Week in pictures: Hong Kong

An eclectic week saw team dbHK having a bash at wine blending with Wynns, sipping art-inspired cocktails and hanging out with achingly cool French DJs at the Taste of HK festival.

dbHK sat down with Aberdeen Street Social’s new sommelier, Artur Aronov who has arrived fresh from Atherton’s London hotspots of Social Wine and Tapas and Social Eating House. Lunch included a delicious starter raw Hokkaido scallop with dashi jelly, avocado, apple, shiso and wasabi.

As part of the art fever currently gripping Hong Kong in the form of Art Central and Art Basel events, the Artesian Bar at the Langham Hotel hosted an evening filled with art in cocktails which were inspired by the works of Dali, Mondrian and Van Gogh.

Guillaume Deglise, CEO of Vinexpo was in town to launch the preview for this year’s event in May which puts Italy in the spotlight with ‘aperitivo’ cocktail hour at the end of each day.

Hong Kong’s unnaturally gloomy spring-time weather failed to put a dampener at Taste of Hong Kong where wine lovers and foodies still turned out for the opening of the international food festival.

Team dbHK went along to Taste to have a go at blending at the Wynns Coonawarra’s workshop led by Ewan Proctor, Wynn’s Asia brand ambassador….

Straight from Wynn’s barrels were 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon, 2015 Shiraz and 2015 Merlot for everyone to merrily splosh into test tubes to create their perfect Wynns blend.

An attempt from dbHK’s Lucy and duly inflicted on various family members was her final blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Shiraz and 5% Merlot which scored a respectable 94 points from Ewan. Wynn’s winemaker Sue Hodder has nothing to fear, however, we’ll keep our day jobs…

A brief pause at the Serge et Le Phoque booth revealed manager, Charles Pelletier (right) and DJ churning out delicious small plates as well as cool, French hiphop.

Why so gloomy, Hong Kong? However, Laurent Perrier’s pop-up bar provided a great antidote to the weather.

A relaxing way to end the week was a visit to the Lobster Bar at the Island Shangri-La to try visiting mixologist Cihan Anadologlu’s creations. ‘Straight from the Forest’ was an earthy (and surprising) delight of Tanqueray, pine needles, shitaake mushrooms, truffle and Cocchi Barolo Chinato – aromatic Barolo wine flavoured with quinine bark, rhubarb, cardamon and spices.