busy few days filled with late nights, early mornings and little time for updates !I met up with Bryan again on Friday evening, but this time with all of his banking colleagues ! We shared another two great wines - Bahans Haut Brion 2000 and Pavillon Rouge du Chateau Margaux 2003.
Grace (see picture) and Bryan’s other colleagues really enjoyed these wines – luckily I’d brought two bottles of each. We also had a really interesting discussion on wine storage/transportation and how they are offer disappointed by some of the wines that they taste. When you think about all the variables involved with wine tasting/drinking, I really do think that it’s
inexcusable for the quality to be affected due to careless shipping. This makes me realise how lucky we are to have the Bordeaux Winebank behind us – they’re one of the biggest ex chateau suppliers and store all their wines in Bordeaux until needed. Yet another reason why a Wine Gallery could work here, as all of our wines would be in tip top condition.Anyway, back to dinner. Both wines were stunning and we enjoyed them over dinner at a small “Parisien Bistro” called LE BISTRO DE L’OLIVIER (www.maggie.com.tw). People are just crazy for classical French food and wines out here. It was a great meal and a good change for me, as I know
that there’ll be plenty of yummy Chinese food in the days to come!Yesterday (Saturday) was my last day in Taipei and it started out with an incredible tasting experience of coffee, rather than wine. Seriously, I tasted “First Growth” coffee presented by international coffee judge Mr. Izuru Mikami, who is married to Sherry - one of Bryan’s colleagues – which just goes to show how far a network can take you :)
Haaya Gourmet Coffee (www.haaya.com.tw) is the coffee shop owned by Mikami and Sherry, and the menu doesn’t just give information on the country and region, it even gives the name of
the coffee farm and the variety of the Arabica beans!Mikami showed us in detail how selective he is when choosing coffees (see photo) which shows coffees being handpicked and sorted just like in Bordeaux ! He let us taste five outstanding examples - the last two even come from special coffee auctions where only the best beans can be found. Its a whole new world !
· Guatemala - Genuine Antigua "Finca Santa Catalina" Bourbon 0809
· Indonesia Sumatra Lington "LCF Platinum Mandheling" 0809
· Ethiopia - Wild Yirgacheffe Natural Beloya 0708 Wild
Species· Panama - Horqueta "Don Julian" Pacamala Auction Lot 0809
· Panama - Volca "Carmen Estate" Caturra Auction Lot 0809
I want to say a huge thank you to Bryan and his fun banker friends (I wish bankers in France were as cool as this) and also to Mikami and Sherry for giving us such an incredible coffee tasting experience!
I’m heading for Hong Kong now and will report back in a few days!
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