ABOUT 10 years ago, wine drinking was not part of the Cebu scene. But today, Cebuanos enjoy wines with their meals or buy wines now readily available in restaurants, supermarkets and boutique wine stores, one of which is Bibendum.
Hans Joerg Eulenhoefer, born in Manila with Cebuano roots (his mother is Margaret Richards Taylor), said that about eight years ago, the family had a Christmas reunion in Cebu. Being accustomed to having wine with their meals, they went out to buy some and found out that the selection was limited.
And of the bottles they had bought, half of them have already turned bad. That made mother and son, who are in the business of distributing wines through Duty Free stores in airports through their Harston Group, decide to open Bibendum in Cebu.
Harston distributes wines as far as Tahiti, Myanmar and South America.
“Most of the wines available here were inexpensive and the better wines were so expensive. And people who did look for the higher priced wines were disappointed when what they bought have already turned bad from improper storage and handling. Who would want to buy an expensive wine that turns out bad?
So, we decided to open Bibendum to increase the volume of properly handled wines available.
We keep our margins low. Some of the wines here are cheaper at retail than in the United States. The major share of the wine market is in Manila but being a Cebuano family, we decided to concentrate in the Visayas,” Hans explained.
In Cebu, Hans said, “there is a tendency toward sweet wines. Slowly we are introducing wines at lower price points but are an upgrade from those previously offered in the market.
The highest selling is the Kressman selection which includes merlot, cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay and sauvignon blanc. Some of our wines are also available in the supermarket but a special selection is exclusively for restaurants, hotels and bars.”
“The challenge in the wine business is the lack of knowledge about wines even among the service staff.
We had to do a lot of training to bring everyone up to some degree of knowledge about wines. One of the things we do here is wine tasting, so people can take wine with different budgets. Part of the learning curve is teaching people what is available here and which wines they enjoy and what different wines taste like.”
Hans was born in Manila, went to grade school in Thailand, went to high school in Australia, and went to college taking up hotel management in Switzerland. Based abroad most of his life (in the U.S. for the past 16 years), he chose to come back to Cebu to give his mom Margie a break from the businesses they started together, Bibendum and Amonfil; the latter, an employment agency which “interacts with the NHS (National Health Service) of the United Kingdom to assist them in recruiting nurses for hospitals.” Of Amonfil he said: “It is nice to give Filipinos opportunities to work internationally with compensation they cannot find here.”
Hans has come to enjoy Cebu, its different restaurants which were not around eight or so years ago. To relax, he spends a lot of time riding his motorcycles—his Harley Davidson or his BMW—with his friends.
“I am always amazed at how beautiful the Philippine countryside is.”
It does seem that Hans has come back not just to sell wines but also to enjoy his island roots.