Doctor John Forrest and his wife Brigid (also a doctor) began making world-class New Zealand wines first in the Marlborough region in 1988 and since then have expanded their winemaking operation to Central Otago to make some great terroir-driven Pinot Noirs.

 

The original Forrest family, of Scottish heritage, arrived in New Zealand among the first waves of European settlers and since then the Forrest’s have farmed the same original lands for generations.

 

A micro-biologist by trade, John Forrest brought his scientific disciplines to winemaking combining this precision with his innate creative flare and an exuberant personality. This blend of art and science has brought about some wines of extremely high quality and brought about recognition world-wide.

 

John Forrest was in Hong Kong recently on his way from New Zealand to London to entertain members of the press and the public with his wildly anecdotal stories of home and to introduce some of his latest wines and new vintages of wines already seen in Hong Kong.

 

At lunch at the popular French restaurant in Soho, Chez Patrick, John took attendees through a magical wine and food pairing, expertly put together by Chef Patrick, a long time Hong Kong resident and phenomenal chef.

 

Lucky diners were treated to the welcome drink of The Doctor’s Riesling 2010 not, as you might think, named after him – but after the legendary winemaker Dr. Ernst Loosen, a close friend and fellow lover of the Riesling grape.

 

The Forrest “Tatty Bogler” Pinot Gris 2009 was matched with a king shrimp tartar with celeriac and apple with lavender and pink grapefruit juice, accompanied with a tomato sherbet.

 

“Tatty Bogler” literally means scarecrow in Scottish and pays homage to John’s roots and to the early settlers in Otago, pioneers who braved the harsh environment to carve a living from the land.

 

With the comfit duck leg in cherry sauce, Forrest Marlborough Pinot Noir 2010 and “Tatty Bogler” Pinot Noir 2008 were paired, alongside the iconic Cornerstone 2007.

 

Forrest Cornerstone 2006 was actually tasted recently up against first growth wines from Bordeaux and won – hence the popularity of this wine as an approachable Cabernet Merlot that drinks well now and can cellar for decades.

 

The final cheese course was paired with the Forrest Marlborough Botrytised Riesling 2009, a wonderful, unctuous and sweet wine with fantastic fruit.

 

But the highlight of the Forrest visit was the introduction of the newest wine in the Forrest collection – The Doctor’s Sauvignon Blanc 2010. This is a fantastic little gem of a wine that has been specially made for the female market as it only has 9.5% alcohol.

 

The back of the bottle says it all when it describes the wine as a wine one can “enjoy drinking at lunchtime – or anytime”.

 

Forrest wines are not your typical wines from New Zealand and John is proud that he and his wife are still hands-on farmers with a passion about their wines that are quintessentially Marlborough.

 

Forrest and Tatty Bogler wines are available in Hong Kong from ASC Fine Wines.

 

