Taste Like A Pro - Tasting Primeurs...

The first week of April is normally the time when wine pros from the whole world descend on Bordeaux to taste the wines “en primeur”. This tasting helps them ascertain the quality of the previous vintage using samples of wines that are still in barrels in various Châteaux and will continue to do so for some time to come. The key question is how to taste such young wines that are not ready and still judge its quality?

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Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

Few people who know me in the wine industry are aware that, in Hong Kong, my main activity is to export bicycle accessories from China and that wine is for me a passion.  One that I have certainly carried forward to the extreme in the last few years.  Today, I believe that the qualities that helped me establish my company at the age of 25 and persevere with it for more than 20 years were perhaps what kept me going in the Master of Wine program until now. I also believe that those qualities were perhaps what kept me from passing the exam twice already.

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Taste Like A Pro - Sparkling Wines

For the sparkling wines category, three main factors fundamentally influence the style of the final wine not only in terms of effervescence, but also in terms of body, aromatic profile and texture.  The first relates to how the bubbles, also called the “mousse”, are obtained.  The second is the choice of grape varieties for the base wine and the third concerns the sweetening of the final wine.

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