Natural wine? Is there artificial wine then?

The latest buzzword in the wine circle is natural wine. Natural wine bars frequented by young hipsters are popping up around the world. What’s the fuss?

First of all, look at this. There are many yeast strains in our environment. When grapes, or any fruits, are left unattended, yeasts ferment sugar in grapes and turn it into alcohol. The process of fermentation, therefore, is natural. However, depending on the yeast strains that react with sugar, the resulting wine can be very different, some palatable and some funky or even undesirable. Whatever the quality, the final product is often cloudy with sediments, and eventually turns into vinegar because of oxidisation or bacteria spoilage.

When man commercialised wine, they planted vineyards in manageable manner to control quality and quantity. In the wineries, they used cultured yeasts – selected strains of natural yeast – to make sure pleasant wine is produced. Natural fining agents such as egg white and gelatine derived from fish bladders were used to combine with the suspended particles in wine to form bigger precipitates that can be filtered from wine, thereby making the wine bright, clear and visually pleasing. To make sure the wine has a longer life, winemakers added sulphites to protect the wine from oxygen and microbial spoilage. The entire fermentation is still natural and the products used to ensure the quality standard are also natural.

As the demand of wine increases, producers use chemicals in vineyard to increase yield and protect the vines from disease, just like all other agricultural products. Synthetically produced fining agents replace real egg whites and fish bladders. Winemakers may use yeast nutrients (ammonia products) to ensure a smooth and thorough fermentation, and control factors such as fermentation temperature and extraction. They may also ferment or age wine in different materials containers such as stainless steel tanks or wood barrels to make fruitier or more complex wine. The fermentation process is still natural but man exerts more control in the process to maintain quality.

Today, the term natural wine has no official definition. It is an approach to vine growing and winemaking that vines are farmed organically, biodynamically or sustainably; and wine is made hands-off without the aid of cultured yeasts, fining agents and filtration. Sulphites may or may not be added to final wine. The quality of wine ranges from pleasant, fresh and pure, to gamey, sour and foul. A few things for sure are that natural wine has no vanilla or cinnamon aromas as they are not aged in new barrels, and they cannot be stored for a long time because of no or minimal preservatives.

To me, all wines, whether using inorganic or biodynamic farming, wild or cultured yeasts, synthetic fining agents or without fining, with our without sulphites, are all naturally made. The rise of natural wine is like an anti-establishment movement. Consumers are fed up with mainstream, industrial products and embrace alternatives. It is like hippies lifestyle in the 70s and to a certain extent, the election of non-mainstream government all over the world.

There are both good and bad conventional and ‘natural’ wine. Drinking ‘natural wine’ is a lifestyle choice but consumers must know how to identify bad ‘natural wine’ rather than blindly accept it as ‘natural’. Producers who label their wine ‘natural’ to disguise fault are cheating consumers outright.

I am not against natural wine and in fact I love the well-made natural wine. But thinking out loud, I wonder if ‘natural wine’ will still be cool if its quality becomes more predictable, more consumers accept it and it eventually becomes mainstream. Maybe another style of wine will takeover?

Glass bottle recycling mentality in Hong Kong

Hong Kong has more than its fair share of waste even for our 7 million population. In 2012, the world’s cities generated some 1.3 billion tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW), equivalent to 1.2kg per city dweller per day. And Hong Kong? We produce 1.36kg of MSW per person per day on the domestic side. Shouldn’t we all be ashamed, especially when our neighbours are much less wasteful –Taipei at 1.00kg/person/day and Tokyo at 0.77kg/person/day?

Focusing on glass, Hong Kong, at 3%, has the lowest glass recycling rate among developed countries, compared to 90% in Germany, 70% in South Korea and 44% in the UK. The rest of the glass goes into Hong Kong's three landfills, which are predicted to be filled to capacity by 2015, 2017 and 2019.

