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We just popped into this new bar, . It’s a whisky and sake bar that opened rather quietly about two months ago. The owners bring premium sake brands in to China from Japan, all stuff that’s not widely available.

Walk through a revolving door into this main room. The revolving door plunges you into total darkness as you go through it. The owners wanted to make it feel like you were leaving the street behind and emerging out of the darkness into this totally different space. It’s really quite cool and disorientating the first time you go in. So, this is the main room. Just one table set up for drinking Sake.



Cordurov’s owner is Ray Cheng, who’s from Hong Kong. He used to have a single malt speakeasy in Hong Kong, then worked in wine and whisky trading, before moving into sake. Now he trades off his relationships with some of the finest sake brewers in Japan. Cheng says they don’t like letting the good stuff leave Japan but he’s got the hook-ups.

Sake’s sold here by the glass or the bottle. They have some incredibly rare stuff (the most expensive is a bottle for 28,000rmb) but most of it is far more affordable, with small bottles starting for around 580rmb. Sakes by the glass start around 100rmb. He currently carries sake from the Hatsukame bewery. This stuff is good for sake beginners because the different flavors in each of the Hatsukame range are really delineated, so you can try a few different types and really get a handle which sakes suit your palate.

Cheng says he wants to introduce sake to those who don’t know much about it, or still see it as something you just drink with Japanese food. Hence the big communal table. It’s meant to encourage drinkers to meet and chat about what they’re drinking, try one-another’s selections and swap sake lore.



In the back there’s this whisky room. Just four seats, lined up in front of a couple of dozen single malts. Most of these are from Cheng’s private collection, some he’s stashed away for more than a decade, as you can see from many of the older bottle designs. There’s no real menu back here. Everything goes for the same price: 98rmb, or 108rmb if you want it over a hand-chipped ice ball.

How can this be, that everything’s the same price? There are wildly different whiskies on offer here. Cheng says he wants his customers to be free to roam around the different offerings without worrying whether they might suddenly be dropping 300rmb on a glass. People can pick and choose their single malt and then settle on whatever they like most, without being influenced by what’s the most expensive or rare. Excellent ethos, Mr Cheng.



Upstairs you have two further rooms, each seating about a dozen people. Again, the design and lighting is hushed, tranquil, zen. These are for private parties, events, or just as an overflow from downstairs if the place is busy. There’s also a menu of seafood — Boston lobster, shrimp, pei mussels, octopus, French bread crab and New Zealand scampi (meant to be excellent when dipped into sake). Large platters go for 880rmb; small platters are 480rmb. But this has to be ordered a day in advance. Tell them you’re coming and what you want and they go to the fish market that day to source the goods. There’s a la carte seafood, too, and some snacks that are available any time with no advanced order.



The owners here seem committed to quality. They are whisky lovers, sake lovers, and they want to share what they love in this beautiful space they’ve created. For those who aren’t whisky or sake drinkers, you can bring your own wine from next door, and they’ll just charge you corkage. They also have a couple of good beers by the bottle. But screw all that, go for the sake. There’s a whole world of it to explore and this has got to be the nicest place to do it we’ve yet seen in Shanghai.

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