RuMa Hotel: Boutique Luxury in Hotel & House Pour Champagne

Billecart-Salmon: the house pour Champagne of RuMa Hotel, situated in the Golden Triangle district in the heart of Kuala Lumpur.

House pour wine is often an overlooked aspect of a hotel’s hospitality, a mere afterthought of most 5-star hotels with a whole menu of a dozen pillows to choose from. A quick scan of the house pour Champagne of 5-star hotels in the vicinity features conglomerate-owned maisons, such as Ruinart and Veuve Clicquot.

But that is not the case at RuMa Hotel. Helmed by General Manager Michel Bachmann, who is also a trained sommelier, one of the very first changes he made to their hospitality programme was bringing on Billecart-Salmon when he joined RuMa Hotel in December last year. He had planned to use this detail as a differentiator in the competitive landscape of luxury hotels in Kuala Lumpur.

In the world of Champagne, Billecart-Salmon is an acclaimed house that is still family-owned till this day. Founded in 1818 by Nicolas François Billecart and Élisabeth Salmon, seventh-generation Mathieu Roland-Billecart now carries the torch for this continuing legacy. Even their entry-level cuvées deliver excellent price-to-quality ratio, whereas their top cuvée Clos Saint-Hilaire consists of 100% Pinot Noir Blanc de Noirs from a rare single-walled 1-hectare plot.

“Boutique luxury,” describes Michel, speaking of Billecart-Salmon. It is perhaps also the most apt description of RuMa Hotel. Both are “boutique” by design; and both are independent. Michel brings with him a decade of experience from Aman. It is little surprise that he looks into details as tiny as the house pour.

Michel’s own personal mission is to “make wines approachable and help everyone understand”, bringing the understanding that wines are not just meant to be enjoyed in a stiff environment, but something for the table. Perhaps if this were any other 5-star hotel, it might have been a challenging feat. But RuMa’s unique positioning provides the most suitable home for Michel’s mission.

RuMa features Billecart-Salmon Brut Réserve NV and Brut Rosé NV across its primary venues, at a highly reasonable price of RM380+ and RM480+ respectively per bottle, sitting at the retail price of these bottles.

A quick scan of the wine list revealed other wines that stood out for being well-priced, including the 2012 Château Pichon Comtesse de Lalande, 2022 Domaine Faiveley Bourgogne Rouge and 1998 Vega Sicilia Unico. 36 distinct wine regions are represented in this list, ranging from popular regions the likes of Piedmont and Napa Valley to lesser known regions of Tokaj and Kamptal.

RuMa’s entire proposition is to be a luxury hotel that is true to the culture of Malaysia. When commenting on the hospitality culture of Southeast Asia, Swiss-born Michel describes Southeast Asians as “naturally friendly”. Technical skills can be taught, but a person’s tendency to be friendly to a guest is often instinctive.