trip to hong kong

I spent 4 busy days in Hong Kong last week with Altruistic Wines, our Hong Kong importer.  They put on an amazing wine festival to showcase the U.S. boutique wines they are bringing into Hong Kong.  It was the first annual festival with many more expected to come.  The festival started on Thursday night with a dinner at BLT Steak at the Ocean Terminal of the Kowloon neighborhood of Hong Kong and officially ended with a black tie gala dinner on Saturday night in the ballroom at the JW Marriott Hong Kong.  In between on Friday was  the big Grand Festival tasting for   the trade and general public held at the Marriott.  Sunday was a more low key day with an informal brunch and dinner with a little time for site seeing before flying home at night.  The dinner on Thursday night at BLT Steak was actually prepared by three celebrity chefs from the US (Ken Frank of La Toque in Napa, CA, Josiah Citrin of Melisse in Santa Monica, CA, and Hosea Rosenberg of Jax Fish House in Boulder, CO) and so we did not get to eat off the famous BLT steak menu but had a fabulous meal paired with select Altruistic imported wines nonetheless.  Saturday night featured the entertainment of Michael Wong, a US native who moved to Hong Kong and has become a huge movie and singing star there.  Our 2007 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir was served at Saturday night's Gala dinner paired with one of the courses (again artfully prepared by Ken Toque, Josiah Citrin, and Hosea Rosenberg).  Our 2007 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir was also included in one of the many auctions of the night to raise money for the Cancer Fund.  We donated a 1.5L (magnum) and it was included in a trio of magnums that raised about $500 US for the fund!  It was a truly memorable trip as I met many interesting people (including a woman who owns a vineyard in China that produces 120,000 cases of wine each year and it is all consumed in China!).  It was my first trip to Asia and not my last, I hope.  I posted some pictures from my trip on our Facebook Fan Page if you want to see some of what I experienced.  -- by John