Hong Kong Gets a Kick from Champagne

Exploring the thrilling world of Grower Champagne

“Champagne is only from Champagne” was chanted before each course during last week’s Grower Champagne dinner at Lagham Place’s Michelin two-star Cantonese restaurant, Ming Court. This event was put on by the Ordre des Coteaux de Champagne, one of the growing wine organizations in Hong Kong. Given the rate of growth in the Asian wine market, it is exciting to see smaller “boutique” producers now being pushed into the limelight – one example being the Grower Champagne movement. (Yesterday, the New York Times wine writer Eric Asimov wrote an excellent article and a blog post about the movement in Aube; read them for more background information.)

Grower Champagne, also known as “farmer fiz,” can be identified by the letters R.M on the back label (R.M = Récoltant-Manipulant) noting that these farmers grow and produce Champagne from grapes grown only on their own estate. Many of the most famed Champagne houses (Moët, Mumm, and Bollinger to name but a few) purchase the majority of their grapes from farmers throughout the region and do not express a specific sense of place within Champagne. Although the bubbly wines are what make these farmers famous, it is the still wines that I find to be the most intriguing and mysterious. These bottles can be rather difficult to find, so when you do stumble across a good bottle, you can bet your sweet bippy that it will be a special experience.

For me, the highlights of the evening were the 1996 Andre Beaufort Ambonnay Grand Cru and the 2008 Egly Ouriet Ambonnay Rouge “Cuvée des Grands Cotes” (yes, they do make red wine in Champagne). As expected, the 1996 Beaufort was marvelous, but it was the young red Grand Cru that especially sparked my interest. Located in the small village of Ambonnay, Francis Egly owns approximately a mere 8 hectares of vineyards, the majority of which are in Ambonnay. All of the vineyards are classified as Grand Cru and have the reputation for producing some of the best Pinot Noir based Champagnes, and in this case incredible stand-alone Pinot! Most of the vines average between 30-50 years of age, which gives the wines gorgeous concentration and depth. Tasted blind, this Champagne had a nose that would have taken me to Grand Cru Burgundy; aromas of wild strawberry, sweet smoke, black cherry and earth rose from the glass, teasing my senses. Without getting too mushy, I will just tell you that it was a beautiful wine that came close to out-shining fellow Champagne superstars.

The menu was creatively paired showcasing traditional Cantonese preparations and a handful of exotic ingredients. Chilled abalone and sea blubber (otherwise known as jellyfish) were paired with Chartogne Taillet’s Blanc de Noirs, deep fried prawn coated with salted egg yolk with Ulysse Collin Extra Brut NV (a Jacques Selosse disciple), roasted goose webs Chiu–Chow style with the 2008 Egly Ouriet Ambonnay Rouge and finally “shark’s fin crystal extravagance” with the 1996 Andre Beaufort Ambonnay for dessert. I cannot properly describe this dessert, so I will let the picture speak for itself.

Hong Kong is full of constant surprises that make eating and drinking in this city always thrilling. It is inspiring how the community in Hong Kong embraces the celebration of wine and food no matter the form or flavor. It is an exciting time to be a part of the wine movement in Hong Kong, and I look forward to seeing further progression and expansion in the wine market. Grower Champagne wines have only recently made their entrance in Hong Kong and I am excited to see that will be next.

Notes from Hong Kong

a chat and some wine with expat Danilo Nicoletti

Editor’s note: We’ll be featuring conversations with the wine wheelers, dealers, movers, makers and shakers both here in the US and abroad. Today, we’re lucky to have Josh Rubenstein from IWM HK sit in conversation with one of Hong Kong dining’s most influential Italians, Danilo Nicoletti.

Danilo Nicoletti, General Manager of 8 1/2 (Otto e Mezzo) photo courtesy of: otto-e-mezzo.com

Danilo Nicoletti is General Manager of 8 1/2 (Otto e Mezzo, one of Hong Kong’s premier Italian restaurants. Originally from Ventimiglia in Liguria, Italy, Danilo’s prior engagements at Domani and Ritz Carlton’s Toscana have made him an institution in Hong Kong fine dining. Moreover, Danilo has been instrumental in bringing wines from iconic Italian producers like Radikon, Gravner and Bea to his wine list. Danilo is without a doubt a leader in the HK Italian wine community.