Contributed by Alasdair Nicol, TLN Editor – Hong Kong

Domaine Ponsot was established in 1872 by William Ponsot and nowadays is one of Burgundy's most revered and iconoclastic Domaines in Burgundy. Laurent Ponsot, the current proprietor of the winery was in Hong Kong for a special lunch pairing his wines with Chinese cuisine in The China Club. The rise in popularity of Burgundian wine in Hong Kong has seen a rapid increase in Burgundy wine consumption in the last six months and has meant that more and more winery owners are coming to the territory to show off their wines and show their versatility in Chinese food and wine pairing. Domaine Ponsot started to bottle whole harvest wines at the estate in the 1930's, a rare practice at the time, and now is idolised because of its Clos des Monts-Luisants and Clos de la Roche parcels. Of his wines M. Ponsot said. "Our wines are not made to be tasted; they are made to be drunk".
Domaine Ponsot has fabulous holdings in well placed parcels in Morey St. Denis and Clos de la Roche alongside holdings in Chambertin, Griotte Chambertin, Chapelle Chambertin, Charmes Chambertin, Clos de Vougeot, Chambolle Musigny Premier Cru Les Charmes and Morey Premier Cru Monts Luisants. A fully biodynamic winery, Domaine Ponsot has not even used sulphur dioxide since 1988 and is unique in its production of white wines made wholly from the Aligote grape, whose vines were planted over 100 years ago and are still producing fantastic wines to this day. Domaine Ponsot is also unique in that it can boast a huge 12 Grands Cru in its portfolio of wine, a feat that no other Burgundian wine producer can match. The Domaine never uses new oak barrels and M. Ponsot buys minimum five years old barrels from other well respected wineries he knows. The lunch attendees were treated to the Ponsot Morey St. Denis 1er Cru Clos des Monts Luisants Blanc 2006 paired with sautéed scallops and squid in X.O. sauce, followed by the Chambolle Musigny 1er Cru Les Charmes 2008 paired with sautéed fillet of garoupa and broccoli. Following this was sautéed diced beef filet with cashews nuts and dried chili paired with Morey St. Denis 1er Cru Cuvee des Alouettes 2007 and a classic roast Peking duck served with both the Griotte Chambertin Grand Cru 2008 and the Clos de la Roche Grand Cru Vieilles Vignes 2007. The pairings worked exceptionally well and showed Burgundy's diversity when it comes to pairing with local Chinese cuisine. The wines themselves are still very traditional in style and M. Ponsot admits he tries to stay away from modern trends in wine making and focuses on the expression of terroir and vintage and, overall the wines do represent fantastic quality and are a true represent a true reflection of Burgundian terroir. Domaine Ponsot wines are exclusively available from Altaya Wines in Hong Kong.
Contributed by Alasdair Nicol, TLN Editor – Hong Kong

 

Piper Heidsieck is one of the Champagne regions most iconic Champagne houses and was founded in 1785 by Florens-Louis Heidsieck in the village of Reims.

 

To this day the Champagne house still makes Champagne in the same style and to the same rigorous standards as implemented by M. Heidsieck himself more than 200 years ago.

 

Over the last 200 years the house has created some of the most novel bottle designs and has become synonymous with high quality brut Champagne and toasty, magnificent vintage champagne. To celebrate its 100th birthday in 1885 the house commissioned Carl Fabergé – jeweler to the Russian Tsar and creator of the famous Fabergé egg – to make a bottle of serious distinction. He came up with a bottle that was encrusted in diamonds, gold and lapis-lazuli (a light blue coloured ore) which was made in extremely low quantities and nowadays is near enough, if not, impossible to find.

 

In 1976 the house asked Van Cleef and Arpels to dress a special bottle for the Rare 1976. The bottle travelled the world from Paris and New York to Hong Kong and Tokyo, accompanied by armed guards and footmen.

 

To celebrate the recent releases of the Piper Heidsieck vintage 2004 and Rare 2002 Debra Meiburg, the famous Hong Kong Master of Wine, hosted some of the territory’s most prestigious sommeliers and trade professionals.

 

Debra Meiburg MW is a professional wine speaker and her “tongue-in-cheek” approach to talking about and tasting wine went down extremely well with the attendees, especially as she has a knack for putting young, up and coming sommeliers in the spotlight to foster their ongoing education.

 

Sommeliers from some of Hong Kong’s top hotels were joined by Nelson Chow, Chairman of the Hong Kong Sommelier Association, in tasting the full range of Piper Heidsieck Champagnes available in the territory.

 

The wines included the Piper Heidsieck Cuvée Brut NV, Cuvée Rosé Sauvage NV, Charles Heidsieck Brut Réserve NV and of course the vintage 2004 and 2002 Rare.

 

Debra extended her knowledge of the Champagne house, the terroir, the winemaking processes of the past and present and even made local wine expert, Chris Chow, Sabrage a bottle of Champagne (that is the art of removing the cork from the bottle with a rather large sword!)

 

Piper Heidsieck enjoys a large percentage of the Hong Kong Champagne market and is available from Telford International Company Limited.

