Week in pictures: Hong Kong

The annual Chablis White Party kicked off in Hong Kong last month to celebrate the release of Burgundy’s 2017 vintage, a more generous year that saw production volumes go “back to normal” after the frost-bitten 2016 vintage.

Anne Morreau, co-president of Bureau Interprofessionnel des Vins de Bourgogne (BIVB), toasting to the success of the 2017 vintage at the Chablis White Party.

From 15 March to 15 April, Bordeaux négociant Duclot and wine merchant Enoteca will hold the ‘Carte sur Table’ campaign in Hong Kong, pledging to sell retail priced top Bordeaux wines in Hong Kong’s four restaurants namely Duddell’s, Épure, Restaurant de Chine, and Roots. Speaking of the campaign, Antoine Meunier, Duclot’s export manager in Asia, commented: “We have teamed up with the whole distribution chain for this campaign, from châteaux to our local distributor here [Enoteca], to offer to consumers a unique experience: drink amazing Bordeaux wines at retail price, in the best conditions, on the best tables (instead of buying in retail and drinking them at home most of the time).”

Alexandre Giorgini, Consul General of France in Hong Kong and Macau, hosted a tasting at his residence at the Peak featuring all the 15 Bordeaux wines for the Carte sur Table campaign.

On his whirlwind trip to Hong Kong, Laurent Ponsot, the revered Burgundy winemaker, debuted his own wines following his departure from family estate Domaine Ponsot. Redefining his role, Ponsot calls himself an ‘haute couture négociant’, and embraces more village and Bourgogne level wines. Meanwhile, the vigneron is also working on his memoir, which will detail his crusade against fraudster Rudy Kurniawan, who’s serving a 10-year sentence in the US. A lot of bombshells will be dropped in the book, as he teased, drastically different from parts depicted in the Netflix documentary Sour Grapes.

Local wine merchant The Fine Experience hosted a launch party to celebrate its move into a new spacious home in Sai Ying Pun that combines retail shop with tasting room, wine bar as well as entertainment space with two karaoke rooms.

Dr. Laura Catena from Argentina’s iconic Catena Zapata winery gave a masterclass recently in Hong Kong featuring two of the winery’s premium wines, ‘Nicolás Catena Zapata’ and ‘Adrianna Vineyard Mundus Bacillus Terrae’. Both starting with 2015 vintage will be distributed through Bordeaux La Place system. Explaining to audience about high-altitude Malbec, the winemaker said Malbec in the Uco Valley behaves more like Pinot Noir, different from the conventional wisdom of likening it to Cabernet. The grape can be fermented using whole clusters because it’s very velvety and soft, she believes. If the fermentation is cooler, it can give more delicate aromas, one thing the has winery learned over the years of dealing with Malbec.

Lorenza Sebasti, owner of Chianti’s storied estate Castello di Ama, was in Hong Kong this month to unveil the latest 2015 vintage of its flagship wine San Lorenzo, which she compared to Italy’s famed Super Tuscan ‘Tignanello’.

Manfred Ing, winemaker of Querciabella in Chianti, hosted a masterclass in Hong Kong with its local importer Sino Vantage on the winery’s decades of practice of organic and biodynamic farming. Having converted to organic farming in 1988, and later biodynamic in 2003, the winery is steadfast in its methods. Asked about challenges with biodynamic viticulture in a disease-heavy vintage, the winemaker said volume will definitely suffer, but one has to “just take it on the chin”, and accept the consequences.

Cabernet Sauvignon came under close scrutiny at our latest Asian Cabernet Sauvignon Masters held on 14 March. A group of eight judges including Hong Kong’s top wine merchants and sommeliers blind-tasted all samples and discovered some top-winning wines that are worthy of Master and Gold medals. Stay tuned for full results and analysis in our April/May issue.