The week in pictures: Hong Kong

Ivy Ng, publisher of the drinks business Hong Kong (far left), attended a Laurent Perrier wine dinner hosted by co-owner, Alexandra Pereyre de Nonancourt, and its local importer ASC Fine Wines.

Among the wines served at the dinner, one highlight was the Alexandra Rosé 2004, a vintage rosé Champagne that Alexandra’s father, Bernard de Nonancourt, created for her wedding in 1987. The house had always made a rosé Champagne using the saignée method. However, it didn’t have a vintage rosé Champagne at the time of her wedding. Alexandre was expecting her father to make a speech but that never came. Instead, her father made this Champagne named after her as a wedding gift, which was compared by her as a father’s message to a daughter in a wine. She joined her father to work in the Champagne house 10 months later.

Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé hosted a wine dinner with its local importer The Fine Wine Experience, ahead of Christie’s auction on 25 & 26 May, featuring lots consigned directly from the domaine. Attended by dbHK publisher Ivy Ng, the dinner featured a range of the domaine’s cuvées including 2004 Bourgogne Blanc, 1992 Musigny Blanc Grand Cru, 1999 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Amoureauses’, 2009 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru, 2009, 2013 and 2006 vintages of Musigny Grand Cru ‘Vieilles Vignes’.

Jean-Luc Pepin, sales director of the Chambolle-Musigny-based Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé, joined the domaine in 1998, and convinced it to build a library stock, which made the Christie’s auction possible. In 1994, the domaine decided to declassify the Musigny Blanc from that vintage to Bourgogne Blanc, as a result of a replanting programme. Until 2014, it was still commercially sold as a Bourgogne Blanc, even though it was made in exactly the same way. The domaine finally resurrected the Musigny Blanc label in 2017 for the 2015 vintage. 

Frédéric Panaïotis, Chef de Caves of Ruinart, the oldest established Champagne house founded in 1729 by Nicolas Ruinart, was in Hong Kong recently to host a Ruinart wine dinner ahead of the Ruinart Sommeliers Challenge at Mandarin Oriental Hotel’s two Michelin-starred restaurant, Pierre. In addition to cuvées by the Champagne house, the wine dinner also served six different Chardonnays both from New World and Old World blind for guests to dive right into the versatile expressions of the white grape in different terroirs.

Dom Ruinart Blanc de Blancs La Reserve 1998 shown here is a wine that finished its second fermentation in bottle on cork instead of crown cap, an experiment conducted by the Champagne house to see if it gives its cuvée more layers of complexity. Only 460 bottles are produced, the wines were disgorged in July 2016, according to Panaïotis.

Natalie Wang, managing editor of the drinks business Hong Kong, was inducted into the Confraria do Vinho do Porto on 26 May with the rank of Cavaleiro (knight) in Hong Kong, along with 19 other newly inducted cavaleiros in Hong Kong and Macau. Pictured above are Jorge Nunes, Symington Family Estates’ market manager for Asia and the Pacific and Dominic Symington, director of Symington Family Estates.

Maria Emilia Campos from Port house Churchill’s shared a bottle of rather unusual dry white Port with guests at the port wine dinner. One of Churchill’s flagship Ports, the wine’s amber colour comes from 10 years of ageing in oak. Fermentation was stopped late to retain a relatively lower sugar level and therefore a dry style. A refreshing and modern style of Port made predominantly from Malvasia Fina, it can be served on its own as an aperitif or used as a mixer for cocktails. 

Charles de Bournet Marnier Lapostolle arrived in Hong Kong ahead of Vinexpo from 29 to 31 May to host a wine dinner with its distributor, Bordeaux négociant CVBG, to launch its latest 2015 vintage of Clos Apalta, a premium Chilean wine made from Carmenere, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. First released in 1997, the wine was catapulted to stardom when its 2005 vintage was picked by American publication Wine Spectator as its ‘Wine of the Year’ in 2008. Shown above is a double magnum of the 2005 vintage.

American wine critic James Suckling hosted once again his Bordeaux Confidential event last Friday featuring barrel samples of 2017 vintage from 80 of Bordeaux’s top châteaux.

Howard Kwok, son of Peter Kowk, the Hong Kong business mogul who founded Vignobles K Group, is seen at the Bordeaux Confidential event, pouring the latest 2017 vintage from his family’s four châteaux in Bordeaux including Château Haut-Brisson, Château Tour Saint-Christophe, Château Le Rey and the recently purchased Château Bellefont Belcier in Saint-Emilion.

Auction house Christie’s hosted a Château Lafleur wine dinner last week, showing the Guinaudeau family’s full range of wines including the ‘Grand Village’ reds to the ultra premium grand vin Lafeur. The wines poured for the night included Château Lafleur 2000, 2001, 2010, 2013 and its second label ‘Pensees de Lafleur’ 2000 and 2010 in addition to Château Grand Village 2015 and 2016.