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 It must have been a few frustrating and anxious days for the organisers of HKIWSC with the possibility of postponing the competition staring at them due to the protester-occupied areas around the Hong Kong Conference and Exhibition Center, making the movement of thousands of bottles and glasses to the venue impossible.
But thanks to the resilience and consideration shown by the protestors who did not create an obstacle in the logistics, the arrangements worked out fine and the task was carried out smoothly with around 1600 labels tasted and tested by judges from Hong Kong, Macau, China, Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia, Japan, S. Korea and India-not including the VIP Judges Susana Balbo from Argentina for wines and Antony Moss MW from London for Spirits.
As usual, there were 4 panels of 4-5 judges who tasted over 100 wines a day in 4 flights, each one being tasted with the pre-poured wines kept in a file on the table so the judges could individually taste and rate before going back to the table where the scores were tabulated. Besides various trophies awarded by the panel consisting of the Panel Presidents, Gold (over 90/100), Silver (over 80/100) and Bronze (over 75/100) are awarded to the wine samples. Like the previous occasions, Arora was honoured as President of one of the Panels.
A rather unique feature of the competition where the country, grapes and vintage category are indicated is that once entered the judges are allowed to discuss their scores and adjustment of scores is permitted. This is in sharp contrast to the OIV-sponsored events where discussion of scores and wine is not allowed. In fact, in Vinitaly, even the seating is on individual basis and scores are directly fed into the system which rejects the top and bottom scores. Thus, at HKIWSC each voice is given cognizance and the wine gets a fair trial. Re-tasting of wines when the scores are at unusual variance and even involving the Director of the Competition, Debra Meiburg, is a common practice. All the Gold and high Silver medal winners were re-tasted by the Trophy panel on 9th October, the last day of the 4-day competition to ensure the accuracy and consistency of the judging procedure.
Conducting the back-end operation of the competition is a team of experts from the partner-IWSC from London. With decades of experience in conducting the competition it is a pleasure to see how smoothly the operation was carried out as every year. KPMG as the auditors ensure that the whole process is carried out without any bias. Of course, the wines are served blind as everywhere else.
 The results of the HKIWSC will be announced on December 6 at the gala dinner at the Trade Show opening on the same day. The medal winning wines will be displayed at the Fair, thus helping the producers who win recognition. Cathay Pacific airlines, the title sponsor, will also publish the results in the airline’s ‘Discovery’ magazine. In fact, as Debra Meiburg indicated at the beginning of the competition, there is a full 12-month calendar chalked out in advance to help promote the award winning wines regularly throughout the year.
Food and Wine Match
A fun and adventurous part of the competition is matching food and wine-conducted on the last day. Each of the 5 panels is given one or more of the 10 dishes that have been enlisted-including Chicken Tikka from India. The objective is to find the medal-worthiness of the pairing based on the experience of the morsel and the sip together on the palate. As with wine, one spits out the food and wine.
I was asked to head the spicy panel- Kung Pao Chicken, Chicken Tikka and Pad Thai- the spiciest 3 dishes of the lot of 10. Debra has promised to add one more Indian dish next year. This should be a cue for the Indian producers to enter more wines for this segment. A point that is emphasized by the organisers is that it is the total experience of food and wine on the palate is what we are looking for and not the quality of the wine per se. Says Debra, ‘when we started this segment, we were not sure which direction it would take. For instance, with the absolute luxury dish of Abalone, one would think Montrachet would be the match winner. But an inexpensive Australian wine (we are tasting blind, remember-and in this case the only information given is the grape varietal) was adjudged as the Best match. Every year, a few surprises are thrown in.’
This year was no different.
Test Your Palate
One of the direct beneficiaries of the competition are the trade people and consumers of Hong Kong who have a feast of tasting over 400 wines every evening for 3 hours by paying a nominal amount towards the tickets to partly defray the cost of rentals and organizing the unusual event. A brainchild of Debra Meiburg and Simon Tam, this 3-day event gives the visitors an opportunity to taste wines-many of them unusual and not yet in the Hong Kong market. These are the left-over wines that have been tasted earlier during the day. Wines from India, Russia, Turkey, Georgia, Thailand, Czech Republic and Greece are a part of the wines available. The judges are on standby to answer any questions about the wines. A separate table with the defective wines of the day is useful to sharpen one’s tasting capability.
 Unfortunately, this aspect of the competition was affected due to the Occupy-Central sit-in by the protestors as many people did not show up due to the logistics issue although the MTR-the local Metro system was at its efficient best and those who travel mainly by MTR, might not have even noticed the inconvenience caused in several parts of the city.
Debra Meiburg was disappointed and yet relaxed as none of the protestors, at a walking distance from the venue, showed up. ‘We were worried if they came and had one too many, this could have sullied our image,’ she felt. However, those who did come, enjoyed the tasting –including around 20 Indian wines. Many were present at the last year’s event as well.
For those attending the Hong Kong International Wine and Spirits Fair on November 6-8, it may be a good idea to check out the HKIWSC stand and taste the award winning wines.
Subhash Arora
Tags: Debra Meiburg, Hong Kong |