TDC Wine Fair and TB WIne and Dine Carnival

I do not know how I survived the hectics of presentations, the meetings, tastings and dinners and conferences in the past 2 weeks.

My own presentations

In the Decanting Presentation, the wines performed as expected and my message about decanting should be well received. I felt delighted to be able to exchange genuine views with sommeliers from Bordeaux , Germany , Denmark and Holland . In the Quality Wine Presentation, the range of Banfi wines (mainly Sangiovese, partly Pinot Grigio) performed exceptionally too: they had shown true manifestations of my interpretation of modern, quality wines for Chinese and Western restaurants.

These 2 presentations would not have been possible without the support of my colleagues at the Open University. Without Paolo Fassini who spared his time going through together with the wines right before the presentation, I wouldn't have thought that beyond Banfi's famous clones I knew about the diversity in the handling and interpretation of Sangiovese with this Tuscan maker. That bit of sharing enhanced our friendship and had given me the chance to brush up my palates that afternoon. Confident, I felt like in the presentation a bird on the top of the trees, showing off my palate and singing for my audience.

Wine Matters….

The TDC Wine Fair showed more the aspiration of the lesser known producers from the lesser known regions. 'Oh China !', they could have said, ' we are not greedy-we just want 1% of the market!'The TB Wine and Dine Carnival which seemed farcical for many a serious wine guy turned out to be one of the best opportunities for building up wine sales! Looked like the tide of democratization of wine and dine was just the beginning on another footing. I just thought the wine world’s traditional business structures for is shattering fast though: merchants from UK , US, and really all over the world have come to this small market. Customers want transparencies, but can we wine merchants handle those? It would seem to me that Government couldn’t care less about the local wine merchants: consumer sovereignty and consumer choice are even more important now. And, how nice if Hong Kong is now an international wine centre? How nice if tourists come here just for the Wine and Dine Carnival! Hong Kong is so booming! Hey, we have Singapore to beat!?  

Wine Tastings done

I confessed I was not that adventurous: I tasted wines from obscure regions if I had time and was prepared enough to know them. I chose to play aristocrat in the last day of the TDC Fair: I allowed myself to be a spoilt brat with the Krug provided by Jenny Cho Lee MW; I dwelled on the Burgundy tastings on the Clos Vougeots, Pulignies, Montrachets and Chablis Grand Cru; I concentrated on my comparison on some St. Emilions from various soils; and I are up the left-over abalones following Roy Moorfields’ abalone and wine matching Master Class! Roy spolit us once again with the 'left-overs' of the sashimi abalone. Still feeling hungry, I found myself looking for friends who could feed me with good Iberico Hams and I ended up taking on Hung Sing’s braised abalones for lunch.

After events

When all was over, I indulged myself further with wines from Watson’s (their own tasting in a hotel in North Point). Grosset, Grosset, Grosset; wines, wines ,wines. I had to restrict myself with good sips of Chateau Clinet 2007, La Clemence 2000, Goulee 2005 and other vintages, Chateau d’Issan 2007, 2006 and 2005 to keep me sane before winding myself down a little with friends at my own restaurant, drinking off Chateau Malescot St.Exupery 2004, Chateau Gloria 2004 and Château Bellevue 2004, and then resting myself a good sleep for Saturday during which I will have a class, a Basque dinner in the evening with Rolland and the 13 flights of oyster tasting with Jacqueline, Patrick, and Dominique at Dap again.