Late October, Hong Kong’s wine trade is buzzing with activities after a quiet spell this summer roiled by monthslong protests.
Here are pictorial highlights of key events that got everyone talking from a Sangiovese masterclass led by Sarah Heller to Hong Kong’s biggest wine retailer Watson’s portfolio tasting.
A masterclass titled Many Faces of Sangiovese led by Sarah Heller MW compared eight examples of 100% Sangiovese wines from 2015 vintage including four Brunellos and four Vino Nobiles. They are Capanna Brunello di Montalcino 2015, Col d’Orcia Brunello di Montalciano 2015, Poggio Antico Brunello di Montalcino 2015, Piancornello Brunello di Montalcino 2015 and four Nobiles from Italy’s biggest biodynamic winery Avignonesi, Banditella 2015, Caprile 2015, and Oceano 2015.
When commenting on La Banditella 2015, a single vineyard Vino Nobile of 100% Sangiovese, Sarah Heller MW explained that there’s a hint of naughtiness in Italian wine that elevates it from any other wines in the world.
Thirty high-calibre trade members from Hong Kong attended the masterclass. Scroll through the pages below to see all the images.
Watson’s Wine, Hong Kong’s biggest wine retailer, hosted its annual portfolio tasting at St. Regis Hotel in Wanchai, showcasing over 500 different wines from wineries all around the world. Despite recent protests and cancellations of key events, Watson’s said none of the wineries dropped out from the tasting.
Virginie Saverys, owner of Italy’s biggest biodynamic winery Avignonesi, gave Hong Kong’s key media members an introduction of the idyllic Tuscan winery, and their evocative single-vineyard 100% Sanigoveese Vino Nobile. Saverys purchased the winery in 2009 and has since converted the winery to be fully biodynamic. The style of the wine has become more focused with a pivot to Italy’s traditional grape, Sangiovese. So much so, the winery has emerged as a leader in advocating producing single vineyard Nobile using 100% Sangiovese (local laws only require at least 70% to be named a Nobile). It united with five other wineries in Montepulciano to create an Alliance in an effort to restore the badge of honor for Nobile.
The media lunch also marked the first time in Asia that the winery is unveiling five of its ultra-premium Vino Nobile wines made from 100% Sangiovese, including three single-vineyard Vino Nobile wines, and Grandi Annate, which is produced only in best vintages. The wines are Badelle Vino Nobile 2016, Caprile Vino Nobile 2016, La Banditella Vino Nobile 2016, Vino Nobile 2016 (Alliance), Grandi Annate 2016 in addition to a very special Vin Santo Occhio di Pernice 2005.
Eduardo Chadwick, the inimitable vintner from Chile, shared with dinner guests the stories of elevating Chilean wine to world stage and the powerful hurdles he came across along the way over a vertical of Seña and Vinedo Chadwick. One of such is the resistance from Bordelais after he pitted his wines against first growths for his Judgement of Berlin tasting with Steven spurrier and later in Asia with Jeannie Cho Lee MW. After his wines trumped Bordeaux first growths in several occasions in blind tasting, the sales of his wines through Bordeaux La Place slowed if not completely halted. What followed as he recalls was a friendly reminder by Bordeaux negociants who told him that “it would help if he stops doing these blind tastings.” Today his flagship wines, Seña and Vinedo Chadwick, are still sold through La Place, and Chadwick has no plans of repeating the blind tasting any time soon.
Enoteca Hong Kong hosted a small media lunch featuring a flight of wines from Chianti’s leading producer, Castello di Ama with its export manager Monica Petreni.
Garzon from Uruguay in South America is the third South American wine sold through Bordeaux La Place system, following Almaviva and Sena. The Balasto, the top wine from the winery, is a blend of Bordeaux varietals with Tannat, and made from grapes grown a meteorized granite soil, according to the winery. Permeable in nature, the soil type would prove to be extremely helpful in the wine region where annual rainfall is over 1,000 mm, higher than Chile or Argentina or Bordeaux. Pictured above is winery general manager Christian Wylie with three vintages of Balasto from its inaugural vintage of 2015 to the latest release of 2017.
Despite a lot of cancellations of events amid Hong Kong’s ongoing protests, American wine critic James Suckling’s Great Wines of the World event welcomed some 1,400 guests at Grand Hyatt Hotel on October 31.