Elegant Dining: Pair Dessert with Ice Wine

Introducing the nectar of the gods for dessert.

Ice wine isn’t your typical dessert wine. This high-end vintage is made from grapes which became frozen on the vine, creating a more concentrated and much sweeter-tasting wine. It’s believed the tradition of creating wine from frozen grapes dates back to Roman times, a culture which certainly knew something about decadent dining.

Canada and Germany are perhaps the best-known producers of high-end ice wines, with Canada – and in particular Ontario – being the largest ice wine manufacturers internationally. The fruitier, refreshing nature of ice wine makes it a perfect complement for sweet dishes, especially great for pairing with dessert.

Ice wine vintages are usually produced by Riesling grapes in Germany and Vidal and Cabernet Franc grapes in Canada. Many ice wines are pale yellow to amber in color, though some red varieties are produced. The high acidity and slightly lower alcohol content of ice wine keeps the sweet taste from becoming overpowering.

Read more

Sichuan Food Pairing with Wines from France’s Chinon House of Couly-Dutheil

The Challenge of Sichuan Huajio comes to Tsim Sha Tsui.

Choosing the appropriate wine can be a challenge for any host. The task for those who would like to serve traditional Sichuan dishes, however, is made doubly difficult. That’s because the cuisine’s deliciously unique complexity makes it notoriously difficult to pair. As a result, many hosts default to sweet, white wines or fruity light reds – most of which offer a weak complement, at best, to the spicy cuisine.

But serving a great wine with Sichuan food is not impossible. You just need a basic understanding of the flavor profiles. Chinon Wines’ upcoming winemaker dinner entitled The Challenge of Sichuan Hua Jiao (Sichuan Peppercorn), aims to help you do just that – addressing this mightily aromatic and full-flavored cuisine with dry, very tannic reds from their own Great Chinon House of Couly-Dutheil.

Attend the dinner, which is HK$480 per person and is led by Chinon’s own Cristophe Surget, at 7:00pm on Tuesday 22 September at the Mask of Si Chun (KCR East, Tsim Sha Tsui Station, Kowloon).

For more information and to view the menu, please see event details, here. Seats are available on a first come first served basis (only 30 available). You can call 2395-1293 or email here for more details.

The full menu is below:

Read more

Wine Pairing Dinner with The Schiopetto Family Winery at Red Soho

Italian food and wine on the 22nd of September in SoHo.

Famous for their white wine – especially Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc and Fruialano – the Schiopetto family has been in the wine business for three generations.

Join the estate’s Marketing Manager Cristian Maddlena for their most renowned vintages paired with the eclectic New York cuisine of RED SoHo. One night only – don’t miss the chance to toast “La Dolce Vita” with the Schiopettos!

Details:

• When: Tuesday 22 September
• Time: 7pm
• Price: HKD550 + 10% per head
• Reservations: Call 8199 8189 for reservations – spaces are limited.

RED SoHo

• 2/f, Kinwick Centre, 32 Hollywood Road, Central, Hong Kong

Read more

Berry Bros & Rudd’s Mooncake & Wine Hong Kong Match-Up

Suggestions for the best wine to go with your mooncakes.

Autumn is upon us and there is no better way to celebrate the harvest then mooncake. Berry Bros & Rudd, Britain’s oldest wine distributor (and one of the few wine merchants who can boast about trading from the same shop in London for over 300 years), has come up with 5 of their wines to pair with your mooncake this fall.

Traditional mooncake is dense and sweet and should be paried with full-bodied, sweet wines such as Sauternes, Sherries, ports and sweeter varieties of Champagne. Try one of the following wines ranging from HK$139-HK$1,368.

1. Berrys’ “Bishop’s Mead”, Oloroso Cream Sherry, Spain, HK$139

Bishop’s Mead is a rich, full and satisfying sherry with an intense, complex, nutty nose followed by raisins and caramel and a delicious sweet finish.

2. Berrys’ Sauternes, Ch. Suduiraut, Bordeaux, France, HK$146

A truly divine pudding wine, wonderfully sweet but never cloying, possessing brilliant freshness derived from crisp balancing acidity.

Read more