We wine lovers generate significant amount of glass: dinners for 6-8 people with 10-15 bottles opened are not uncommon, not to to mention the truck loads of empty bottles collected at the end of wine events (Wine & Dine, Hong Kong Wine Fair, and the coming Vinexpo). Isn’t it our duty, therefore, to help solve the problem?

The Hong Kong Wine Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce recently held a seminar on the Government's proposal for ‘A producer responsibility scheme on glass beverage bottles’ with Dr Alain Lam, Principal Environmental Protection Officer of the Environmental Protection Department, as speaker explaining the scheme, which is a part of the much bolder ‘Hong Kong Blueprint for Sustainable Uses of Resources 2013-2022’.

Under the ‘polluter pays’ principle, a recycling fee of about HK$1/litre of beverage content is proposed. Furthermore, the Government suggests that this fee be collected at the supplier level, ie. importers, as this would be much easier to monitor and more effective than trying to do it at the retail or consumer level.

While most in the audience supported the recycling initiative, some were concerned about the who and when to pay, and the associated operational costs. From what I understand, these concerns have been largely addressed. Dr Lam stressed that the fee is only collected on first sale, and re-export sales are exempted. To illustrate, an importer who brings in ten 20ft containers (about 120,000 bottles) of wine, re-exports eight containers to China within two months, and only eventually sells 2 pallets (about 2,400 bottles) in Hong Kong over the next six months, he only needs to pay HK$2,400 after 6 months, not HK$120,000 as some think.

As to when to pay this recycling fee, the Government suggested a reasonable period of say 30 days after submitting the record. Some thought this too short as they might not have received payment from their customers yet. But if the submission is only made say every quarter, this means importers only need to pay the January recycling fee in April, and I’m sure most importers should have received payment by then. And since the recycling fee is a levy charged by the Government and will be passed along the supply chain anyway, importers can always ask customers to pay it on delivery while normal payment terms apply to the cost of the wine. This is only a matter of changing habits and I’m sure it is doable.

To monitor payment the Government would require importers to register. Some smaller traders voiced concern about the registration fee and subsequent administrative work. Again, Dr Lam emphasised that registration is free. And every company, no matter how small, already needs to keep sales records. So I really don’t think the extra workload requires the employment of an army—a slight modification to existing spreadsheets and maybe one more entry line on the invoice may do the trick.

There were others who worried about consumer education, wondering in particular whether the collected glass would really be recycled or would in fact eventually end up in the landfills anyway. On this I do think the Government is eager to make it right. They have a major problem in Hong Kong running out of landfill space, so the last thing they want is for waste to sneak back there. With the introduction of the MSW charging scheme, the expansion of glass collection points, and the broadening of possibilities for using recycled glass (eco-pavers, partition blocks, pre-cast concrete products and terrazzo tiles according to research carried out by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University), I think, and I do hope, this will not be a major issue.

One optimistic suggestion from the floor was that perhaps the wine industry should be exempted because most of us like to collect empty bottles for display. Well.... only if we drink rare and trophy wines every day!

The simple truth is that we Hong Kongers waste too much. Look at all the nearly new television sets consigned to the dump just because an even bigger model came out. And why do bakeries have to put each individual bread bun in a plastic bag and then put the whole lot in another plastic bag? The plaintive arguments of those who say it’s all too hard in Hong Kong are feeble. Cutting out waste at source and recycling vastly greater amounts of all kinds of stuff (glass included) can be done if Governments and citizens put their minds to it. Many, many countries around the world have proved it, and Hong Kong’s efforts look embarrassing and shameful in comparison.

You could say it is bad timing for the Government to introduce this programme now because, sadly, most of us don’t trust them much these days, so whatever they say, even the good ideas with good intentions, we tend to object. Well, let’s give them some credit on this one. There will never be a ‘good’ time to start wasting less and recycling more. You just have to start. Improve things by 5% a year and things will look very different in a decade’s time. We are lucky to live in a city with one of the lowest tax burdens in the world. We can afford to pay a bit to push waste management and recycling up to more respectable levels. I think we should stop moaning, stop being selfish, give the Government a chance and do our bit to improve our living environment.