What turned you on to a career in food and wine?

My father and uncle ran a small family restaurant in Ventimiglia, so it has always been a part of my life. I attended school for maitre d’ training and service management, which also helped me to learn English and French.

What do you love about your job?

I love the opportunity to “change the weather.” We can always manipulate our space and offerings so that every experience at 8 1/2 is a new and memorable experience. It can be a new dish, artisan wine or serve—or we may add new art to the décor. I love being on the scene every day

What to your thinking makes a wine program great?

It’s like making a great salad. You always need your greens and can add interesting varieties of tomatoes and unique surprises like papaya. Having the right selection in the best price points—for me it’s $600 – $1500 HKD ($75 – $200 USD)—will make the program most attractive.

How would you describe the Hong Kong wine scene to readers abroad?

Hong Kong is the door of Asia and it has taught me to have an open mind. We have food and wine choices without constraint. When I began in HK, my vision as a GM had to change from selling only food and wine. I see how we have to find other sources, like ambiance, service, furnishings and artwork to wow our guests. In HK it’s very important particularly, for many guests prefer to bring their own wines to restaurants.

What’s your ultimate food and wine pairing?

I have a French culinary background, so simple fresh bread, beef Bourgogne and Burgundy is best for me. I recently have been enjoying Domaine de la Vougeraie. If I go white, I will favor something Italian, like a Ribolla from Friuli’s Collio region. Radikon is a personal favorite.

What advice would you offer for someone considering a career similar to yours?

Do it with heart and common sense. You cannot learn passion. Be friendly to everyone, and on Sundays be sure you’re wearing tee shirt, shorts and sandals to relax

Double-Blinded, Open-Minded

Tasting without prejudice

Last week I was fortunate to attend a special double-blind tasting of prestigious wines from the 1998 vintage. We tasted eighteen wines, in three rounds of six wines each, and were asked to identify our most and least favorite entry in each round. as well as to guess the origin of each wine. Only one wine was Italian, so this was an opportunity to broaden my horizons and discover new favorites without bias. The event was well orchestrated by our hosts, though it was not without risk for some of us.

As the Italian wine aficionado in attendance, I felt some pressure to identify which wine was from Italy with just a one-in-eighteen chance. Using a bit of deductive reasoning, I figured that the final flight of six wines would feature the five first growths and another non-Italian. This meant I probably had a one-in-twelve chance to guess right in the first two flights. I further assumed the wine would come from a popular Italian producer who was likely to appear at an auction. I also knew that most of the wines would be rather new to me, so simply choosing the most familiar terroir was my best bet; however, in our world of internationally styled wines, this determination becomes increasingly difficult every day. In the end all my reasoning was for nothing; I mistakenly selected a Chateau Montelena Cabernet as the Italian. (I was thinking Gaja Sperss at first sniff, but after twenty minutes, I was quite certain it was Sassicaia.) Much to the delight of my fellow guests, the next wine was an Ornellaia, and I had botched it by guessing it was from Napa. I suffered little good-natured ribbing and we moved on.

There were other mysteries that swirled around first growths, in particular Chateau Lafite. If a big Bordeaux collector were to identify Lafite as his least favorite, it might have caused a very uncomfortable scene for both guest and host. What if a big auction buyer of Lafite would now identify this wine as his least favorite? Would it matter? Fortunately, Lafite placed a comfortable third in its round, showing quite nicely. Neither selected as anyone’s favorite or least favorite, Lafite’s result was very politically correct, and I was somewhat relieved for everyone.

I was also concerned how the non-French wines would be perceived by the group, and the result was even better than I’d expected. In fact, Ornellaia, Harlan, Penfolds Grange, and Kapscandy (the only 2006 vintage selection) all placed in the top three of their respective flights. And outside of Haut Brion’s overall triumph, it was wines like Pichon Baron, Chateau Palmer and Chateau L’Elgise Clinet that showed exceedingly well on this night.

