Wine Now Monthly Wine Fair

Venue: Happy Valley 7/F & 8/F

This is one of the most decent wine fair I've been to, I am not referring to the decency of the venue, I am talking about decency of the wine. It is judged by how much wine I spit.

Organized by the founder of Wine Now Mr. Lau Chi Sun. He looks energetic, though difficult in walking. His generosity in donating wine for lucky draw and his speech is very warm. You can tell how enthrusiastic he has been to this industry.

With around 30 wine merchants joining this year, I attend this function alone has my friends still hangover from previous drinking with friends.

Grace Vineyard:

Grace Vineyard is the prominent mainland vineyard that market their wine. Good enough to have won bordeaux competition bronze awards. No doubt that this is one of my to-do list in the event. Tried the elegant blue bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon.

Vine to Wine

Australian Wine Shop. Every hour, they will decant reserved wines such as Bass Phillip, Wild Duck, Jasper Hill, Mount Mary Pinot Noir. The owner has pretty good decanting skills, imagine he is like the Vin de Dieu character. White Box and Buddha Wine are the other 2 buy 1 get 1 free recommendation, those are easy drinking daily wine, soothing palate. Cozy chat with the people at the shop. Can see they are not just serving wine, they are serving wine knowledge.

Veneto

Amarone from Veneto , Wine from Kelit of Shenzhen, A Veneto Wine maker. Oaky and too tannic though. Imagine Italian coming to Hong Kong and Shen Zhen without knowing Cantonese and Mandarin. mmm...it's gonna be tough.

Since I went there alone...so just dropped by for an hour and left. Nice wine fair, hope there will be more next year :)

Riquiqui - A touch of blue

In a hectic business centre Central, a cozy quite jazzy environment does soothe the disturbing mind. Next to M88 beijing club, you will find a door brand with a touch of blue and a glipmse of golden frame - Riquiqui.

Means tiny in French, really a petit place with dim light, enough to accomodate 12 people, just enough for a warm chat. The chef Amanada, who is graduated from California Culinary School on pastry art. Tiny...don't thought low of yourself.


$200 for 3 course setting - main course and petit four, companied with a glass of dessert wine.

In fact this time since my friends have to rush for the real dinner, so we have ordered 2 main courses and a bottle of dessert wine - "Birbet" Brachetto.

Brachetto - Cherry red wine that tastes similar to ice-merlot, with a strong bitter on the palette as a finish. Strawberry punch on nose, medium body and  , dessert version of Sangria. In the DOCG region of Brachetto d'Acqui, the grape is used to produce a slightly sweet sparkling wine. The red heart seems really lively, made a company to the couple at the background *wink*

Main Course: Amarula Pudding

Amarula is a cream liqueur manufactured in South Africa. It is made with sugar, cream and the fruit of the African Marula tree. The combination of Pudding, vanilla icecream and banana is the best combo, reminds me of banoffi pie, however with more of toffee / coffee flavour then the banana. These 3 have always been the trio~

 Brachetto is dominated by the strong caramel of amarula, yet some bitterness hint of brachetto has balanced well with the amarula, fair pairing.

Main Course: Almond Cake with Pear Crumbles

Soft almond cake tastes really like the sponge bread, decent texture, ice-cream becomes its dip to highlight the almond. Pear crumble is not heavily buttered like the common dessert place, therefore it won't stuffed too much to the palette, very soft and refreshing mixture.

Brachetto has a better pairing on this as this dish is comparatively refreshing and lighter. The fruitiness of strawberry of the wine and the pear from the pear crumble has become the touch for the melting of almond cake. Bravo~

Having the dessert while enjoying the industrious businessmen/ businesswomen working out their belly on a treadmill, a contradict makes me struggle a bit whether I should order a main course more, lol.

Imagine whether they will be tempted by looking at our mouthful and mouthful of Amanda's delicate dishes...don't give up jogging, I am watching you!!!~