For those who genuinely want to reduce waste, check out HK Recycles. They collect your recyclables every week for a small fee.

Source:
Department of Civil and Structuring Department, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Environmental Protection Department, Hong Kong
Green Glass Green
Hong Kong Recycles
The Economist

Towards a Hong Kong wine culture

I believe Hong Kong has great potential. However, although we drink the most wine in Asia (an annual 5 litres per capita), which is double that of the Japanese and five times as much as the Mainland Chinese, we are still trailing far behind other countries—only half of what the Americans drink (and 50% of Americans do not drink alcohol at all for religious and other reasons). Wine consumption in Hong Kong has been increasing ever since our Government abolished wine duties in 2008 but the growth rate is not fast. I, and most of us in the wine industry, drink over 100 litres per year, meaning that each of us is drinking for 20 people! I see two issues in Hong Kong: there are not enough real consumers, and those (I mean real consumers) who drink do not drink enough. The challenge to wine producers, therefore, is how to persuade the average Hong Kong consumers to drink more.

From a marketing perspective, Hong Kong is different from other countries. Whereas in most markets the entry level segment is the biggest, that is not the case in Hong Kong. We have a disproportionately big luxury/investment wine category at 28% by volume. And the biggest market by far is the mid-market, from HK$120 to HK$600 per bottle retail, with 60% (Debra Meiburg MW 2012 Hong Kong Wine Trade Guide). So for consumers who are interested in wine, price seems not to be a major concern. This might be explained by the ‘work hard, play hard’ altitude of most Hong Kong residents. We reward ourselves. Just look at the number of Michelin-starred restaurants in the city, and they are always full.

It seems that, unlike in other cash-strapped cities, Hong Kong people are willing to spend.  So why don’t more people drink? What it boils down to is that people just don’t understand wine. And, we in the industry don’t make it any easier for them. We talk technical stuff like tannin and acidity and we make them feel stupid if they can’t pronounce ‘terroir’ properly. In other words, we put consumers off wine by being too professional.

To make wine truly popular, we need to make it enjoyable. Coke is a highly precise drink with the exact same amount of syrup and pressure in every can, but the company doesn’t bother consumers with this. Consumers enjoy Coke because it is refreshing and they explore the different flavours and brands of soft drink to find their favourite. Starbucks didn’t lecture us about the correct temperature at which to drink coffee when they first came to Hong Kong, and now see how many coffee bars there are here! Wine may be slightly more complicated because of the many grape varieties and producing countries but it’s not impossible to make it simple and accessible. How about light and refreshing, soft and fruity, chewy and spicy, bold and savoury? These are descriptors that any consumer can grasp and imagine.

We don’t have a wine culture but we can develop one. We love food and we understand flavour pairings—look at all the different kinds of chilli sauce we have. So food is the logical key to introduce wine to consumers. But not those stiff, technical pairings that again put people off. Fongyee Walker, a friend and wine consultant based in Beijing, says that the Chinese always describe a meal as being comfortable or uncomfortable. They like enjoying food with friends and without worrying too much about manners. Food and wine pairing gives an excuse for consumers to try wine in a relaxed environment and build their confidence. A Chilean Pinot Noir can be just as good as a Barossa Shiraz to match with stir-fried beef with noodles in black bean sauce. It all depends on the individual consumer’s preference.

We eat Chinese meals most of the time but, sadly, not many mid-market Chinese restaurants offer wine. I hear lots of excuses, but I wish and hope that Chinese restaurateurs will one day soon realise the potential of having wine on the menu. The wine list doesn’t need to be long and winding—six to eight is adequate to start with—but the wine must be of good quality. People may not be able to tell the difference between wine varieties, but they know when a wine is not good. For me, a wine by the glass programme is the ideal way to start. It’s all about quality, not quantity. And in fact a few pioneer outlets have already demonstrated that having wine available not only increases their turnover but also customers’ loyalty.

