Bacchus in Hong Kong: Simon Says(1)
Earlier this week aging Goth Robert Smith from The Cure was hailed a “Godlike Genius” by NME magazine. Simon Tam, director of the Independent Wine Centre in Sheung Wan (Hong Kong) and wine adviser to several Asian pop stars, claims the same for Meerlust winemaker Chris Williams. Simon started off calling him “God” before launching on an even more hyperbolic trajectory, comparing Chris to “a young Brian Croser” on the evidence of his miraculous Foundry Syrah.
It was 10:30am and we’d only had a couple of glasses of Dom Ruinart ’98 Blanc de Blanc. “Quite yeasty with a high dosage which makes it very ready. I really do prefer their old style before they were gobbled up by LVMH. My iPod has just blown so sorry there’s no acid jazz or Miles Davis” in his glass box office above busy Wing Lok Street.
Simon’s opinion is quite sound as he’s no inside trader, noting “we’re completely independent and pay for all our tasting samples” for offices in Shanghai, Macau and one about to open in Beijing. Born in Hong Kong but brought up in Adelaide, Simon trained as a winemaker at Roseworthy (“it took me four years instead of the usual three as the parties were so good”), is also a qualified chef (“European style, I come from a family of chefs”) as well as a qualified cheese maker (“so much for the myth that Chinese don’t eat cheese. I leave the cheese on my Big Mac.”)
Married to a Canadian Chinese with an Australian Chinese winemaker assistant, Simon can “flick between cultures” and describes himself as “a cultural marketer. We bring the delicious West to the thirsty East. We offer a full spectrum of tastings: from affordable ones to vertical Dom Pérignon, cheese, saffron, olive oil and coffee tastings.”
