dbHK hosts inaugural blind tasting wine competition

Forty of Hong Kong’s top wine enthusiasts gathered at the Conrad Hotel on Saturday for the Hong Kong International Top Tasters (HITT) event, organised by the drinks business HK in partnership with Madison Wine.

The HITT blind tasting tested the very wits of members of the Hong Kong wine trade © Divya Rao

The event which was in aid of Hong Kong charity, the Autism Partnership Foundation kicked off with the one-hour blind tasting competition presided over by judges, Debra Meiburg MW, Stephen Mack of AWSEC, Kimberley Drake of Sarment and Lee Watson, the sommelier of the Conrad.

Wines selected for the competition included:

• NV Boschendal Brut Rose
• 2012 Château de Chamirey Mercurey 1er Cru La Mission Monopole
• 2013 Domäne Wachau Riesling Smaragd Achleiten
• 2014 Petaluma Hanlin Hill Riesling from
• 2012 Terroirs Syrah from Sarment
• 2013 Stonier Pinot Noir
• 2012 Altano Quinta do Ataíde Reserva
• 2009 Banfi Brunello di Montalcino
• 2009 Iberica Bruno Prats AlFYnal
• 2013 Bellingham The Bernard Series Bush Vine Pinotage
• 2002 Château Guiraud
• 2007 HoldvölgyTokaji Aszú Culture

The 10 teams of four contestants battled it out to guess the origin, quality level, variety or key varieties, ageing potential and aromas of each wines and hazard a guess at the RRP of a 750ml bottle before the sheets were handed over to the judges for marking.

The winning team was announced as Team 7: The Hong Kong Wine Society Team 2 with Sarah Heller (team leader), Linden Wilkie, Kevin Tang and Alan Kwok who each won a Sensis Distal wine fridge and a three-day visit to Holdvölgy in Tokaj, in second place was Team 1: The Hong Kong Wine Society Team 1 with Roland Muksch (team leader), Ron Taylor, Claudio Salgado and Houghton Lee who won a masterclass and lunch at St Hallett in the Barossa for four people and a Corsican wine masterclass hosted by Vins de Corse Asia area manager, Vincent Cervoni.

In third place came the Openwines Team 9 with Stephen Lau (team leader), Salina Fok, Ruby Cheng, SK Ng. However a special mention goes to Team 2 The Knights Who Say Ni in fourth place with  Stephen Gore (team leader), John Dibble, Patrick Siewert and Keith Pogson who only missed the joint third place by one point!

Overall, the judges were impressed with the level of knowledge demonstrated by the teams. Lee Watson said: “It was an outstanding effort made by all teams and we were astonished at the accuracy of some of their answers,” while Kimberley commented, “What a great event! I thought the wines were well-chosen, solid examples of typicity from each selected region and there were some impressive groups of blind tasters. Plus, it was for a great cause – all in all, a successful, fun evening.”

Debra playfully pointed out that Team 8 The 100-Pointers, “broke new ground by their descriptors and captured the judges’ attention by describing the Riesling as smelling of cashews…followed by shellfish!”,Team 10 Adrian’s Team were the “sexiest for spelling ‘Zinfandel’ with an X” and Team 3 “came up with some interesting options – such as Dolcetto – and showed some promise, but they left a wine completely blank.  Reminds me of the MW exam:  Timing!  Timing! Timing!”

Stephen Mack also emphasized the role that formal wine education plays in Hong Kong’s wine industry as the top three teams had a strong presence of MW students and WSET Diploma graduates.

From left to right, Stephen Gore, Paul Scroggie, Caroline Que and Toby Mountjoy © Divya Rao

A further 80 guests joined for the cocktail reception sponsored by Grace Vineyards with its new sparkling chardonnay, Angelina and a delicious five-course dinner paired with nine wines chosen by Ivy Ng, publisher of the drinks business HK and Caroline Que from Madison Wine.

Andrew Bigbee of Madison Wine introduced the evening with special thanks going to Caroline and the drinks business HK team.

The dinner went down extremely well with guests with two particular dinner and wine pairings highlighted including a pork trotter roulade matched with 2013 Tenuta di Valgiano Palistori di Valgiano Bianco Colline Lucchesi and beef tenderloin with foie gras matched with the 2007 Holdvölgy Intuition No 1 Zeta Szamorodni.

The rest of the dinner wines were:

• 2013 Pascal Cotat Sancerre Les Monts Damnés from Sarment
• 2013 Tenuta di Valgiano Palistorti di Valgiano Bianco Colline Lucchesi from Sarment
• 2012 Clos Culombu Cuvée Ribbe Rosse
• 2008 Marqués de Cáceres Rioja Gran Reserva
• 2010 Pintia
• 2009 St Hallett Old Block Shiraz
• 2007 Holdvölgy Intuition No1 Zéta Szamorodni
• 2010 Pont des Arts Rive Droite, Saint-Emilion
• Graham’s 20-year-old Tawny Port

One of the auction lots of a Graham’s 30 year old Tawny Port jeroboam

Between courses, an auction was held in aid of the Autism Partnership Foundation which included a 2009 and 2010 two-bottle set of Château Guiraud, two 1996 magnums of Pommery Cuvée Louise, a jeroboam of Graham’s 30-year-old Tawny Port, dinner for four at Château Coutet, a 2006-2011 vertical case of Tokaji Aszú from Holdvölgy, a Hong Kong dinner for four with Thibault Pontallier and Arthur de Villepin, founders of Pont des Arts, a methusaleh of 2005 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne, a jeroboam of 1985 Château Leoville-Las Cases and a 12 bottle case of Maison Roche de Bellene Collection with select vintages from 1992-2006.

After the dinner, the raffle sold in excess of HK$9,000 and prizes included two tickets to the drinks business HK’s next two events and masterclasses on Baijiu and Douro wines, two tickets to two Madison wine dinners and a Sensis 30-bottle wine fridge.

Altogether, the event raised a fantastic HK$155,000 for the Autism Partnership Foundation which was noted by Toby Mountjoy, the charity’s founder. He commented,

“It is wonderful to be here tonight and be surrounded by the best in the Hong Kong wine trade. It is with heartfelt thanks that I can speak about the Autism Partnership and how the funds will go towards the Parent Weekend Workshop which helps children with ASD and their families.”

Corsican wine sponsor, Vincent Cervoni added: “I would like to say that the evening has gone extremely well and it’s wonderful that so many people were able to try Corsican wines as well as find out more about Napoleon’s country! Thank you to the drinks business HK for having me.”

Jorge Nunes, Symington Family Estates Asia Pacific market manager also added: “Thank you for the invitation for us to take part in this, it was a very good event with some heavy-weights of the wine business (and consumers!) in HK. A crucial step for us, particularly with Graham’s Port, to establish ourselves in the fine wine market in Hong Kong.”

The drinks business HK would like to thank all of the competition and dinner wine sponsors, including the auction sponsors of Acker Merrall & Condit, Château Coutet, Château Guiraud, Holdvölgy, Symington Family Estates, Pont des Arts and Sensis Innovations as well as the top wine estates already mentioned in this article.

“It took us six months to put this together,” said Ivy. “It was great to have the partnership of Madison Wine which helped make our first event an amazing success. We were able to work with excellent wine producers who were confident in their wines to put them forward in our professional tasting as they represented the typicity of each of the wine regions and representative grape varieties”.

A full rundown of HITT will be in the December/January edition of the drinks business HK.