We didn’t drink cappuccino 20 years ago, yet now the espresso machine is a trendy home appliance. I believe it’s only a matter of time before wine will be a normal item on the dinner table. After all, it’s a much better match for food than lemon tea!

The industry must unite to develop the wine culture. This is the only way to sustain a heathy market, benefiting everyone from producers and importers to restaurateurs and consumers.

The perfect wine glass

A few weeks ago, I was asked, as a winemaker, to comment on these questions: How important or otherwise it is to have the ‘right’ glass for a specific grape variety? Are expensive wine glasses worth the money? Is there a simple, standard glass which we could use at home? Is glassware a subject which interests winemakers?

Not only does the booming wine market in Hong Kong bring in more wine from different parts of the world, it also attracts glass producers from left right and centre. Riedel and Baccarat have been in the market for a long time and now we also have newcomers Lucaris from Thailand and Plumm from Australia. Do we really need to have ten different shapes of wine glass at home to enjoy our collection from Chardonnay to Cabernet?

While we can drink wine from any vessel, a suitable one should be odourless so you can smell the aroma, colourless so you can access the colour and age, clean with no residues of detergent otherwise legs or tears will be created along the side of the glass. It should not be too thick as that might distort the clarity. Thin-edged glass also helps create a finer stream of wine that runs across our tongue. A stem would be nice for holding the glass so you don’t warm up the wine unintentionally. The ideal shape is a tulip—a rounded bowl to aid swirling without spilling and releasing aromas, and an inward-sloping wall to trap the aromas. Any glass that fits these criteria will do. In fact, you can see that most wine glasses in the market share these features.

It is true that the same wine may smell different in different glasses because of the order in which the aromas emerge, but this is only on the initial impression. Some suppliers insist that different shapes direct the wine to the optimum position on our tongue where we can taste the most of the wine. I think these claims are exaggerated as our tongue only has four senses: sweetness, saltiness, sourness and bitterness. When we sip a wine, we let it flow around in our mouth. We think we can taste more because the aromas rise to the back of our nose to the receptor that handles the sense of smell. Our brain then interprets the smell in conjunction with the taste and touch impression from the mouth, leading us to believe we can taste citrus, strawberries, spices, and so on. I have attended several glassware tastings and to be honest, I find the differences insignificant.

To quote Michael Schuster, an expert wine taster and author, 'I don’t believe (the glass) affects the way we perceive a wine’s most important attributes after the initial attack. ie. texture, aromatic interest, length across the palate and the qualities and persistence of the finish. My wife Monika and I use Riedel stemware because it is the most beautiful range available to the wine-lover, but the limited selection we have is chosen on the basis of shapes and sizes we like, rather than on what we are likely to drink.' I believe this sums things up nicely.

To get the most out of a wine, it should be poured to more or less the widest part of the glass so the most aroma can be released and trapped for us to smell. Pour too full and there will be no space to trap the aroma.

One thing I would like to address is the habit some people have of swirling their wine. The bigger the glass, the more violently they swirl. This is a big mistake as all the delicate aromas will be gone after 30 seconds of vigorous swirling. Smell the wine first and only swirl a little if it is ‘closed’. The most delicate aromas can only be detected on the first sniff and without swirling. Unfortunately, too many people swirl the wine before even the first sniff. Try it yourself: take two glasses of wine; swirl one vigorously like those ‘professionals’ for 2-3 minutes; then compare its aromas with one that has not been swirled.

About 10 years ago, the standard professional tasting glass was the ISO glass. It has the ideal shape and it is small enough for a tasting portion. All wineries I visited at that time, from Stellenbosch and Barossa to Mendoza and Napa used ISO glasses. Today, they are using bigger glasses thanks to the marketing efforts of the manufacturers. But they still only use one shape for all their wines. Most critics agree that Riedel’s Chianti glass (or similar shape from other brands) is the best all purpose glass. It is important that if you are comparing and contrasting wines and varieties you should serve them all in the same shape of glass so that no wine has any apparent advantage or disadvantage—just as in a professional wine judging.

