Champ, cider, park dates

Pictures from the past couple of weeks

 

Sparkling tasting with some of my diploma mates.  Kat pictured

Delicious NV grower Champagne

Sen Hot Pot in Jordan is a great place to organize a tasting.  Zero corkage, bright lighting, glasses provided, and tasty hot dishes.  I definitely recommend it, even if it's allll the way on the dark side.

 

One of G+C's tasty and budget friendly selections

And then I got trapped running in Chai Wan and had to MTR it home




Wine lunch with HKWine Society at Carnevino (Mario Batalli's steakhouse).  3 course lunch menu + zero corkage = amazing place to bring your wine on a Saturday afternoon.


This was so so so so tasty- pork crepe with 2000 Chateau Lascombes, one of 12 or so wines passed around during lunch.  Bordeaux at noon with 20 other wine enthusiasts at Mario Batalli's.  It didn't suck.


And this was amazing. Cherry and apple turnover with bourbon ice cream.  Bour.bon. Ice.cream.



So many delicious Bordeaux wines.  Truly a testament to the ageablilty and character of these French classics

 

Nina and Kenny's 2nd annual pig roast.  This year at Shek O's back beach catered by the great Dennis of Delicious HK.  Three courses at Carnevino definitely made this a marathon meat day.

 

 

Post pig roast coffee shooters.. Prithya, ?, Josh, Matt and Will

 

 

Prithya Matt and Paul at Ben's Back Beach Bar.

 

 

Asia is so weird.  Point #232009: Spend $200 at Manning's (drug store) and get a free bag of rice.  Winning.

 

 

And then we went to Stanley for an ill-publicised awesome beer event.  Craft beers are taking off in HK.  Finally...

 

 

Beijing style street food from Mr. Bing.  Amaze duck crepe. 

 

 

 

Tuesday I went to a wonderful tasting with Armit Wines for Mount Horrock's of Clare Valley, Australia.  The winemaker Stephanie was here for her first time to share her amazing Riesling, Semillon, Shiraz and dessert wine.  Absolutely pure, vibrant, and precise.  Australia has definitely been impressing me recently.

 

Winner Winner, Kevin's chicken dinner

 

And I finally made it to the races for the first time since working in Happy Valley.  BYO wine, horses, in the middle of the city with friends.  Get better Wednesday.

 

Oktoberfest in the Valley.  Me, Kevin, Laura, Alicia, and Tom

 

 

Friday we had a photographer come in to work to shoot some of our products and us.  Updated website with bios coming soon.  www.winemerchantsasia.com

 

 

Paul's cousin Vanessa came to stay with us a few weeks back and got sick.  We suspect it may be our sketch AirCon.  I requested to our landlord that someone come in and clean it out since we've been in our apartment over a year, and shockingly they did.  Immediately.  Efficiently.  Totally free.  And now we can all breathe a little easier. 

 

 

 Saturday we had a wonderful tasting in the office.  And check out these stunning decanters we got from the UK.  They all date back from the 1770's-1880s and are absolutely gorgeous.  If only I had a parlour...

 

 

Italians were the name of the game; Gaja Barolo (4th in) and Barbaresco (1st), Orma Super Tuscan (3rd), Sassicaia (2nd, inventor of Super Tuscans), and a totally traditional Antonio Vallana (last). 

 

 

 

 

Post tasting Paul and I head over to School Food, which is a Korean chain that just opened its first outlet in Causeway Bay.  Above was a very tasty squid ink roll, and we also had tteokbokki which is a Korean street food.  It was amazing, and I don't know if my spice tolerance is down, or if it was just that spicy, but it had me crying.   Hopefully they'll consider arranging take away soon.

 

 

We followed dinner with some drinks in the park.  The weather is finally tolerable, and Victoria Park is the perfect setting for some fancy French beers and leftover tteokbokki.

 

 

And chips.  Paul loves chips.