The week in pictures: Hong Kong

It was a week of wine celebrity spotting as the Hong Kong International Wine and Spirits Fair brought a plethora of dinners, awards and tastings into town.

To kick off the week, db HK was fortunate enough to go to the Seña dinner hosted by James Suckling and the Don of Chilean wines, Eduardo Chadwick. From left to right, James Suckling, db HK’s Lucy Jenkins, Eduardo Chadwick, Cass Lam from Evercohol and Eddie Cheung, founder of WineSpace in Guangzhou.

Online fine wine auction house, iDealwine hosted a pre-auction tasting whether members of the trade ran through a few Burgundy, Bordeaux and Rhone delights.

Hélène Ponty from Ponty Wines and Claudia Maseunger led a fascinating discussion on Beijing and the future of its wine industry at the Wine in China Conference hosted by Debra Meiburg MW.

The winemaker of Viña Santa Rita, Cecilia Torres and db HK hosted a blind-tasting event at the China Club, placing vintages of 1995, 2001, 2010, 2011 and 2012 Santa Rita among other world-renowned Cabernets. A full report of the event will be in the next issue of db HK.

Next stop was Wan Chai favourite, The Pawn for its one-year anniversary dinner since Brit chef, Tom Aikens has been at the helm. The poached lamb loin, curry spices and kimchi was a simple-but-superb highlight.

It had to be done. Meeting Tom Aikens and doing the classic Hong Kong photo op.

While the db London team were in town for the Hong Kong International Wine and Spirits Fair, db HK took them for suckling piggy feast at Under Bridge Spicy Crab restaurant in Wan Chai.

Sebastian Nasello from Podere Le Ripi and Averardo Borghini Baldovinetti from Tenute San Fabiano pose at the Wine Fair with Sebastian’s wines which are owned by coffee magnate, Francesco Illy. Podere Le Ripi “Bonsai” wine is from the world’s only Bonsai plot: a quarter-acre of an unheard-of density of 62,500 vines per hectare tied to bamboo sticks – resembling a Japanese garden and thus giving rise to its name.

And to round off the week with much the same crowd that it began with, db HK headed off to James Suckling’s Great Wines of the World dinner where he presented his top three wine trophies for 2015. From left to right: James Suckling, Juan Muga from Muga Wines, Frescobaldi Lamberto from Frescobaldi, Christoph Salin from DBR Lafite, Silvio Denz from Lalique and Zita Ong CEO of Edipresse Media.