As manager of Sheung Wan-based mato coffee and wine, Wallace Lo wants wine to be fun, informal, easy to understand for every drinker

Sporting a boisterous fluffy beard, a tweedy fine mustache, and vintage chic clothing style, Wallace Lo is a fashionable character in the restaurant space. He fits the bill as a wine master with a glass of wine clenched in his hand most days at his wine bar.

At mato coffee wine, a Sheung Wan-based wine bar which brings wine, coffee, and bistro food to a central focus, the manager and sommelier-in-charge is on year three of a mission to make wine accessible to Hong Kong. 

“There are very few wine bars in Hong Kong,” Wallace says. “We do things a bit different here at mato.”

At first, the subjective taste profiles, difference between Old World and New World, and the many types of wine dotting the wine-producing world can appear alienating to the non-wine drinker. Wallace ventured to found his first independent venue to educate the wine-interested drinkers on how to enjoy the rich natural alcohol. 

Wallace Lo mate coffee wine bar bottles of wine

“At mato, our wine selection does not have a special theme. We charge a lower markup than most wine bars in Hong Kong and have around one hundred-plus by-the-glass wine selections. This is a place for people to chill out and simply explore wine without opening a whole bottle.”

The barrier for people to enjoy or explore wine in Hong Kong, Wallace finds, is the consumption of an entire wine bottle. Using the Coravin system, which uses a very fine needle inserted into the cork to pour wine without removing the work, allows Wallace and his team to showcase a curated selection of wines to a novice drinker based on preference and taste. 

Boasting over 150 wine references in their bottle catalogue, customers at the wine bar can sample a selection of 10 wines before diving deeper into a few. Their range covers Australian, French, German, Australian, Spanish, Italian, Georgian, Slovenian, Portuguese, Uruguayan, and Greek wines. “We are different from the cocktail world, we do not create anything, we serve.”

Wine descriptions and labels are “jazzed up” at mato to convey the romance, depth, flavours, tones, and aromas of each bottle shared with customers. “If we are serving a Cabernet Sauvignon from three different worldly wine regions, it is hard to describe it in a few words. We offer a tasting portion and engage our customers with language on what the wine is and what it offers.” 

Wallace Lo mate coffee wine bar interior shot

“From my fine-dining experience and background, explaining and presenting is an extremely important part of the dining room experience.”

In mato’s three-part formula for neighborhood dining, coffee is equally a vital aspect of what the wine bar offers Hong Kong. “Coffee is an agricultural product with only one ingredient, just like wine. It is a product that has a very strong sense of place, so we are keen to explore these two beverages together.”

“Good wine, good coffee, good chocolate, and good tea, simplicity is a key part of our work. Products with one ingredient can be developed into profiles from something very innovative to something very traditional.”  

On the food front, mato’s new chef Felix has introduced a Japanese-meet-French menu to pair up their wine with delicate flavours. 

Wallace Lo mate coffee wine bar glasses of wine

Opening mato in Sheung Wan two years ago was a bold move in a neighborhood where many restaurants only cater to the area’s white collar worker lunch crowd, Wallace notes. “With our location on a main road, in an area not familiar with drinkers, we look more to becoming a destination for people to travel to drink at.”

“We may appear not French enough with a vibe of customers carrying a glass of rose outside and standing on the street, but our wine selection is very different to other wine bars as we capture a different segment of the market.”

More jazzy and quiet than other boozy locales around the west of Hong Kong Island, Wallace sees mato as a little cave for people to indulge in wine and hide out after work. Paired up with the sommelier skills of the wine expert, wine drinking has become more approachable at the Sheung Wan wine bar.

Head to mato coffee wine for an easy entry to enjoying and drinking top wines in Hong Kong under Wallace’s tutelage.

Rubin Verebes is the Managing Editor of Foodie, the guiding force behind the magazine's delectable stories. With a knack for cooking up mouthwatering profiles, crafting immersive restaurant reviews, and dishing out tasty features, Rubin tells the great stories of Hong Kong's dining scene.

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