The Barossa is renowned for its full bodied reds – Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache – and characteristic whites – Riesling, Semillon and Chardonnay.  And if you are a fan, you must love the Barossa Valley Blind Tasting night organized by WineLuxe Magazine.   The night was chill, at the backyard (Vibes) of Whisk at the Mira Hotel.  I had been to Whisk quite few times while this is the first time holding up glasses there.

We walked up to the bar table with 14 bottles of wine covered with foils;  looked up to the sky and the surrounding while trying to a taste for each bottle was just fab.  It reminds me of the Bvlgari Hotel I love to go in Milan.  This outdoor area is surrounded by walls covered by plants and it’s kind of a small Eden in middle of TST.

The night was fun, fab and educational.  Hong Kong Sommelier Association Chairman Mr. Nelson Chow gave introduction of Barossa Valley at the beginning while finished up with a grand review of all the wine we had tasted at the end of night.  Thanks WineLuxe Magazine for the great night indeed!  I definitely gain much knowledge and fun there.

reminds me of the mini version of the lovely Bvlgari Hotel in Milan

1 white, 13 red of Barrosa Valley Wine to be tasted blind

Nelson Chow giving hints on the tasting

Sarah (left) Adrian (middle) and Me (photo by WineLuxe)

“Nightmare, a nightmare?”In cold sweat feeling dazed and confuse, I sat up and felt unbelievably relieved, “pew… I didn’t missed my Jazz session! yeah!”

For some funny yet cute reasons, I’ve been 24/7 few days in a roll planning ahead of my 8-days Euro trip. (Here is the stops: 1 night London, 1 night Brugge, 4 nights Paris) As a stubborn persisting one(Dr. said I am anal retentive…I wonder what’s that about..)  like I always been, I’ve been trying to compare hotels, eateries, train schedules/price, ended up can’t make up my mind booking anything…that’s where my surreal stress surfaced into nightmare.

It’s indeed a pain in ass planning ahead which is not my habit but I am quite happy to do it as I am going with someone together this time and would love to plan ahead properly with such a short time stay.   Despite I had been living in Paris for almost a year, I hardly go out for Jazz bars, but indulge in cafe, read and smoke.   This time, I’d love to make it into a Jazz bars hopping trip, which is quite satifying even just by planning it.  Here is a list I would love to share with you my pick of club/bars am going besides the Jam session one can’t miss at Les Duc des Lombards:

It was fun and somehow tasted quite a few sparkling wine, cave, champagne etc.  Highlight: most interesting and rare to me is, I tasted Dynasty’s!

“What can you get for £11,000? A new car? A very, very nice holiday? How about a single bottle of 50-year-old Glenfiddich Scotch whisky? Over 50 years, the ‘angel’s share’ – the whisky that evaporates from the cask – becomes the lion’s share, hence the price. It has notes of rose petals, green tobacco leaf and oak. Apparently.”

“A £600-per-kilogram Stilton, anyone?” @Long Clawson  offering this Stilton Gold cheese contains real gold and it costs £60 per slice!  I am glad I kind of able to afford it for my blingbling cheese lover friends!

“A century ago, champagne house Moet & Chandon’s chief ‘vigneron’ wine-maker declared 1911 an ‘année mémorable’. He wasn’t kidding. It’s remarkable. Now, in 2011, Moet have agreed to release just 11 half-cases of the 1911 Grand Vintage and one of them is available in Harrods for the oligarch-pleasing price of £60,000.”

“The brushed titanium and leather Johnnie Walker Blue Label private bar opens automatically as you approach, arcing through 180 degrees to reveal one magnum and two bottles of Johnnie Walker Blue Label and four crystal glasses. Available exclusively through Harrods, we can’t even mention the price (well, just talked to Harrods, it’s special order price @£110,000!!!) - but let’s just say there are parts of the UK where the cash would buy you a house.”

I hope the night was a special night for the bride-to-be with memories that will last for a long time.  Since our night is bit too “private” to share, I will share with you the Champ we had at least!

Chez Patrick really had great positive change on their tastefulness of food compare to last time I went. This dish is yum - burgundy escargots on king prawn velouté, garlic anis capucinno (pour by lovely chef Patrick)

Cedric Bouchard Blanc de Noirs 09's fine bubbles!! we gotta have a pop of this precious new one. I love it, the nose and the pear green apple flavors left me speechless for some moments

My personal wine note created for the bride-to-be and the girls. We had an awesome bridal shower night thanks to all of the girls effort in decoration, arrangment and most importantly wonderful cheeky companies!!

extra richness and fine bubbles like mouse! This 2009 was lovely , very floral and high toned in aroma, elegantly graceful in body with Green apples, pears with a saltier sense to the mineral. Few of us shook our head in awe seriously

I met Cedric at his vineyard 2 years ago, we got to know him,  tasted his earlier vintages and it was remarkably memorable.

Cédric Bouchard is the smallest wine property of champagne. Bouchard farms just under three hectares of vineyards.  There are two ranges; the Inflorescence wines are made from vineyards owned by Bouchard’s father, while the Roses de Jeanne wines are made from vineyards Bouchard owns himself.

Cédric comes from a Champagne family – his father is an old school grower, but Cédric does things differently.  All of his wines are single vineyard, single vintage wines, and he doesn’t not using any wood for his champagnes, preferring to ferment all of his wines in stainless or enameled steel.  This sensibility corresponds to the rest of the winemaking, which seeks to present the wines in the clearest possible manner: no chaptalization, no fining, no filtering, no cold-stabilization and no dosage. The wines go through a natural malolactic and are racked only once, just before bottling.

These are brilliant wines from minuscule yields, a non-­‐interventionist approach made by this talented, young (and very handsome!!) perfectionist.

This 2009 was lovely and with a WA score of 93+ byAntonio Galloni this bottle  really is a great value.  Just like what Antonio said, “Readers should do whatever they can to experience these magnificent wines.”!

The reason beside it’s a size bigger than normal 750ml wine bottle, it means “Bigger Than Life” to me.

I guess which including me, sometimes get confused by so many large format bottles with somehow bit complicated names, so here:  A guide to wine bottle sizes. What are the different capacities and names of wine bottles. And some fun histories where they came from.  Hope it helps.

Jacky Terrasson plays Château Palmer en Primeur 2009….

The wine released from the retired NBA star, the 2009 Yao Ming Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, will retail for $289 per bottle, remember, this is in USDollor$$ (he certainly price it ambitiously enough that it takes on an importance of its own I must say).  The debut release consists of 5,000 cases, according to Wine Spectator, and a second 500-case limited release, Yao Family Reserve, is scheduled for early next year.

His wine, which is sourced from several Napa Valley vineyards, if you had done some casual calculus before would easily figure those cases’ total revenue would comes out to something close to his $18 million salary in his final year of basketball.

The cost of a bottle certainly bite me in the wallet but hey ladies and gentlemen: It’s prestige,  celebrity, brand name and “artisan techniques” (“hand harvest” “exclusively in 100% French Oak” from their talk at the press release), even without really knowing the terroir nor real artisanship (I mean, does it matter anymore in China?) I certainly need to squeeze in and try a sip!   Anyone?