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 The competition has been founded by Debra Meiburg MW and Simon Tan, now the auction house Christie’s Director for China, in partnership with IWSC. This is a London based organisation running international competitions for over 45 years and is considered one of the top global competitions. HKTDC and Cathay Pacific Airlines are long term sponsors. Held from 4-8 October, it also received entries for Sake and Spirits competition which was held on October 9.
The competition has been maintaining the original charter of inviting only the Asian judges, barring an outsider expert VIP judge every year- Neil McGuigan from Australia this year (Susan Balboa from Argentina was invited last year). The well known winemaker from Australia with around 40 years of winemaking, production and judging experience and currently the CEO of Australian Vintage Ltd. and the President of IWSC , Neil was invited as the special VIP judge to give an outsider’s perspective.
Debra Meiburg MW who specialises in the Hong Kong, Chinese and Taiwanese markets has been living in Hong Kong for around 30 years and is a local resident; the wine celebrity thus qualifies to be a judge in the competition known as ‘Asia’s Choice, Asia’s Voice’. Judges from Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand Macau and the sole representative from India tasted around 100 wines a day, in 5 panels of 5 people each to arrive at the Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals.
The Competition also awards a “Best of Asia” trophy series for best wines produced in China and Japan, Best Red Wine in Hong Kong (below HK$200), Best White Wine in Hong Kong (below HK150), and Best Sparkling Wine (below HK$400). A series of Asian food and wine pairing trophies are also awarded to the best wines paired with favourite dishes from China, Japan, Thailand and India.
As usual, Arora was selected as one of the Panel Presidents and as always was asked to preside over the spicy and curry foods from Thailand and India. Thanks to his suggestion, mutton kebabs were selected for this year. The four Thai Curries tasted were Kaeng Kari with chicken, Kaeng Khiao with Pork, Gaeng Massaman with beef and Kaeng Phet Yang (duck).
 Debra Meiburg Master of Wine is a regular taster of Indian wines and has made several visits to India in the past including Kolkata earlier this year where she tasted a wide spectrum of Indian wines. There had been a steady improvement in the quality of Indian wines according to her and she hoped several medals would be won although not as many entries as last year seem to have arrived.
Integrity through layers
The competition has gained the reputation of being one with high integrity over the years. Wines are kept in bottles in the adjoining air-conditioned room which no one is allowed to enter. They are directly under the charge of experienced IWSC staff from London assisted by the Hong Kong personnel including the servers. Instead of the bottles which are normally covered blind in most European competitions used to pour at the tasters’ tables, wines are pre-poured in the glasses, each having a number on it. Each flight of about 15-35 sample is lined up for tasting. Judges are asked to taste and rate on a tasting sheet for one flight at a time.
When all the judges have finished tasting a flight, they get together on an pre-assigned table (as a President) my panel 2 was fixed for me but all the tasters changed by rotation every day, giving us an opportunity to get to know each other’s style and also making it educative for everyone. The pre-rated scores are entered in the computer as well as written by hand to avoid any error. The judges are allowed to discuss the scores and even re-taste if there is too divers an opinion and change the score. A representative of KPMG continuously monitors the process and marks on the computer and acts as the independent agency to ensure the integrity of the judging system.
Wines winning Gold by inconsistent voting or missing Gold for the same reason, are re-tasted by the Panel of Presidents like me and Debra who is the Chairperson of the Competition. This gives the wine a second opportunity and a check-point to let it through or even bring down the score if the panel so rates.
Subsequently, the top wines of all categories were judged and a consensus was reached on the Trophies for wines in each category, the wine still numbered and unknown to the judges. Human error and proficiency notwithstanding, the process is quite fool-proof and the decision is as correct as the diverse palates can agree on at that particular moment. If there is no consensus reached within the panel or if the gap is too much, the chairperson of the competition, Debra is called to taste and she reasons with the panellists. Even the guest VIP judge is consulted, if needed. If there is still no agreement, her decision is deemed final. However, one does not see such situations frequently.
What a Food and Wine Match
 One of the rather unique features of the Show, which seems to be modelled after ‘What Food, What Wine’ competition initiated by IWSC a few years ago seems to be a fun and interesting part of the competition. A dish is served on the table with all the wines entered for that category. The judges are expected to take a morsel of all the elements of that dish and take a generous sip to feel how well they are matched, followed by spitting the contents into the spittoon.
This edition saw a full revamp of the food and wine pairing categories, with a complete set of new dishes added. This included four popular Thai curries, plus four Chinese dishes, three Japanese dishes and one Indian dish, offering a host of new opportunities for food lovers across Asia to explore once the results are released. My panel was able to judge 5 categories- 4 Thai curries and an Indian mutton kebab dish with 16 wines
Subhash Arora, who has been invited as a judge from the inception of the Cathay Pacific HKIWSC, has always encouraged Indian producers to participate in this category because the wine entered need not be the best in class but can certainly win medals if it goes well with food for the judges-and after all, a medal is a medal! Some ordinary wines have won Gold medals in the past for this reason.
Test Your Palate
 A a brainchild of Debra, this has become an annual event on the calendar for local wine enthusiasts who pay only HK $700 for 3 evenings to take home 3 wine glasses and taste up to 1000 different wines, some of which are not available in the local market. Of course, it is not possible to taste all in the 2-hour window provided every evening. It was a surprise to still find people coming to the Indian wine table I was manning for a while and exclaiming they didn’t know India produced wines. The Show offers an opportunity to the local novices for whom Indian wines are still a novelty and exotic and the producers to help popularise Brand India.
The public is encouraged to interact with the judges and debate and discuss about any wine. They can even guess the trophy winners and if correct answers are given, they could win a case of wine. Each day had a lucky draw at 8 pm before the close of the evening where several attractive prizes were given away. Debra Meiburg who is an educator at heart says she had got the idea a few editions ago to use up the wines that were poured and help people taste and understand the wines. Judges of course are happy to cross exchange views with the visitors some of whom have high proficiency in wines. She seemed very pleased with the full house everyday with many participants engaged in serious discussions and a few perhaps acquiring free knowledge and experience as well, picking the brains of experts. A table with wines with faults helps the tasters learn about wine faults as well.
You be the Judge
 An interesting sideline of this year’s competition was an additional event on one evening when about 20 staff members of Cathay Pacific Airlines got together under the stewardship of Simon Kriss, their wine expert who judges on one day as a guest judge. They were given a quick view of how the judging is done. Four groups were formed, one of them being under my charge. Not only over 20 wines were judged by the panels that debated and discussed which wines should get which medals. They were also exposed to a couple of faulty wines to let them understand that a very important part of the judging is to pinpoint the faults in a wine. The event was thoroughly enjoyed by the participants and possibly, it would be incorporated as a regular feature from next year.
The results will be announced at The Hong Kong International Wine and Spirits Fair to be held from 5th – 7th November and on the HKIWSC website (www.hkiwsc.com). The Trophies will be awarded at a Gala Dinner held at the exhibition venue on the opening night of the Show.
May the best wines win the Trophies and Gold Medals and I wish all Indian wines luck with a concluding piece of advice to take part as much as possible in the food and wine section and definitely in the Indian food section. If non- Indian wines keep winning the trophies, Indian producers may not have a leg to stand with their hypothesis that Indian food goes best with Indian wines.
Subhash Arora |