A tipple to match the meal

WHILE Europe is in the throes of its grape harvest, Hong Kong is being flooded with a month of wine-related events and values.

A panel of Hong Kong food and wine experts spent weeks matching cuisines and French wines. The result? Theme boxes (two bottles in a gift box with opener and guidebook). The retail price of these nifty teaching kits is $138, and they will be available this month at Daimaru, Jusco, Wellcome, Park'N Shop and Yaohan.

Among the food-wine combinations the experts recommend are sushi with Reserve St Martin Chardonnay, pasta and pizza with cabernet sauvignon, barbecue with Prince Noir B&G, and Cantonese with Beaujolais villages.

In order to spread the word, Sopexa - an arm of the French Trade Office that deals with food and wine - is offering lectures at basic and advanced levels in Cantonese and English in Causeway Bay, Tsim Sha Tsui, Sha Tin and Sai Wan Ho.

There will also be wine and food matching dinners with special menus at selected restaurants featuring Chinese, Indian and Vietnamese cuisines. For more information telephone Sopexa on 2866-7163; fax: 2866 7144. CONTINUING on the wine theme. Marks & Spencer has slapped its labels on wine, and you can't beat the value. The 40 wines initially will be available at the Pacific Place store, beginning tomorrow. Among the finds: Vin de Pays de Gers ($49), Australian Rosemount Shiraz ($130), Margaux ($180), Lindeman's Chardonnay-Bin 65 ($99), Vouvray ($99), St Michael vintage champagne, St Gall, Brut 1988 ($395).

And who are the producers? 'Top ones,' says Marks' Tracey Nelson. Marks & Spencer sold wines years ago. But it stopped due to high import duties. The lowering of duties last year allowed the store to start importing again and sell at affordable prices, according to Ms Nelson. THE Wines of the Southern Hemisphere Festival continues all month. There are special tastings of 80 wines from Australia, Chile, New Zealand and South Africa on October 24 at Regal Hong Kong Hotel plus a wine dinner at Bacchus (October 25) and The Flavour of Two Continents dinner at Quo quo (October 27). For a schedule of lectures by guest winemakers, tastings and dinners cal Wine 'n' Things on 2873-5733; fax: 2554-5369. WHAT do chunao , zi , ao and ganliao have in common? They are among the eight ancient cooking methods (namely frying and stewing with rice, soaking, salting and roasting, respectively).

By using these methods, called bazhen, a variety of dishes from chopped beef and mutton, liver, rice and glutinous millet can be prepared. If this sounds like a graduate school course, it's not. But it is a style of eating delicacies privvy to members of the imperial household.