly bought wine in the “majorceller”, do the tasting, then take the rest to the restaurant and used the mug to finish.

In China mainland, you can drink wine off in almost every wine shop, which haven’t so many stereotype regulations and restriction, also the additional benefits is that the service is available very often (cups, decanter, opener, ice buckets, etc). So, for everybody who wants to drink wines in HK have better to find the place offer wine by glass service.