Did you say buxom? 'Yes,' laughs Debra Meiburg. 'Too full-figured.' She has entertaining ways of talking about wine for great clarity. And it turns out that JC Viens also does. One wine had him walking down the aisle and dreaming of the first night. And so we had gathered for a little fun with a food and wine pairing in the very serious, Michelin two-starred Amber restaurant - it is also the only Hong Kong restaurant to be in San Pellegrino's list of the world's 50 best restaurants.
Culinary director Richard Ekkebus is a master, but has a similar way of talking about his food without sounding intimidating. He makes a 72-hour sauce prepared with livers and two bottles of wine (for just four servings) sound as straightforward as serving mashed potato with chicken. You just do it.
The assembled crew comprised Meiburg, a master of wine and author of the soon-to-be-re-released Tasting Wine with Debra; gourmet and master of wine student JC Viens; and Wilson Kwok, owner of W's Entrecote, who trained at Cordon Bleu and the University of Bordeaux. They were there to taste four poultry dishes, from mild and creamy chicken through to semi-wild mallard, with wines picked out by sommelier John Chan.
First up was from a top Alsace producer - Josmeyer Pinot Gris Le Fromenteau 2007. Chan described its natural smokiness, earthiness and mushroom characters, matching the black truffle and cep mushrooms of our Bresse poularde served with potato mousseline. A little dish on the side was a savoury baba with lardo and black truffle cream.
All agreed that the wine was quite wonderful, Kwok noting good acidity. The dish made the wine even fresher and more tart, says Meiburg, while Viens observes the citrusy characters at the back, performing almost like a sorbet. He points out this is a new way of pairing, when the wine acts as a palate cleanser in addition to balancing flavours. 'In this red-obsessed town, this is a great example of where white wine is the best choice, even with robust flavours,' Meiburg says. Alsace is a huge pork-eating region where diners invariably drink white.
From the artfully laid-out chicken dish, we moved onto a plate with, daringly, just three elements: a piece of Couthouis duck prepared as game with some organic citrus peel at the end, a piece of honeyed daikon and the so-called civet sauce, which Ekkebus explains is thickened with the duck's organs and its blood. 'This is going to be a huge challenge,' Viens says. We were trying this with Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino 2005 from Tuscany.