WSA & HKIWSC: Tale of two International Competitions(2)

By Subhash Arora 2011-10-17 17:23:48

Test your Palate

Test Your Palate at Cathay Pacific HKIWSC

An interesting feature at Hong Kong was a public tasting in the evening of the bottles opened for judging during the day. For a nominal amount of HK$250 (Rs. 1600) wine lovers would get a wineglass that they could use to taste hundreds of wines and even fill out a form and give their own ratings which when compared with the Gold medals awarded in various categories would win them a prize. It was a pleasing sight to see over 150 persons walk in every evening walk in, swirl, sip and spit the wines into the cups and take down notes furiously.

‘We want to create an excitement and interest in the Hong Kong wine lovers, even though we might not be able to fully recover our costs to organise,’ explained Debra. In a city that has been mostly a spirit consumer with wine culture ahead of India only by a few years, it was also heartening to see no one got drunk with practically infinite quantity available to drink, contrary to the fears of many in India that such tastings can make people get drunk out of their senses, like with spirits.

Malcom Tham in Singapore had the opposite view. ‘We promise our entrants that only award winning wines will be made public-these will be showcased in the Wine for Asia (WFA) being held on 27th and 28th October after we announce the results on 26th. We discussed this possibility and decided against it,’ he says firmly. Instead, WFA is being extended for a day on 28th for consumers only, giving them an opportunity to taste wines of various exhibitors and distributors for a one time entry free.

Contrasting cities

All them judges at HKIWSC

In a wide contrast, one could smell that the wine culture was constrained in Singapore due to procedures and heavy taxation, especially on low ended wines- there is a fixed import duty of SD 7.50 (about Rs. 300) per bottle while Hong Kong with no taxes and the neighbouring super wine-consuming power China is being targeted by several producing countries which may explain the growth of over 30% entries this year and a total of over 1600 wine participants which is a huge number for a competition in its third year only.

Besides a warm South Eastern hospitality extended by the organisers being the common denominator in both the competitions which are also held blind (a given in all such competitions), it was an honour for India with Subhash Arora, President of Indian Wine Academy being appointed a panel president in both the competitions. Although it signifies mostly extra clerical work, the panel president also has the onerous task of getting the judges who are all wine experts and have in independent palate from different South Eastern Asian countries, to discuss any major differences of opinion and get a consensus. If needed, they have to get the opinion of the jury chairman- John Chua in Singapore and Debra Meiburg in Hong Kong. They also need to work extra time to re-taste the top awarded wines to decide the trophy winners.

The spot for Arora in Hong Kong was vacated by Simon Tam, one of the partners along with Meiburg and the International Wine and Spirits Competition (IWSC) of HKIWSC. A well-known consultant and a special in China market, usually one of the four panel presidents, Simon became the China man for Christie’s last year and was unavailable for the tasting.

Both the competitions have their respective place in the South East Asia’s wine market, though this Special Administrative Region of China since 1997 has benefitted significantly by the exemption of duties on wines and relaxed norms of operation in 2008.

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From www.indianwineacademy.com