Tasting Report: Great Wines of Bordeaux Hong Kong

Great Wines of Bordeaux in Hong Kong finished over a month ago, but I was thinking about all the wonderful and incredibly drinkable wines poured during the two-day event. About 100 wines were never reviewed on my website, so here they are.

Please check out the coverage of the event with some wonderful videos and music.

A range of vintages was served from 1998 to 2010. Most were vintages such as 2006, 2004, and 2001. These three years produced reds that are balanced and refined with classic Bordeaux character. They show so much subtle fruit character, freshness, and palate tension.

I am particularly fond of the 2001 vintage for drinking now. These are wines that are drinking beautifully. The Right Bank, especially Pomerol, really excelled in 2001. Some are better quality in 2001 than 2000.

I was happy to see so many 2003s drinking well at the event in Hong Kong. I have been a little worried with the evolution of the wines after being so impressed with them -- especially those from the Left Bank -- when they were young. I am happy. The wines served at the event showed the very ripe and rich character of the vintage, but they maintained a freshness that one expects in Bordeaux. These are wines to drink now or hold.

The reds from 2000 were even better to drink at the event. They illustrated how the wines from 2000 are now coming into their own after years of being rather reserved and shy. Even the top growths of Bordeaux are now opening up and showing their fabulous quality. This is why the 2000 vintage remains one of the most popular years in Asia for Bordeaux after the heralded 1982.

Two-thousand-five will ultimately be a better vintage than 2000, but most of the top wines are still very tight and not showing their true quality. This said, most of the 2005s served at the event were drinking very well, especially some of the lesser know estates such as Chateau Senejac from Haut-Medoc and Domaine de l’A Castillon from Cotes de Bordeaux. The 2005 is truly a great year where just about every wine from every estate was very good to outstanding quality.

The whites of Bordeaux -- both sweet and dry -- were extremely popular at the Great Wines of Bordeaux, even though so many wine merchants believe that whites are unpopular in Hong Kong as well as China. People were lined up to taste the whites of Smith-Haut-Lafitte, Haut-Brion and many others. The 2001, 2003, and 2005 Sauternes were eye-openers for many. The superb quality of these wines underlined how underappreciated the dense and concentrated wines are in most parts of the world, including Asia.

Below are wines that have not been posted on my site yet. For a complete list of the wines from Great Wines of Bordeaux in Hong Kong that were served, please refer to these PDFs that list the wines by producer as well as vintage and score.