was the black rain signal hoisted in hong kong this morning an auspicious sign for the very first wyndham st wine walk launched today by hong kong time out?

even though the signal was lifted soon after 11 and that it left very little time for participating restaurants to prepare, people showed in great number and it was pretty clear, from those congregating at wagyu that they enjoyed themselves a great deal.

even better, i am told it generated hkd 100,000 for room to read which is apparently enough to build 3 schools in the developping world. well done!

for me me however, my naive and idealistic self was a little disappointed by the wine on offer.

other than a pretty good veneto igt at goccia, a great south african chardonnay at zest, good sauvignon blanc and pinot noir at tivo and a real threat of piper heidsieck champagne at frog face fish, the rest (and that is 15 other wines) was pretty average.

i wonder if, as maria would say, it is because participating restaurants which bought their wine at a discount from maxxium "know their chicken" and that, generally, people in hong kong just want to get drunk and care little about how good the wine actually is?

if that's the case then, why are we talking about hong kong becoming a "wine hub"?

the wine walk is a fantastic concept that shows much promise. if the objective was to organise a wine crawl to test whether participants could reach the end still standing after 20 glasses of wine, the event was a success. unfortunately for me, i did not feel it was exploited as well as it could have in terms of consumer education and to stenghten the hong kong wine culture. hopefully the organisers will recognise this and make the next one 100% better. i am looking forward to it.