So to answer the question: no, it is not essential to stock a whole range of expensive wine glasses. Nevertheless, wine is for enjoyment, and the shape and elegance of the glass can enhance the aesthetic experience. It is like having a nice meal with the best chinaware and silver cutlery. The plates and forks do not make the food taste better but they make for a positive impression. But be careful when handling your glasses: I once broke three Riedel glasses in a row after dinner and it hurt!

Abridged version was published in the South China Morning Post on 17th May 2012

Dim sum and wine pairing

Hong Kong has many wine lovers, but a lot of them do not have wine with their daily Chinese meals, saying it is too difficult to find a single wine that  goes with all the different food flavours on the table, or that it is only a casual meal. The recent Moët Hennessy Flavour Colours Evening challenged these myths.

12 favourite dim sum dishes and 12 Moët Hennessy wines were carefully selected, each allocated to the most appropriate zone of Flavour Colours: Blond, Ivory, Tan or Brown. Guests were encouraged to mix and match different pairings within a zone. The message was that Chinese food and wine pairing was fun and easy, just go with the flavour intensity and the viable pairings are limitless. What if the food flavours on the table cover more than one zone? Well, have two glasses of wine—a blond or ivory, and a tan or brown. Sip the delicate wine with the steamed fish (蒸魚) and the powerful one with the stir fried beef with oyster sauce (蠔油牛肉). After all, we have a pot of tea and one of hot water at dim sum; surely we can have two glasses of wine in front of us.

More importantly, and this is what I firmly believe, Chinese food and wine pairing does not need to be snobbish and restricted to banquet style dinners. Wine can go with everyday food and in the most casual of settings. A glass of Shiraz with your lunch box of roasted barbecued pork rice (叉燒飯), both in the Tan zone, is much more appealing than a can of soft drink! And remember, nobody drinks Margaux or Mouton every day. There is a lot of good quality wine under HK$200 out there, and a glass of wine can be cheaper than a Starbucks latte. What's more, an opened bottle of wine can be kept in the fridge for 2-3 days without problem.

We may not have a traditional wine culture, but this should not stop us enjoying wine with our noodles and fried rice. Gourmet coffee was new to us 30 years ago and now there are speciality coffee houses on every street corner. I would love it soon to be just as common to see friends and families having their weekend dim sum brunch with wine.

Photo: courtesy of Anty Fung 

White wine - Golden wine?

For the Chinese, wine, by default, is red. There are various reasons why white wine is not popular in China: first, red is a lucky colour; second, the literal term 'white wine' in Chinese means the local white spirit made from rice, not grape wine; third, some say the Chinese simply don’t like white wine. But the last reason is not really valid—numerous blind tastings have demonstrated that they do like white wine if they can’t see the colour. So is it because of the confusion over the name? After all, the Chinese have a saying, ‘No need to fear being born on a bad date, but do fear being given a bad name’ (唔怕生壞命，最怕改壞名).

So how about calling white wine 'golden wine' (金酒)? Jasper Morris MW reckons it is a good idea, especially since white wine is not white anyway. Its colour ranges from pale lemon to deep gold. So he thinks the term may not even be appropriate in English. But I’m not sure if it isn't a touch too tacky, just like the lucky Chinese ‘eight’ character on Lafite 2008. China itself may have 1.3 billion Chinese, but there are still a lot of Chinese outside China who see nothing wrong with the term ‘white wine’. Equally, I’m sure there are many mainland Chinese who don’t want to be treated superficially.

What’s your opinion? A sensible marketing move to avoid confusion, or blatant commercialism? Please vote for your preference. Love to hear your comments or perhaps more alternatives.

Port and food pairing

When talking about pairing port with food, most of us associate it with the classic dessert matches such as chocolate, crème brûlée and cheese. Therefore, it was a pleasant surprise to see port paired with a number of savoury dishes at the recent Vintage Port Academy events. We paired foie gras terrine on toasted brioche and parma ham with a 20 year old Tawny. The acidity of the Tawny cut through the richness of the foie gras—similar to the effect of pairing sauternes with foie gras—while the nuttiness of the wine complemented the smokiness of the ham. For Chinese cuisine, try a Tawny with Peking duck or hairy crab—you'll be surprised!