So what did I learn? Experiencing wines without brand bias truly breaks us all down and frees us to better connect with the wine part of the wine. But we need the right atmosphere and company to comfortably throw away any worry of breaking social norms. At this event I found some personal consistency in my own taste, a renewed desire to return to Napa, and also a need to devote more time understanding Bordeaux. Finally, I wondered how I could be more effective in creating opportunities like this in Hong Kong for those wine-lovers looking to make their own unbiased personal connections. Stay tuned to see what we come up with.

Grace in the Gravner

The magic of music meeting wine

Listening to music changes the way we perceive things—even, or perhaps especially, wine. I clearly remember last April when I met my friend at his rock studio here in Hong Kong. I got to the studio (equipped with a full stage, premium sound equipment and instruments for seven) and was shown the enormous wine cellar on the other side of the room, insulated from vibration and in perfect condition. I understood the way John Kinsella felt in Field of Dreams when he asked his son, “Is this heaven?” and was told, “No. It’s Iowa.” For one Sunday, I thought heaven was located in the Chai Wan district of Hong Kong.

As the house band started playing its repertoire of mostly Eagles ballads, we sat back and enjoyed a few finer Champagnes. The set list picked up, and the growing bass thrummed in sync with our move into a deeper Bordeaux. A well-timed guitar solo found me taking longer with each sip and blocking out everything but the Fender Stratocaster and Château Lascombes. The evening concluded, I returned to earth, and I filed this epiphany in the back of my mind; however, not long after, another music/wine synergy occurred.

“Lover You Should’ve Come Over,” the seventh track off of Jeff Buckley’s album Grace was playing in my apartment. I had a glass of Josko Gravner’s 2002 Ribolla Anfora in hand and was sipping. It felt as if the wine transformed into Buckley’s voice in amber, liquid form. Gravner’s wine has often struck me as artistic: fully alive, ever-evolving and somehow always striking the right chord. Like Gravner’s wine, Buckley’s voice is unfiltered and pure. I’ve never heard another singer pull off this song like Buckley, and I can’t help but note that there is only one Gravner.

Finding common threads in music and wines is easy if you think about your favorites. But having it occur spontaneously—and being perceptive enough to notice when it does—is an unexpected reward and an infinite pleasure. And if you do have a wine pairing for Springsteen’s “Born to Run,” Zeppelin’s “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” or Pearl Jam’s “Black,” I’d love to know.

Wrapping Up VinExpo

Highlights, challenges and triumphs

VinExpo Hong Kong ended a couple of weeks ago, but it was such a fast-paced gathering with so many lingering reverberations that I’m still feeling its effects. Certainly, no description of the event is complete without detailing the highly anticipated visit of Monica Soldera of the legendary Case Basse di Soldera in Montalcino. When I first arrived in HK, I noticed that Soldera was relatively unknown among Hong Kong’s wine collectors. (The wines of Quintarelli, Gravner and Giacomo Conterno fall into this category as well.)

With no existing following in HK, my challenge became how to properly introduce an $1800 HKD wine like the 2002 Brunello Riserva. Furthermore, the Soldera Brunellos don’t look like other Brunellos. I was happy to discover the power of tastings, and HK has embraced the wines of Soldera. Monica’s first visit to Asia was a perfect opportunity for producer and wine-lovers to get to know one other properly, and over the past year, we’d built up enough intrigue and positive experiences that Monica’s visit to Hong Kong in May brought four consecutive sold-out events during VinExpo week.

The most notable aspect of Monica’s visit was her grace and her refreshing approach to introducing the wines of Case Basse. While she is an encyclopedia of wine facts, Monica was casual and disarming—a perfect demeanor for VinExpo, because the week had overwhelmed everyone with a deluge of wine facts and bold statements. The Soldera dinners centered on spending time with each wine individually so that we could see how nature guided the family’s winemaking and gave each wine its own personality. Monica was able to make each wine seem like a guest of honor, allowing us to refrain from feeling a need to make any immediate judgments about anything. She took the competitive nature out of the tasting experience and created a light atmosphere to simply enjoy each other’s company and to get to know one other better.

