The week in pictures: Hong Kong

Australian wine tasting, sampling a Suntory Hibiki 21 year old, a Coravin blind tasting and a Montrose dinner. It’s been a busy and extravagant week for the db HK team.

Rolf Binder, owner of Rolf Binder wines; Steve Flamsteed, Giant Steps’ chief winemaker and Nathan Waks, co-owner of Kilikanoon discuss the popularity of Australian wine in Hong Kong

Members of the press and Hong Kong’s drinks trade assembled in the Excelsior to taste the wines of Barossa Valley, Yarra Valley and Clare Valley. The winemakers and owners of Rolf Binder, Giant Steps and Kilikanoon guided the audience through their selection of Shiraz, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Riesling and Cabernet Sauvignon. The room discussed the global importance of Australian wine and Binder commented, “Australia is now no longer known for making over-ripe ‘Parker wines’ and China especially is realizing that we are making some seriously fine wines, to compete with those of Bordeaux.”

The Comité interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne (CIVC) has launched a new app geared towards the tech-savvy generation who are becoming more interested in learning about the intricacies of Champagne. Launched initially in Hong Kong, Champagne Campus will guide each user through three levels of courses with timed questions in each round.

Hong Kong’s trade press were treated to a lunch courtesy of Castello Banfi, an historic family run producer with an estate in Montalcino and vineyards in Bolgheri, Chianti and Piemonte. Cristina Mariani-May, proprietor of the estate spoke of the winery’s beginnings in 1919 and the challenges faced when they pioneered clonal research on Sangiovese vines, in order to produce a more consistent and less tannic Brunello.

Excellently coinciding with World Whisky Day, Zachy’s May auction preview saw the tasting of various Scotch and whisky, hosted by Elliot Faber, Zachy’s senior whisky advisor. Comprising Suntory Yamazaki 18 year old, Karuizawa 15 year old, Hibiki 21 year old, the Macallan Travel Colellection and Port Ellen 18 year old, the collection will all be available as lots at Zachy’s Hong Kong auction on 29-30 May.

The db HK team was invited along to the Chateau Montrose dinner at the Ritz Carlton to do a vertical tasting of Montrose’s 1998 and 2005 as well as sister winery Château Tronquoy Lalande 2012 Blanc and 2010 Rouge. Db was able to speak to Montrose’s chief executive,e Herve Berland beforehand who said: “The big boom of 2009 and 2010 has subsided for Bordeaux but yet there is a fair amount of interest in this part of the world. Hong Kong and China are two of our biggest markets and the future’s looking bright for Montrose in these areas.”

Coravin invited 26 guests along to legendary Cantonese restaurant, Fook Lam Moon to conduct a blind tasting of a 1996 Chateauneuf-du-Pape Beaucastel and a 2009 Morey St Denis Blanc Dujac. Some bottles had been opened with Coravin a year before and others only that morning and participants had to guess which glass(es) were from Coravin or the control group. Out of 26 people, only 3 got the correct bottle from the two flights and db‘s HK team managed to guess the right Beaucastel opened with Coravin so smug feelings all round.

Some of the stellar line up consumed after the Coravin tasting…