Meet Yi Da Chua | Wine Merchant

We had the good fortune of connecting with Yi Da Chua and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Yi Da, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Since the beginning in 2017, Racine Wines Co. came about as a graduate school project revolving around closing the feedback loop with inputs from Asian Markets while working with working with low intervention winemakers in France. The decision to work with low intervention wines coincided with the increase in curiosity and demand of low intervention wines in Asia plus the lack of resources of these winemakers as compared to their bigger adversaries. The initial idea was to view ourselves as partners of these winemakers rather than simply importers. This was achieved by giving them a wide range of feedback constantly from our end consumers which included, ease of navigating the labels, acceptance of the flavour profiles and how well did the wines age and travel just to name a few. These factors exists primarily due to the fact that low intervention wines might be more susceptible to damage while in transit and also they might taste wildly different as opposed to conventional winemaking. In the beginning we worked with 5 producers from Alsace, Beaujolais and Bordeaux who supported us throughout the course of our project. Today, Racine Wines Co. works with approximately 30 winemakers all throughout France even with two wineries in Germany (https://www.racinewinesco.com/pages/winemakers) This proved to be relatively successful as the upward integration has also seen many winemakers taking in our feedback and making adjustments to their wines. For me, it stems from a very simple thought, there will be no wines if not for our winemakers.

What should our readers know about your business?
As mentioned earlier we try to set ourselves apart from most other importers by adding value in a following few ways.

1. To provide timely feedback from our end consumers

2. To actively participate in the winemaking processes from harvesting to bottling whenever possible, this provides more transparency and assurance to our end consumers about the winemaking processes.

3. To reduce the costs to our end consumers by reducing the layers of intermediaries as we only work directly with winemakers whom we know personally. This will also ensure that the winemakers gets their fair renumeration and not have to pay a percentage to agents.

Initially, it was really tough to set base in Singapore as the market is still largely traditional and relationship based therefore it was tough to enter the market as a new player with relatively niche products. Especially when there are multitudes of fly by night importers who bring in wines as a side gig or largely for self consumption. These concerns tapered off after the first two years when most of our clients and competitors realised that we are largely focused on working to increase value to the industry as a whole rather than to compete for a small piece of the pie.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I would definitely bring them to more local spots.

Local seafood at Yang Ming Seafood Restaurant where they have a free corkage policy and you can dig into local seafood dishes such as chili crab. 71 Ubi Cres, #01-05 Excalibur Centre, Singapore 408571

For low intervention wines I would definitely hit up Wine Mouth a retail space dedicated to events surrounding low intervention wines and occasionally artisanal spirits. 432A Joo Chiat Rd, Singapore 427647

A new natural wine spot in town, Nothing Fancy as the name suggests its an unpretentious wine bar focusing on sharing plates and an ever changing natural wines list at the back alley. 11 Hamilton Rd, #01-00, Singapore 209182

From October 2022 to March 2023 there will be the Singapore Biennale which would boast a multitude of art installations all across the city which could be interesting as it would allow one to see the city from another point of view.

Something more touristy would be to check out the National Gallery or the National Museum to give them a better idea of the immense changes Singapore came about throughout the 50 odd years of independence, or take the river taxi around boat quay and clarke quay to get to the Merlion the Symbol of Singapore.

If they were into underground music scene they should definitely check out, I’ve never been but apparently its a booming scene since the reopening after Covid-19. 34 N Canal Rd, #01-01, Singapore 059290

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to dedicate this shoutout to all the low intervention winemakers who have welcomed us with open hearts and showed us an immense amount of patience and hospitality throughout all these foundational years of Racine Wines Co.

Website: racinewinesco.com

Instagram: @racinewinesco