last day in Hong Kong

So as my gastronomic tour of Asia continues (and my waistline expands), I thought I’d check out another famous French chef who’s set up a second home in HK – Pierre Gagnaire. His restaurant “Pierre” has been poetically described as a combination of “Parisian emotion with Eastern energy”. By happy coincidence, it is also located in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel which is where I had to go anyway for the Zachy’s auction later today. When I got there, the auction was already in full swing, but I had to eat frist as its been at least 12 hours since my last epicurean adventure !!

Gagnaire is a wizard of innovative French gastronomy. His astonishingly intricate and elaborate dishes are often described as “Modern French”, yet his style seems firmly rooted in traditional French cuisine - the result is exquisitely presented, totally original dishes. As I sat flicking through the auction catalogue, I noticed that Zachy’s were offering some “ex chateau” lots of Palmer, so to get myself in the mood, I ordered a bottle of Alter Ego 2004 to go with my “Express Lunch” of Spinach salad with Parma Ham and then some delicious Sea Bass. I love the lunch menus in these great restaurants, as they’re very often fantastic value for money, just like the Pressoir d’Argent in Bordeaux that people presume will be astronomically expensive, but is actually only 34€ ! Anyway, I digress, back to HK. The wine was fanatastic, fresh, well-stored and just how it should be ... I’m now all fired up for the auction !

Serena Sutcliffe MW, the “grande dame” of the wine auction world, said earlier this month that HK has become Sotheby’s most important wine centre, ahead of New York and London. As there were no Sotheby’s or Christies’ auctions on this weekend, I went to see what the Amercian auction house, Zachy’s, had on offer. The majority was, predictably, focused on American wines, however, they did have some rare lots of Chateau Palmer sourced from both the cellars of Mähler-Besse (co-owners of Chateau Palmer with the Sichel family) and from the Chateau itself. This has been the 10th or 12th wine auction over the last twelve months, and I was pleased to see the Palmer being sold at, or just above the high estimate. Interestingly, the bidding on the other wines was a little more inconsistent and funnily enough, one of the lots with the highest number of bidders was for a Haut Brion Blanc from an American collector. A white first growth – there aren’t many of those around.

After all of the excitement, it was time for a little retail therapy - a) to help the soul, but also b) to check out what's going on in the world of retail and work out how to expand the Wine Gallery concept.

The day ended with .. yep, more food ... this time, a fabulous Peking Duck with two very dear friends – Brenda and Weber. The happy ‘husband and wife to be’ actually came to visit me in Bordeaux earlier this year on their pre-honeymoon (see the photo of them hugging a bottle). How cool is it to have a pre and a post honeymoon ? We went to the Chinese restaurant in the American Club and Weber, like a true wine lover, brought along two magical bottles : Haut Brion 1994 and L’Evangile 1993 which were both truly, truly stunning. I wonder if he brought them all the way back from Bordeaux ?

I already can’t wait to come back and I haven’t left yet !

www.mandarinoriental.com/hongkong/dining/restaurants/pierre/
www.zachys.com/auctions/Default.aspx