 

Contributed by Alasdair Nicol, TLN Editor – Hong Kong

The old adage says, “Never judge a book by its cover” and nothing could be truer when it comes to wine.

 

The mistake novice wine drinkers make when first buying wine from their local supermarket is by looking at the front label on the bottle and making their purchase choice based on this. One can almost hear them think. “This looks nice!”

 

A pretty, colourful and eye-catching label has nothing to do with the product inside the bottle. Marketers are hired to make the bottle label stand out amongst the hundreds of other bottles on the shelf.

 

In my experience I have often found that the more colourful and eye-catching the label – the worse the wine itself actually is.

 

Images such as laughing kangaroos, cycling chimpanzees and half naked women really do not have anything to do with the wine and should be ignored when making a decision on buying your wine for dinner.

 

As a cynic, I would suggest that even the back label, written of course by the winery to make the wine sound good, may not even be a good indication of the wines quality and food pairing opportunities. Really, how many wines have you seen described as “good with chicken, fish and pasta dishes?”

 

So imagine my surprise when I found out there is actually an award for the “World’s Best Label’.

 

The most recent winner was Alpha Crucis Shiraz 2008 from Chalk Hill winery in McLaren Vale, an Australian wine that won the best label in Australia and then followed on to beat other ‘great labels’ from around the world.

 

For more on this report go to http://www.winechina.com/en/read.asp?id=2011122712 and make up your mind as to a) the label and b) if the wine itself may be any good. I reckon it’s pretty hard to tell from the label how good it is!!

 

But, I have not tried this wine so I can’t be too overly judgmental. The wine itself is available in Hong Kong from Leisure Wines (www.leisurewines.com) so I guess all I can do is go out and get myself a bottle to see if this wine really is as good as it looks!

 

Contributed by Alasdair Nicol, TLN Editor – Hong Kong

 

 

Like all wine lovers I thought the movie “Sideways” was one of the greatest movies of 2005 and regarding that movie, who can forget a disconsolate Miles sitting down at a fast food chain to drown his sorrows with a bottle of Cheval Blanc 1961 from a Styrofoam cup?

I have tried a few vintages of Cheval Blanc in recent years (1983, 1986, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2007) but I have been anywhere near a fast food restaurant and, in fact, whilst sipping the wine as graciously as it deserves, the thought of fast food was, in all honesty, about as far away from my mind as Ronald McDonald is from Joel Robuchon!

But, as I sit in the office looking out on a gloomy day, towards the end of a gloomy year with a gloomy economic outlook ahead in what may be another gloomy year, I got to thinking….can you really pair wine with fast food and if so, what would you drink with what?

Heading down to my local McDonalds ‘restaurant’ I picked five meals that I thought I could pair with five wines:

1) Chicken McNuggets with Sweet and Sour Sauce
2) Filet o Fish
3) McSpicy Chicken Filet
4) Big Mac
5) Quarter Pounder with Cheese

Now, the thought of trying to pair a ‘Sausage McMuffin with Egg’ with a wine made me nauseous, god only knows what’s really in the sausage patty and who in their right mind could pair a rubber egg with a wine, so I went for foods that seemed easy enough to pair with a wine.

After consulting a few friends on Facebook I got the impression that champagne was a great match to fast food so I decided to start with that. Skipping the fries I cracked into the Chicken nuggets and a glass of bubbly.

 

The wine somewhat complimented the nugget, and with the addition of the sweet and sour sauce it did actually clean the palate of the toxic taste of the sauce. Must say the nugget alone with Champagne isn’t all that bad!

Swiftly moving on I headed for the fridge and grabbed myself a nice Australian Chardonnay to go with my spicy chicken burger. In fact, it wasn’t all that bad, only that the chicken itself was rather oily and that spoilt the wines’ mouth feel. The spice was nicely counteracted by the mildly oaky Chardonnay and overall, I can’t say it was a bad match!

