a personalized bottle of wine, anyone?

“DIVINE” was the very first word that raced through my mind like a sprinter eager for a win as Christoph Heidt was explaining to me the concept of Vom Fass, a store that is set to revolutionize how Filipinos shop for whiskey, scotch, vinegars and oils that they need to prepare for that perfect meal. “Exquisite” came next.

Imagine going inside a shop where you can first taste, then smell the wines, vinegars and oils before buying them.

You can also decide on the quantity of your purchase, the kind of bottle or container that the products will be placed into, and the packaging. The best part is, all of these will come straight from a cask.

Now, you won’t get this kind of excitement when you shop for spirits and oils in the supermarket, where everything has already been bottled up. Chances are you might end up regretting your purchase when, after trying the products from the supermarket at home, you discover that the taste or the aroma is not to your liking. That won’t happen at Vom Fass, Christoph assured me.

“In England, they call us the sweet shop for grown-ups,” said Christoph, the Waldburg-based chief operating officer of Vom Fass, in town recently to help the German company’s Filipino partners set up its first store in the country, at the east wing of the Shangri-La Plaza in Mandaluyong City.

 ONLY THE BEST FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD

VOM FASS, which opened its first store in Germany in 1994, has a long, rich history behind it. The family who founded the company has been in the wine and vinegar business for more than 150 years.

What has made it click through the years is the quality of its products, Christoph said. The company sources its ingredients, such as olives and fruits, from all over the world, procuring only the best that a country has to offer. For example, it imports olives from Italy, Spain and Greece; whiskeys from Scotland; cognac from France; avocados from New Zealand; mangoes and calamansi from the Philippines.

“The quality of our products is very high,” he said. “That’s the only credibility we have. That’s the only reason we succeed in Europe. There is no need for us. People can buy most of the products from the supermarket and specialty stores. The only need for us is the high level of quality of our products, the chance to taste them before the purchase, and the personalized touch of our services.”

It took Vom Fass 12 years since it first opened its first store in Asia (Tokyo, Japan) to finally come to Philippine shores. The reason behind this is not the lack of willingness on the part of the German firm to tap the booming Philippine market, but because it was only last year that a family of businessmen from the country took the initiative to bring the Vom Fass experience onshore.

Unlike other popular brands, Vom Fass does not go around the world offering a franchise. It does not approach people either who might be interested to open a store in their home countries. It also does not want corporations to own the franchise, but prefers families, Christoph explained.

What it does is to wait for a family-owned company to show interest in its business model. They then evaluate the interested party if it has the acumen, the vision and the passion for the business. That’s how Mark Anderson Sambar won the franchise to open the first Vom Fass store in the Philippines.

Mark and his family first stumbled into a Vom Fass outlet in Singapore last year.

“The simplicity of the concept is what attracted us to Vom Fass,” Mark said. “You go to a supermarket and everything is prepackaged, bottled. At Vom Fass, you see the cask and it’s something new. You have this feeling that the products are all straight from the producer, that they are all very fresh. The experience is much different than just going to the grocery and buying things at random."

Christoph and Mark believe that the Philippines is a perfect fit for Vom Fass.

“The culture in the Philippines pretty much fits our product range,” Christoph said. “You have this Mediterranean flair that is needed to appreciate our products.” Vom Fass has, so far, 20 stores in Asia located in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

“Everything here is emerging,” Mark pointed out. “It’s not just the market, but the Filipino palette is getting more sophisticated. Everybody is always looking for something new, something different from what’s being offered at the moment. This is the perfect time to bring it to the Philippines.”

The store just opened recently, just in time to catch the shopping and gift-giving frenzy that mark every Christmas season.

And Vom Fass surely knows how to pander to gift-givers. In fact, half of its business worldwide comes from gift-givers.

Vom Fass not only suits its bottles and packaging for the Christmas (and any season, for that matter), but it also allows gift-givers to put the names of the recipients, as well as write a message on the bottles. Now isn’t that exquisite?