I've just come back from the Wine Future 2011 which took place this past Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
It was in every right a magnificently inspiring and star-studded affair : all the top critics in the industry, including Robert Parker Jr, Jancis Robinson, James Suckling, numerous Master of Wines, Jeannie Cho Lee, Pancho Campo, Tim Atkin, as well as wineamakers, chateaux owners gathered at the AsiaWorld Expo in Hong Kong to attend this event, which was composed of discussion panels on various topics relevant to the industry as we well as three grand tastings of wines from Spain (led by Pancho Campo MV), top wines from around the world (led by Jancis Robinson MV), and the finale, the tasting of Robert Parker's Magical 20 wines, led by Robert Parker himself.
I'm personally so proud to be a part of this.
Pancho's tasting was fun and exciting - his charisma and passion in wines could be felt from the way he presented his wines (showing videos of himself on a ferrari, harley, enjoying awesome meals and simply having a blast with the winemakers), and by the end of the night, my boss and I were already thinking of how we could get ourselves into Spain next year to source more Spanish wines. Pancho is now my newest friend on facebook. Way to go Pancho!
I also got an autographed copy of Jeannie's Mastering Wine book and had a quick chat with her. Not sure how much she'd remember me though, but I am still appeciative of her giving me time (I actually joined the industry initially because of her!).
The Robet Parker tasting was to me was the climax of the 3-day event. We tasted 20 wines from some top classifed estates in Bordeaux. The Magical 20s are said by Robert Parker to have first growth quality but are not first growths. While these 20 wines are of no surprise to many (many of us already know how good Lynch Bages, Pichon Baron, Brane Cantenac are), it is still great to have someone like RP to put a stamp on them.
I personally liked the Pontet Canet, Leoville Poyferre and Pape Clement - they were silky, feminine, intense in flavors, and went down smoothly, pretty much how I aspire to be as a woman (ehem!). The Cos d'Estournal, I actually picked up an intriguing whiff of Iberico on the nose, unlike others that had more of a creme de cassis and earthiness nose to them. Some actually had red fruit chatacteristics to them - probably due to their remarkable youthfulness? The Angelus was very elegant and aromatic. Others like Palmer, Pichon Baron and Smith Haut Lafite were very powerful - licorice, cloves, high yet sweet tannins and utter masculinity. Brane Cantenac had the nose of oak furniture, forest floor (as RP described) and personally i picked up japanese ginko nuts. All had high acidity, high but sweet tannins, great, great length on the finish and very well balanced. I was impressed but secretly wish the wines are at least 10 years older as i could already anticipate the many more characteristics that would develop. Not big on the Malescot St Exupery as while the fruits were intense on the palate and there was a tinge of almond flavor to it (which made it unique), i found the acidity and tannins over-powering and off balanced - though it really might've been just the youthfulness of the wine. LaFleur-Petrus: so lucky to have tried it and given the small quantities in the world, yesterday would probably be the only time I'll get to have some...