Fortunately for me, not a big eater, the consistency of McDonald’s food is not like others and it is possible to eat more of this ‘food’ than one would normally eat in other restaurants although I must profess to only having had 2 nuggets and a bite and a half of the spicy chicken filet thus far.

So, onward and upward we go with the Filet O Fish! I wanted to pair this with a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc but thought that the tropical flavours and intense acidity would override the ‘delicate flavours of the fish of no discernable name or origin’ but in the end the only flavour that was on my palate was that of the super-overbearing tartar sauce that was so generously heaped upon the piece of fish.

According to Bob Campbell MW, if there is a food you don’t know what to pair a wine with, use Pinot Noir. This, I must say, may well be true as the Big Mac worked really well with the Pinot. Whether it was the ‘secret sauce’ – that is rather fruity – that complimented the wine, I don’t know, but in all it wasn’t bad at all!

Finally to the Quarter pounder which I paired with a Malbec from Argentina. First impressions were that there was no match at all but as I delved deeper into the burger and hit the ketchup and onions, the paring came together quite well. It must be said that the burger alone does not match the malbec but the sweetness of the ketchup and onion actually fared ok with the chocolatey flavours of the wine.

Overall, this is not an experience I wish to endeavor again. After the tasting I felt pretty rough and I am sure that had nothing to do with the wine. No one in their right mind would actually go out of their way to pair McDonald’s with wine and understandably so.

Whilst a good experiment it does make, after doing such, one begins to realise why they serve coca-cola and not wine!

Contributed by Alasdair Nicol, TLN Editor – Hong Kong

 

Domaine Josmeyer was founded in 1854 by Aloyse Meyer, a noted restaurateur and gourmet and is currently run by the 4th generation Meyer, Jean, assisted by his daughters Isabelle and Celine alongside viticulturist and wine maker Christophe Ehrhart.

 

Situated among the communes of Wintzenheim and Turckheim, Josmeyer covers 25 hectares of which 5 are the slopes of the AOC Grand Cru, Brand and Hengst vineyards.

 

Although the vineyards have been managed on organic principles for decades, it has only been since 2000 that the operation moved towards a full conversion to biodynamic culture in accordance with Jean Meyer’s conviction that the pursuit of excellence in harmony with the earth will express both terroir and varietal character more dramatically.

 

TLNHK sat down with chief viticulturist Christophe Ehrhart to taste the full range of Josmeyer’s 22 wines, dating back to pre-biodynamic times -1993 – to sample the wonders of what Josmeyer specialise in; Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer and Riesling.

 

The Josmeyer wines range from soft sensual wines from the vines grown at the bottom of the valley to rich full bodied wines from the Hengst vineyard to incisive, fine structured wines from the Brand vineyards.

Mr. Ehrhart is passionate about the planet and the environment he works in and is fully committed to the biodynamic cause.

 

Such are the results of strict vineyard management where artificial chemicals and fertilizers are prohibited. The average age of the vines is 25 years and with hard pruning and the use of only natural fertilizers, the vineyard maintains yields much lower than that of the average in Alsace.

 

Josmeyer wines are a true expression of terroir and the qualities of the natural varieties are expressed in each wine optimally. These are wines to enhance the pleasures of the dining experience and are particularly good with Chinese, Japanese and Thai cuisine.

 

Even before you enjoy the wine inside each fantastic bottle of Josmeyer it is hard not to be in awe of some of the designs of the labels which have been commissioned by local Alsace artists and also feature in the gallery within the vineyard itself.

Domaine Josmeyer wines are available in Hong Kong from Cottage Vineyards International.

Contributed by Alasdair Nicol, TLN Editor – Hong Kong

 

(Hong Kong) The Wine Institute of California recently held its annual tasting of premuim Cailfornia wines at Riva restaurant in the Park Lane hotel in Hong Kong.

As usual this was a charity event and this years beneficiary was the People's Food Bank of St. James' settlement, ensuring that the elderly and the poor have a decent meal at this festive time of the year.