We also tried wagyu beef rump, venison patties and peanut crusted duck with mango with the fruitier Late Bottled Vintage (LBV) and classic Vintage Port. The sweetness of the wine contrasted the savoury yet fragrant meat, yet the weight and flavour intensity of both food and wine were strong enough to stand up to each other, making for a very interesting pairing. This fully reflects the essence of the Flavour Colours wine and food pairing concept. I also tried pairing a Singe Quinta Vintage Port with my mum’s homemade lamb dumplings (without vinegar or chili sauce) and the result was excellent. The wine intensified the meat’s aroma without overpowering it and the food in turn toned down the sweetness and heaviness of the wine. This demonstrates how versatile port can be. I can see that port could go very well with some Chinese claypot dishes such as braised ox tail or lamb brisket.

Vintage ports are best consumed within a week or so of opening, and this deters some consumers from opening them at home. WIth all these interesting potential pairings with savoury dishes, we don’t need to worry about wasting half a bottle of port any more.

By the way, serve port in a wine glass rather than a small liqueur glass for a full appreciation of its complex aromas. After all, port is wine.

What wines go with chilli spicy dishes?

No doubt you have heard someone (probably a westerner) saying that off dry wines go well with Asian spicy dishes because they tone down the spiciness, making the food more palatable. But hang on a second. Is that what we Chinese (or Asians) want—to eat spicy dishes without the fiery or numbing sensation?

This is the main difference between the average westerner and the average Asian over spicy food. Westerners want to tame the chilli while Asians (especially South Asians) think the spicier the better.

We had lunch with Casey McClellan from Seven Hills Winery in Washington last year, and paired each of his three wines, Tempranillo, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon, with the same dish: chicken's feet in black bean sauce. Each pairing gave a very different impression. The Tempranillo was subtle but the sauce brought out the fruitiness in the wine, making it livelier but not overpowering. The Syrah had a spicy character which was accentuated by the peppery and spicy flavours of the dish, while the Cabernet was in perfect harmony with the chicken's feet, like a contented old couple. All three wines matched the dish but your ultimate choice would depend on how you like your spicy food.


While personal preference is certainly a factor, there are still basic guidelines for food and wine matching. Their styles can be contrasting (sweet vs spicy, acidic vs oily), but their intensity and body (richness) have to be compatible, otherwise one will overpower the other (check out Flavour Colours for more elaboration). We ran a spicy food/wine pairing exercise the other day and here is the verdict:

Chicken in spicy sauce (口水雞) with a Chilean Carmen Gran Reserve Chardonnay 2009: Although the wine is medium bodied with pronounced fruit, the dish was just a notch too heavy for the wine. The wine tasted thin and lost the fruit aroma after the food.

Hunan deep-fried prawns in chilli sauce with Chablis Domaine Laroche St. Martin 2009: Again the food was too heavy for the wine. It was actually better matched with the Chilean Carmen Gran Reserve Chardonnay 2009

Sautéed mutton with chilli in casserole with Chateau Croix Mouton Bordeaux Superior 2009: Unfortunately (or fortunately?) the food was too subtle (by mutton standards) and the wine was not intense. This mismatch turned out to be inoffensive but unsensational.

Sautéed spicy beef brisket in casserole and Domaine des Sénéchaux Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2007:  The intensely flavoured dish was well balanced by the equally intensely fruit-laden wine. The weight of the food and wine were spot on—seamless!

The key for pairing spicy, or indeed non spicy, food with wine? The intensity of flavour and body. Sweetness, acidity and tannins are more a matter of personal preference. So next time you have (especially Asian) food with wine, trust your palate, not what the experts have told you. Have fun experimenting with the options that wine and food matching offers!