On Wednesday evening, a black-tie-clad crowd of 500 wine lovers and industry professionals gathered at the Trade Development Council's gala awards ceremony for the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Wine & Spirit Competition.
Now in its third year, the wine competition retained its position as Asia's largest, as 30 judges from 18 cities in the region convened to smell, sip and spit more than 1,700 vintages.
The judges, who must be both Asian-born and Asian-based (with the exception of myself and one VIP international guest judge), came from the mainland, Taiwan, Macau, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Thailand to join those already in Hong Kong. In support of the council's partnership with Italy, the VIP guest judge was Alberto Antonini, of the famous winemaking family. Each entry was tested blind by a panel of five judges. There were six panels in total. Top medal winners were judged by the panel chairs to determine which one received a trophy for 'best in class'.
A popular feature of the competition is the food and wine matching categories. A number of Michelin-starred chefs joined the panels on the final day to ascertain the finest wine matches for Peking duck, braised abalone, kung pao chicken, dim sum and sashimi.
Some highlights of the competition included first-time entries from Britain, Macedonia, Tunisia and Uruguay as well as a whopping 43 entries from Georgia.
Best Argentinian red wine; Synthesis Malbec 2008, Finca Sophenia
Best Australian shiraz; Deep Woods Block 7 Shiraz 2009, Fogarty Wine Group