Over 50 California wineries were present at the event, represented by their local Hong Kong distributors, giving participants a chance to taste the whole range of great wines on show.

California wines are increasing in popularity amongst the wine loving population of Hong Kong because of their easy drinking nature and the fruit sweetness in the wines.

The making of most California wines in American oak barrels also makes their taste structure, that of a more vanilla-like taste when compared to wines made in French oak, appealing to the local palate.

More than 150 people were present to taste the fantastic array of California wines which included wineries such as Clos du Val, Stag's Leap, Kendall-Jackson, Robert Mondavi Vineyard, Napa Creek, Siduri and Wente Vineyards.

Orgainsers of the event were the Hong Kong representative of the Wine Institute of California, Inge and Phillip Holloway, who said they were extremely pleased with this years turnout and happy to see the popularity of California wine increasing annually.

Ms. Holloway predicts more good things for California wines in 2012 as next year will see the return of Vinexpo, Bordeaux's biggest wine event staged in Hong Kong, whereby another large prescence of California wine will be on show.

Amongst the almost twenty distributors attending the event this year were Jordan (Maxxium), Northeast Wines and Spirits (Gallo Wines), ASC Fine Wines (The Hess Collection), Links Concept (Wente Vineyards), Cuvees (Vineyard 7 and 8), Apus Wines (Napa Creek) and Golden Gate Wines (J. Lohr Vineyard).

The Wine Institute of California will be holding various promotions in 2012 notably a consumer promotion at the Langham Place Hotel in March and in-store promotions at Park'N'Shop outlets in January.

Contributed by Alasdair Nicol, TLN Editor – Hong Kong

 

 

 

The latest vintage release of Champagne Dom Perignon, the 2003 vintage, took place simultaneously in Hong Kong, New York, Paris, London and Tokyo last night.  Singapore got left out of the global celebration!

 

Members of the press and trade were present to taste the new vintage interactively with each other via video link in the five cities and those present were able to ask Richard Geoffroy, Cellar Master and Creator of Vintages at Dom Perignon, his thoughts on the latest vintage.

 

Mr. Geoffroy explained that 2003 was a challenging vintage for Champange because of such extreme conditions over the growing year but also that he was very pleased with the overall outcome of the wine.

 

Mt. Geoffroy also noted that the 2003 vintage is on a par with other vintages of Dom Perignon such as the 1947, 1959 and 1976.

 

The Champagne itself is perfectly dry with intense minerality with great backbone and a superb mousse.

Dom Perignon 2003 will be available to buy in Hong Kong from Janary 2012.

Contributed by Alasdair Nicol, TLN Editor – Hong Kong

(Hong Kong) Pol Roger is one of the best known and highly respected Champagne houses in Epernay and has been making and selling quality Champagnes since 1849.

Now into its fifth generation of family ownership, current proprietor Hubert de Billy came to Hong Kong recently to promote his latest releases of vintage champagne and to talk with Champagnes lovers about Pol Roger Champagne.

Aficionado’s, invited by Altaya Wines, gathered in The Pawn, Wan Chai, for a lunch prepared by their team of expert Chefs paired with five of Champagnes of Pol Roger.

Pol Roger first started selling Champagne in 1849 in their original hometown of Ay, but in 1851 moved to Epernay where they are still housed to this day.

The family and the winery have been through many up’s and down’s since they started making Champagne, none so much as living and making wine through two World Wars and, currently, making the best of weakening European market demand for Champagne.

Mr.de Billy noted that Asia is the most important market in the world for Champagne as they still have the disposable income to be able to drink the product regularly and that it is still very much the forerunner in the luxury good market.

“Pol Roger is a great Champagne because it’s smooth enough for the Asian palate and dry enough for the European palate”, Mr. de Billy states.

Pol Roger’s most famous cuvee is the Sir Winston Churchill, named after the great British Prime Minister who lead the allied fight against the axis forces during World War Two.

