About Us
It was the end of an era, it was the dawn of a new age. Tai Thong's story began in the beginning of the 20th Century, when Bernie Leung's great grandfather sent his son to Hong Kong. Bernie’s grandfather decided to move to Singapore (then Nanyang) and eventually settled his family and the company in Singapore. It was the 1930s, Singapore was already then a bustling port, and the family found themselves producing wines for the Chinese immigrants before the war. The Chinese wines that Tai Thong produced were medicinal, brewed with the wisdom of Traditional Chinese Medicine to improve vitality. By the 1960s, the wine and the company became a household name in Singapore.
Traditional, wood-fired Chinese medicinal wines gave way to modern medicine and a desire for global imports. However, Tai Thong still exists to this day, producing its flagship product in the highest quality, amongst other cooking wines and rice wines for its most loyal customers.
Bernie's family remained the last large-scale distiller in Singapore until the early 2000s. To this day their focus is on serving traditional wines in the highest quality, using traditional methods such as firewood boilers as part of their long-standing distilling process.
Bernie Leung
Director & Co-Founder
Bernie comes from a family of alcohol makes who started Tai Thong in the beginning of the 20th Century. He grew up listening to family stories of how his grandfather built a business which survived a World War, and dedicated his life to providing quality products for the Chinese immigrants.
In 2016, Bernie took over the reigns of the family business with a vision for to bring Tai Thong to the new age – one which embraces the future and the unique diversity of different cultures, while always keeping in mind history, heritage and tradition. With Sara, they are paving the way for a bold new journey, creating new legacies as they bring quality wines and spirits to their community, and forge relationships that would endure through centuries.
An avid traveller, Bernie is curious about the different cultures, facts, and trivia of the world, and enjoys meeting and speaking with like-minded adventurers and gourmets. Bernie holds a degree in Mechanical engineering from NTU, and is an automotive aficionado. When he is not connecting with people through Tai Thong, Bernie can be often found tinkering away with his car or reading about the latest automotive news while being a loving Father to his daughter.
Sara Shen
Director & Co-Founder
Sara was born in Shaoxing City of in eastern China’s Zhejiang province. The very same city which the internationally famous rice wine ‘Shaoxing Hua Diao Jiu’ gets its name from. The scenic city is often referred to as the Venice of China by many locals, straddling the Grand Canal and crossed by many waterways. Just like their Italian counterparts, they love great food, and exquisite wines and spirits. It is not unusual to find people brewing their own interpretations of their favorite wines in their very own homes.
Growing up between Singapore and Shaoxing, Sara has come to appreciate and savor different types of cultures and culinary experiences. A former MOE-based scholar, and a double degree holder in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in NTU and Applied Accounting in Oxford Brookes University U.K, Sara is constantly challenging herself to grow and explore the world. She’s passionate about connecting with her community of like-minded gourmands, and travels often to learn from connoisseurs, distillers, sommeliers. When she is not dedicating her time to understand and savour wines and spirits of the finest quality, she can be found working hard on her investments in her full time Asset Management job and being a mother.