It’s been another amazing year and we want to thank all of you for reading us and supporting us as Hong Kong’s #1 English wine and fine dining online magazine!

2012 will be a big year: with new design, new features and lots of more wine, spirits and fine dining coverage! So we’re going to take a break and recharge and come back and strong in January 2012.

The Best Wine by the Glass Award recognizes restaurants in Hong Kong that provides their customers with the very best selection of wines available by the glass. The Award is the first of its kind in the world and was created by the Restaurant & Bar Hong Kong and Hong Kong Wine Judges Association during the Restaurant & Bar exhibition held earlier this September. 

Over 40 restaurants participated in this event by submitting their wine menu. After hours of deliberation, one winner from each category – Hotel Restaurant, Group Restaurant and Independent Restaurant were selected which in the judges’ opinion deserve to be recognized.

The Hotel Restaurant category winner is Tapas Bar in Kowloon Shangri-La Hotel which offers international tapas and a comprehensive selection of over 120 New World wine labels from 10 countries. A selection of a minimum 30 white wines, 30 red wines and 5 sparkling wines by the glass was offered across different price ranges to suit different tastes and needs.

The News Room from The Press Room Group was selected as the winner of the Wine by the glass restaurant awards Group Restaurant category. Their sommelier has put together a global selection that combines many classic grapes as well as a lot of less common, exciting grapes including Furmint from Hungary, Assytirko from Greece, Godello from Spain, Nerello Mascalese from Italy and Sankt Laurent from Austria.

Guests can choose from 24 wine by the glass from an Enomatic machine that dispenses 16 by-the-glass offerings which stops oxidation in opened bottles.

The Italian restaurant – La Piola that promotes food and wines from the Piedmont region and all over Italy is the winner of the Independent Restaurant category. In order to promote their products and culture, La Piola propose only Italian grapes by the glass that goes from Barbera and Dolcetto, all the way to Barolo and Barbaresco.

The house wine at any restaurant and bar is an important wine as it is usually the most consumed. To encourage and recognize the restaurant that has put in the effort to offer good house wine, the Restaurant & Bar Hong Kong has teamed up with the Hong Kong Wine Judges Association to find the best house wines available in Hong Kong at the Hong Kong House Wine Awards.

Judging criteria for this award included – universal appeal, value for money and relative obscurity (which doesn’t mean it’s hard to find, just that it’s got a “cool” factor.) The wine ought to go well with the cuisine of the restaurant also. The awards were presented at the Restaurant & Bar exhibition in early September.

The results for the White Wine, Red Wine & Sparkling Wine are:

• Red wine champion: Blackbilly GSM, 2009 from McLaren Vale, Australia served at TBLS on 7/F, 31 Hollywood Road, Central
• White wine champion: Mount Riley, 2010, Sauvignon Blanc from  Marlborough, New Zealand served at Four Season, Cathay Pacific Business Class, Mijas and Island Seafood
• Sparkling wine champion: Champagne Henriot, Souverain Blanc de Blancs from France served at Mandarin Oriental, L’atelier de Joel Robuchon and Agnes b and Gecko Lounge

For the full list of Gold Award winners, visit www.restaurantandbarhk.com

In an exclusive press launch in the Four Seasons Hong Kong last week, guests were treated to one of those matches made in heaven: chocolate and cognac. The event on 7^th September celebrated a union between two of France’s finest producers: chocolatier La Maison du Chocolat and premier cognac house Remy Martin.

Through this French connection, they have created a limited edition gift box set, ‘Mysteries of the Angels,’ to give gourmands an indulgent tasting experience: Remy Martin XO Excellence Cognac with a signature gift set of assorted chocolates designed to pair with the autumnal flavours of cognac.

For those wanting to experience the pairings themselves, get in quick as there are only 20 of these rare gift sets in Hong Kong.

Where to Buy? Shop 109, Prince’s Building, 10 Chater Road, Central, Hong Kong. Tel: 2801-4122

Van Diemen, the Tasmanian distillery already famous for their super-pure vodka, is bringing something entirely new to the Hong Kong cocktail scene. Van Diemen prides themselves on being the black sheep of the Australian distillery scene. So, it’s hardly surprising that they have developed something so innovative and unexpected.

Their new Van Diemen Liqueur is the world’s first pearlescent liqueur and gives any cocktail in which it’s featured the opaque lustre and dull brilliance of a red pearl. Concocted from smooth Van Diemen vodka, cabernet sauvignon grape juice and steeped Tasmanian raspberries, this liqueur has a taste to match its evocative appearance.

Van Diemen Liqueur was first launched in Hong Kong at HOFEX in May and has already made a name for itself amongst Hong Kong cocktail lovers. Judging from the signature cocktails already popping up at popular nightspots like PLAY, Le Boudoir and Jaa Bar, it would appear that our love affair with pearlescent liqueurs is only just beginning.

Round 1 of the judging for the Restaurant and Bar House Wine Awards took place on 15 August at the Hong Kong Wine Judges Associations headquarters in Tsim Sha Tsui.

The event is co-organized by Diversified Events, the company responsible for the Restaurant and Bar Exhibition at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from September 6-8, together with the Hong Kong Wine Judges Association.