Pol Roger was the firm favourite of Mr. Churchill who was said to have drunk very little other than vintage Champagne during his meals.

After making Champagne for over 150 years it is staggering to note that Pol Roger is Hong Kong’s oldest Champagne brand having been traded in the territory for over 100 years now.

Tasters were fortunate to try the latest release of The Sir Winston Churchill, the 1999 vintage, alongside the Brut (non vintage), the 2000 Blanc de Blancs, the 2000 Pol Roger Brut and the Pol Roger Rose 2002.

Mr. de Billy said he loved coming to Hong Kong because of the mix of Eastern and Western cultures and because Hong Kong residents still have a huge affinity towards Champagne.

TLNHK looks forward to Mr. de Billy’s return visit in to Hong Kong and a chance to try the highly rated 2000 Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill – a gem of Champagne, created in a very tough winemaking vintage.

Read more about Mr. de Billy in TLNHK’s upcoming interview piece with him.

 

Pol Roger wines are available from Altaya Wines in Hong Kong.

Contributed by Alasdair Nicol, TLN Editor – Hong Kong

 

 

Master of Wine, Bob Campbell was in Hong Kong recently to give a masterclass on the different aspects and facets of New Zealand’s wines and wine regions.

Bob Campbell, himself a New Zealander, spoke on the subtle differences in tastes of wines from each region and conducted a tasting to highlight this.

Four reds, three whites, a rose and a sparkling were tasted to point out the fruit and character differences of the wines from each region.

Attendees started with New Zealand’s most renowned region for whites, Marlborough, with a sparkling wine made from the classic Champagne grapes (Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay) which was followed by the classic Sauvignon Blanc from the area.

Both of these wines were winners of the top wine in its class at the “Five Nations Wine Challenge”.

The “Five Nations Wine Challenge” is held annually in Australia and pits the top wines of Australia, Argentina, Chile, New Zealand and South Africa against each other.

Mr. Campbell is the official judge for all the New Zealand wines at the challenge and is very proud of the way that New Zealand wines show at tastings around the world.

In fact, even as Hong Kong is not a huge white wine market amongst the local Chinese population, it is still very popular amongst the expatriate community and New Zealand white wines make up one in every six bottles of white wine consumed in the territory.

The first Marlborough whites were swiftly followed by a Central Otago rose from Forrest Estate – the wine itself being created from the run-off juice from making their classic Pinot Noirs.

As a huge protagonist of New Zealand Chardonnay, the next wine from the Martinborough vineyard was superb and this was followed up with a classic aromatic Gewurztraminer and Central Otago Pinot Noir.

Mr. Campbell went on to allude to the food matching ability of Pinot Noir commenting that it is the perfect food friendly wine whilst fuller bodied wines are a little “food fussy”.

New Zealand only has 300 hectares of Syrah planted in the country and considering this they make some great wines in this category.

The syrah tasted by Mr. Campbell was from the well-known Gimblett Gravels region and was floral and juicy – not at all like the big, high alcohol styles you find in the Barossa Valley for example.

The ‘Sophia’, from Craggy Range vineyard is a perfect example of a New Zealand Bordeaux blend according to Mr. Campbell and special guest Ms. Mary-Jeanne Richardson of Craggy Range was there to explain a little more about her wine.

The wine itself has great balance of acidity and fruit and although the wine is young, 2009, it has decades of cellaring potential in it.

The final wine, Kidnapper Cliffs Cabernet Sauvignon was the winner of the Cabernet Sauvignon class at the Five Nations Challenge and, although young, is a “serious long distance runner” according to Mr. Campbell.

New Zealand wines still hold a good percentage of Hong Kong’s wine market and with the increase in popularity of their red wines they will continue to be a popular wine in people’s homes and on restaurant and bar wine lists in the territory.

Wines tasted at the Masterclass are available from Wine N Things (Northeast Wines and Spirits) and from Montrose Fine Wines in Hong Kong.

Contributed by Alasdair Nicol, TLN Editor – Hong Kong