“Wine lover, wine collector, wine nerd…” these are just some of the ways my friends describe me when it comes to wine. To be honest, I too am amazed as to how I came to appreciate wine. so much so that I can easily spend all day thinking about wines. I must admit I am lucky enough to come across a decent bottle of wine early on and the rest, as they say, is history.
All it takes is a £2 bottle to start…
I remembered the first bottle of wine I bought. It was when I was still studying in the UK and I spent £2 buying a bottle of red wine from Safeway (now part of Morrisons). I can’t remember much of that wine, just that it was extremely acidic. I thought that was how wine was suppose to taste like and boy was I wrong. It took me a while to buy my next bottle but that wine was definitely worth all the wait! I remembered that it was during the 2000 Bordeaux En-Primeur campaign (the press then were saying prices were crazy and out of this world… sound familiar? :-P) and I wanted to try a wine before I bought my first case. So off I went to a very posh looking wine shop in London and bought a bottle of Pavillon Rouge du Chateau Margaux 1996. What a wine!, where was all the acidity? All I got was a smooth velvety texture coupled with elegance and pure red fruit. I WAS HOOKED!!!
Sadly (from my savings and wallet perspective), I wanted to try and taste wines from all over the France to understand the region and (even worse for my wallet) I’ve settled on my favourite wine region, Burgundy. I do believe the comment “All wine roads lead to Burgundy…” but hope it will be quite a while before I progress to the second part of that phrase.
I now live in Hong Kong and am amazed how quickly the wine scene in Asia is developing. I used to fret that I could not get the same services and amenities that I used to enjoy when I was living in London but Asia (especially Hong Kong) is definitely catching up! This is great as I now get to experience more wines from different parts of the world right here in Asia.
I plan to use this blog to document my humble journey as a student in this vast wine world. I am grateful to all vignerons the world over who put in tireless efforts to create what I believe is magic in a wine glass (I am sure Bacchus has never been happier). I am also always keen to hear from fellow friends and wine enthusiasts the world over about the local wine scene and most importantly, what you have been drinking!
酒，是一㼛看起來很普通的飲料，卻又有一種讓人捉不透的神密感。我真的被這種深不可測的飲料吸引著。
以一瓶24港幣的紅酒開始了我品酒的旅程。記得當時還在英國唸書的時候，我在超市以（現價）24塊港幣買了一瓶紅酒。雖不怎麼記得那瓶酒的來源，我記得那酒酸死了！我當下以為這就是紅酒的味道。現時才知道這多麼的錯。我人生買的第二瓶紅酒是波爾多瑪歌堡的二軍酒，Pavillon Rouge du Chateau Margaux 1996。天啊！這酒怎麼差這麼多！那瓶酒一點也不酸，而且有很滑潤的口感。
自此以後，我便迷上了這廣闊的酒世界。而且，我現在也迷上了勃根第的酒。
現在住在香港的我也很幸運的能夠見視葡萄酒在亞洲迅速的發展。我希望能通過這個部落格記載我在這廣闊的酒世界的每一歩，並且也希望可以與愛酒的同好者一起分享喝酒的經驗與有趣的故事。
Winston's Wine World 