The first of its kind in Hong Kong, the aim of these awards is to find the very best house wine available in Hong Kong, which we think is especially noteworthy as the majority of people out wining and dining usually end up drinking it. So, since it’s the biggest selling wine at any restaurant or bar, these special awards will recognize and promote the establishments that serve up the best house wines in the city.

A total of 150 wines were submitted to the panel of judges for the first round of marathon tasting, with 75 wines tasted over 3 hours. The wines will be judged in three separate categories: White Wine, Red Wine and Sparkling Wine, and the second round will take place at the Restaurant & Bar Expo, right before the winners are announced at the award ceremony on 6th September 2011.

The judges are made up of a who’s who of Hong Kong’s wine industry -  Debra Melburg, Master of Wine, Nelson Chow, Chairman of the Hong Kong Sommelier Association, Eric Kwok, Hong Kong’s 3-times Sommelier Champion, Sammy Leung, Vice-Chairman and Hong Kong’s 3-Times Sommelier Champion Eric Wong, food and wine columnist, Wilson Kwok, wine expert, Ricky Cheung, famous chef in Hong Kong, Alice To, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University Food and Beverage Lecturer, Asif Bajwa, Head of PR, Association Mondiale de la Gastronomie, Rebecca Leung, Wine columnist and educator, Chris So, wine educator, and wine makers – Johnny Lee and Bil Widin, Stuart Bailey, General Manager of Diversified, Nelson Siu from Wine Luxe, and finally our very own Pannee Ng from Winebuzz.hk.

For more information about the Restaurant and Bar Fair House Wine Award, visit the website -  www.restaurantandbarhk.com

elBulli in Barcelona, Spain, has been ranked as the no.1 restaurant in the world for the past five years. It’s so exclusive that it only opens for six months of the year, seating fifty customers at one time.

Plans to close elBulli on 31 July has caused everyone who ever wanted to dine at this restaurant to scramble for a reservation and Uno Mas has secured bookings for their customers for Saturday, July 2, and Thursday, July 14th, for up to 50 people each day.

At a whopping HK$35,000 per person, this will be the grandest and most expensive feast ever. The price includes a tour of the elBulli kitchen, a 47 course dinner, all wines and drinks with signed mementoes by Ferran Adria, and concierge services for transport and accommodation.

To book, call Margaret at 9101 3003 or email info@uno-mas.com

The SCMP today reports that the wine industry has exploded in a few short years to be worth HK$5.5 billion dollars (subscription required).

We’ve taken the liberty of showing you a few choice quotes:

The piece revolves around former HSBC banker turned wine merchant Gordon Yuen Tien-yau of Perfect Vintage, which deals in mostly fine and rare wines from France.

This quote will probably have him living in infamy in certain French circles:

“I never imagined I could drink a glass of Lafite at breakfast time.”

The rest of the article discusses some interesting data:

Government statistics show the wine business has ballooned since wine duties were scrapped in 2008 as part of efforts to turn Hong Kong into an Asian wine hub. It has proved to be the right move – revenue from the industry is up 30 per cent from 2007.

New wine shops or wine-related companies hired more than 5,000 full-time staff in that two-year period, bringing total employees in the industry to about 40,000 by the end of 2009, according to the latest statistics available from the government.

Government statistics show mainland purchases of wine in Hong Kong surged 80 per cent to HK$558 million in 2009, up from HK$308 million in 2007.

Some Hong Kong investors like to invest in wine, betting it will outperform the stock market. The Liv-ex Fine Wine 50 Index, a benchmark comprising high-end wines, rose by 57 per cent last year, outstripping gold which gained 29 per cent, and the Hang Seng Index with its meagre 5 per cent advance.

Our take is that this is merely the tip of the iceberg. The demand for good quality wine will grow as people become more educated and learn the differences between wines and their regions, and we think that it’s not just the wine bottle selling that is going to grow but ancillary services like education and storage that are also going to boom.

A great time to be a wine lover in Hong Kong…

Everyone will be watching the Royal Wedding of HRH Prince William and Kate Middleton today so we thought it be fitting that we share this little nugget of info. Want to know what the royal couple will be pouring during the wedding banquet? Pol Roger French Champagne and apparently a non vintage has specifically been requested by the Palace. Decanter broke the story last week and lucky for royal fans, you can get it here in Hong Kong! There’s our little contribution to the Royal Wedding. Enjoy!

The Champagne is brought in by Altaya Wines in Hong Kong and you can pick up a bottle of Pol Roger Champagne at City Super, Oliver’s The Delicatessen, 360, Rare & Fine, Mayfair Fine Wines, Classified Food Shops.

Distributor Info

• Altaya Wines Limited Hong Kong
• Tel: 2523 1945
• www.altayawines.com

Château Margaux, the classified First Growth from Bordeaux, has taken measures to counter the counterfeiters which is a serious problem these day especially in China where empty bottles of First Growths are collected and refilled with wine not from the original producers.

Chateau Margaux has introduced a proof tag or bubble tag on the seal cap and bottle’s glass. Consumers can autheticate their bottle by logging onto Chateaux Margaux’s website www.chateau-margaux.com where you enter the alphanumeric code of the security seal and compare the position of the bubbles appearing on the screen with the bubble tag of their bottle. Ingenious!