It’s always exciting to see old iconic buildings brought back to life. One such building is REXKL, which is located in the heart of Kuala Lumpur.
This 70-year-old building survived two fires, and was subsequently abandoned for more than 20 years before local architects Shin Chang and Shin Tseng breathed new life into its structures.
REXKL now houses a collective of social enterprises, and urban food and retail merchants, one of them being PURO KL – a natural wine bar that is looking to redefine everything we think we know about wine.
Its founders Tan Meng How and Gerald Chua share their thoughts.
How is PURO not your usual wine bar?
Rather than serving wines that are rich, flawless and correct, we seek out wines that are expressive, earthy, funky, and come with visible sediments — wines that taste alive!
If you are looking for a classy, refined wine experience with 90 plus points, we will disappoint you.
However, if you are game for a unique trajectory of organoleptic experience, PURO KL is here to enthuse you.
What are your three key learnings in launching a wine bar?
First, create an identity. Like the objective of any new business, we wanted to create something unique.
We need to identify what is lacking in the wine scene as we do not wish PURO to be just “another wine bar” in Malaysia.
Before PURO, we did not have a wine bar that specialised in ‘natural’ wines. We thought it would be an interesting ‘category’ of wines to introduce to the wine drinkers in Malaysia.
Thus for PURO, it became our niche, our identity.
On top of that, selling wine in PURO is not just selling a product. As said before, what makes PURO different from other wine bars is that we offer “environment-friendly” wines that are either organic, biodynamic, sustainable or natural.
Many consumers are still unfamiliar with these terminologies. When they visit PURO and look at our wine menu, they are often undecided on what to drink. This is where education comes in handy as we will need to enlighten our guests about our wines.
As much as we are selling wines, we learnt to interact on a more personal level with our customers and establish a relationship with them. This also helps us to learn about their expectations and how we can close that gap.
Last but not least, it is important to work within a community. If our wine bar is in any other brick-and-mortar shop, there would hardly be any business interactions with our neighbours.
PURO is nestled within REXKL where all its tenants enjoy a symbiotic relationship. Each and every tenant in REXKL specialises in a service or product, and we all work together to create this wonderful communal experience.
Any wine myths you wish to dispel?
For natural wines, a small amount of sulphur is only added during bottling to stabilise the wine and prevent microbial spoilage.
However, the wine remains highly sensitive to adverse transportation and storage conditions. The stability of these natural wines can be enhanced with higher acidity as it creates an environment unwelcome to microbes.
The provenance of the grapes is also a very important determinant of the wine’s ageing potential.
And, while many of these natural wines are destined to be enjoyed young, natural wines from seasoned producers such as Radikon, La Stoppa, Domaine du Pech can be aged for years.
What needs to happen to ensure that the industry is better supported in the future?
The government and city hall need to ease the stringent regulations for the hospitality industry to apply for business licenses – especially when it comes to alcohol.
Hotels, restaurants and bars are facing difficulties in renewing or applying for new licenses every single year. That needs to change.
This article first appeared on Set the Tables.
Set the Tables is positioned to inspire and educate those already in the industry as much as the aspiring reader who dreams of a future in the food business, and maybe even the merely curious tantalised by the vast and irresistible universe of food and drink.