Of all the seminal experiences that turned me from lawyer to wine writer, one was a memorable lunch at The Tate Gallery’s Rex Whistler Restaurant ostensibly for a meeting with a local solicitor I was attempting to do business with.

My first memory was of a pristine white Burgundy so delicious that it lodged the thought in my head that there was more to life than attending court defending shoplifters and pursuing bad debts from recalcitrant Chinese restaurateurs.

Tate Britain

Last night’s Barcelona Supper Club was a consumer event with members of the public paying £40 for a chance to try their hand at carving jamón, preparing a Catalan dish and enjoying a so-called Fizzness cava ‘masterclass’. ‘It's designed to be an interactive culinary experience celebrating the best of Barcelona and Spain’, Sarah Belizaire-Butler, the account director, had told me before the event.

Why are we waiting?

I was asked to give a talk at yesterday’s forum on wine investment at the Hong Kong International Wine & Spirits Fair. I felt a reality check might be in order given that the other 5 speakers were likely to be setting out their stalls, namely Simon Staples of Berry Bros., Robert Sleigh of Sotheby’s, James Miles of Live-ex, Peter Lunzer of the Peter Lunzer Wine Fund and Ella Lister, representing Octavian. Hence a focus on the pitfalls rather than the benefits of wine investment.

Introduction

Come gather round people...

Yalumba's Jane Ferrari prepares for her masterclass

We are amused by Jane Ferrari's presumption

Joanna Simon meets and greets

Walking the Walk with David Williams

A Tasting of Château Angélus in magnum 1985 - 2009 at Farr Vintners on Tuesday 25 October 2011

In the first part of this blog post, Ron Brown talked about the Japan wine market and setting up the Japan Wine Challenge. This week, he discusses the China Wine market and the China Wine Challenge's place in it.

Feet up in Shanghai

Why and how did you decide to set up the China Wine Challenge?

I’ve just spent an eye-opening two weeks in China and Japan as a guest judge for, respectively the China Wine Challenge and the Japan Wine Challenge, not forgetting as co-chair of the International Sake Challenge. The competitions are the brainchild of Ronald Brown, a Tokyo wine merchant who’s lived and worked in the Far East for 30 years. In this first part of this interview, he talks about wine in Japan and the Japan Wine Challenge. I’ve posted the names of the trophy-winning wines (below).

I may be the last person left standing to post their Bordeaux 2010 en primeur tasting notes, but never mind. A call was made to the wine press by Jancis Robinson MW, OBE before the start of the tastings in Bordeaux back at the end of March. She asked us to get together and not to put up our tasting notes and scores on barrel samples at least until after the Bordelais had come out with their opening prices. ‘I can see that I play a part in a process that really does not benefit the consumer’ said Jancis, calling herself ‘a pawn in a game designed to part you with as much money as possible’.

This is a summary of the talk I gave at the Decanter New World Fine Wine Encounter on Saturday

A taste of Bordeaux 2010 at Château La Mission Haut-Brion: Both first growth Haut-Brion and its sister wine, La Mission Haut-Brion, are very big wines indeed in 2010. La Mission is an extraordinary 15.1% alcohol. It didn't taste hot to me though, although I marginally preferred Haut-Brion. Both are controversial this year, but I have feeling that Haut-Brion will be very good indeed.

On a Mission