What do you make of Hong Kong's 'wine hub' ambitions? 'Well, there isn't really a long history of 'wine hubs'; you are just playing with words. The biggest wine hub on Earth used to be London; we were the big importers. So that's how you become a wine hub; [by having] the money to discriminate. Since [the end of the import tax], the world has been looking to Hong Kong to speed up a very slow [global] market. Everyone is saying China will be the biggest market the world will have ever known and Hong Kong is an obvious starting place.'
How do you approach wine tasting? 'There are the [Robert] Parkers in this world who try 100 wines in a day ... To me, that is pointless and impossible; how well can you know a wine of which you've only taken a sip and spat it out? Wine was made to be drunk with food and a certain amount of thought, and not with other wines. I'd rather taste fewer wines in a day and not make up my mind till I've finished at least a glass of it, slowly, thought about it and had something to eat with it.'
Are there ever conflicts of interest in writing about a great find? 'That's a problem that journalists have. I mean, do you really tell people your favourite hideaway or wine? I don't Twitter about it. There's a bit of self-selecting but it's fine because I keep changing my mind. The great virtue of wine - as I've discovered as an author - [is its] annual built-in obsolescence. If it isn't a new vintage, there's an old vintage getting better.'
Do you think your writing affects people's choices? 'How much do you think that spirit of inquiry really comes into the market for wine? People [mostly] settle down with favourites. There's nothing wrong with that. People build points of connection with wine. [The vintage can be] when your child was born, or [you like] the name; a point of connection is better than no point of connection. It's my job to give a wine as many handles as possible, refer to it in ways that people will remember.'
What are your personal quirks when it comes to drinking and eating? 'I'm just about omnivorous but I avoid the sort of food that doesn't go with wine. I never eat curry - because I've never found a wine that goes with curry. I love Italian food. I find Japanese food and red wine are great together, particularly burgundy. They say 'buy on an apple, sell on cheese' for wine and food pairings. There's no particular food that I use as a litmus test for wine. I'll order whatever I feel like eating.'
What about pairing wine with Chinese food? 'My suggestion when somebody's having a Chinese banquet with multiple dishes is to have more than one wine. Keep sipping all the way through, in no particular order. Keep an open mind and you'll hit on things that you like and things you don't. I love drinking with anybody with a sense of humour. That's how I choose my companions. There are a lot of laughs in Hong Kong - it's a great giggly town and I love it.'