Vinexpo Asia-Pacific lingers long on the palate

The magic of the Vinexpo trade fair is that although the show lasts only three days, the buzz it generates brings a stream of winemakers to Hong Kong that takes several weeks to process.

While some are hoping for a coating of the Vinexpo fairy dust, others have different motives. Winemakers from the northern hemisphere have new releases to push, and ones from the southern hemisphere want to check out the competition. Adding to the excitement this year was the big push for Côtes du Rhône wines organised by Le French May.

So can the Post dig out its crystal ball and predict what will be in our glasses during the coming year? Not quite. The trade show doesn't collect figures on how much business is done, and by whom, and some exhibitors seemed to be here to find a new distributor rather than support their current one.

Plenty of others, however, were brought here by their distributors and many of their wines are available in Hong Kong. Here are some highlights of the past few weeks of tasting.

Johann Krige, of Kanonkop Estate in Stellenbosch, South Africa, gave a tutored tasting of five vintages of the winery's Paul Sauer Bordeaux blend. Krige describes the wines as "terroir-driven" and pointed out the structure given by a mix of roughly 70 per cent cabernet sauvignon, 20 per cent cabernet franc and 10 per cent merlot.

The wine grew in alcohol strength from 12.5 per cent for the 1991 to 14 per cent for the 2009, but there were consistent flavour notes of berries, black pepper and tea leaves.