Monica’s Hong Kong visit was so exciting that each event deserves its own description, which I’ve provided below.

Tuesday 25 May – Otto e Mezzo

This event was a no-brainer, because it matched Monica with HK’s celebrated Italian Chef Bombana, esteemed GM Danilo Nicoletti, a gorgeous private room for twenty, and a wonderful group. The food and wine were out of this world. I hardly had to work. I simply gave Danilo and Bombana the wine list, and they agonized over the proper menu, updating it just days before the dinner in order to perfect it. Tajima Beef Tongue on Brunello and Mushroom Risotto paired with a 2003 Brunello Riserva Soldera thrilled us, but we still had the 2002 and 1983 Brunellos ahead of us. It was as if none of us could fathom better food or wine, yet we kept going. Before the night had ended, the restaurant asked Monica to sign two remaining magnums of 1983 Brunello for their own collection; they’re now proudly part of a very impressive large format collection. Overall, this evening was a perfect start to our week, and Monica knew where she could get incredible Italian food if she got homesick.

Wednesday 26 May – Crown Cellars

We held a small gathering in the Crown Library that was co-hosted by Hong Kong’s ultimate host, Greg De’eb. It was a far cry from last year’s event with Movia’s Ales Kristancic, “Marvelous Night for a Moon-dance,” which featured bottles opened under a full moon, ballroom dancing and swordplay. However different the events, our guests received the same experience in the end: an understanding of the wine through the personality of the producer. Each wine was tasted together, side-by-side, throughout the meal. This format allowed us to feel all the wines evolve simultaneously over the course of hours. By this point in VinExpo, most attendees had been to two wine dinners already in the week, and the casual atmosphere—a Monica Soldera staple—and Soldera’s wines of finesse put some life back into our group as we all prepared for the rest of the week’s events.

Thursday 27 May – The China Club

When we host our producers in HK, we like to throw at least one event where we pair Italian wines with Asian cuisine. I always rave about the quality of service at The China Club, and in my last post I’d noted that they’d hosted a staggering number of wine dinners during VinExpo. Sadly, and I mean sadly, I couldn’t attend this dinner, but the feedback from attendees was consistently great. Soldera’s wines paired surprisingly very well with a number of local dishes and showed great versatility. A number of guests reported that their bodies were wearing down from intense eating and drinking during the week, some reported that they should have taken a night off from the events, but those who were there said they couldn’t miss the Soldera night at The China Club. Monica was very pleased to have the opportunity to host a dinner with Chinese cuisine, and she was delighted to pass the Chinese cuisine test, a prerequisite for success in the new Hong Kong market.

Friday 28 May – Don Alfonso

My colleague Christina escorted Monica by helicopter to Macau to start the day. However, I, being more afraid of heights than any man should be, was happy to take the boat and sleep on the way to our last day of meetings and events. Our evening at the stunning Don Alfonso in Grand Lisboa began with a very pleasant surprise—Chef Alfonso himself would be attending the dinner as a guest. As with the staff of Otto e Mezzo, Chef Alfonso and his restaurant team hold Soldera wines with high regard and worked hard to create a truly special experience for all of us who were lucky enough to attend. Don Alfonso’s perfect pairing of 1983 Brunello from magnum with Wagyu beef tenderloin and puffed spaghetti (it’s beyond description) was almost a shame to consume. But we did anyway, and it was amazing.

To paraphrase Monica’s father, Gianfranco, a great wine is one that you miss immediately after you’ve finished it. I missed the Soldera dinners the moment we left Don Alfonso. After an exhausting week and non-stop events, I take that to be a testament to Soldera.

VinExpo was a crazy blast of too much food, so much wine and an avalanche of new friends. Two weeks later, I’m only just beginning to recover. Naturally, I look forward to doing it all again next year.

« go back — keep looking »