2 Good Bottles of Wine in Hong Kong

Lately, work has been a little crazy. Been working until quite late on many days, but then, I guess the upside to that is, time seems to fly by rather quickly since I am just too tied up at work. However, good things about the projects that I am on right now is that I can take lots of the work home and do it there, instead of been tied down in the office. Opening a bottle of wine around midnight and doing some work, while listening to some music, isn't a bad way for time to go by, and before you know it, it would be 4am in the morning, good times.

One of the wine I tried lately is Château Gassier Côtes de Provence 2001, a bottle of wine that I picked up in Hong Kong for roughly US$15.35, which is really quite cheap given how most wines cost like at least US$20, even some of the ones that will sell for like $10 in the US. The wine is a blend of of Syrah, Grenache and Cabernet Sauvignon. There is a slight note of currant, but very faint. I noticed a dinstinct smell of the countryside with this wine (some sort of rustiness). Slight faint cherry sweetness on the note as well which gets stronger as the wine sits in the glass for a little longer. Silky smooth on your tongue, with sweetness of currant taking center place. A pleasant wine, easy to drink with lots of fruit flavors, but need to be decanted for a little bit, perhaps half an hour. B category wine.

Another wine that I tried lately as well, is the Château Le Reyssac Bergerac Sec 2003, a white Bordeaux wine. This wine is composed of 20% Sauvignon Blanc, 70% Semillon and 10% Muscadelle. Also another good value wine for the price, especially in Hong Kong, costing only approximately US$12.77. Note is peach intermixed with lemon and a little bit of grapefruit. Taste of honey, lemon, quince and stone fruit. Dry wine but felt sweet because of the fruity, albeit faint, note and the loaded of fruit on the palate. Another easy to drink wine. I think this wine deserves a B+, or maybe only a B, but it was a Friday night and I was happy that I got to get home before 10pm, haha, which might have skewed my judgement a little bit.

First Wine Review in Hong Kong - Roshambo 2000 Syrah

After moving to Hong Kong for about a month and a half, I finally opened a bottle of wine at home. It is not like I have not drank wine in Hong Kong yet, but far from it, since many times when my lovely employer took out its employees to many of lunches or dinners, there are always wine there. However, I just have not opened a bottle of wine at home yet, especially from one of my collection that I brought with me in New York.

I moved my wine here by regular transit, which isn't exactly the best conditions for wines to spend in for 6 weeks. However, it would have been hard for me to get my firm to pay for air-conditioned, temperature controlled shipment just for my wine, I thought, oh well, what the hell, lets take the risk. Fortunately, I thought the wine tasted much better this time around than the first time I drank this wine earlier this year in February. The wine was 2000 Roshambo Syrah Dry Creek Valley.

I opened this bottle on a slow Friday night, after getting home from work and eating dinner at home around 10pm, with a business trip looming the next day. I thought the wine had good aromatic note of roast coffee and plum (which I didn't notice at first, but became pretty apparant after the bottle is opened for a while). Even later, the note of violets started to appear as well. Flavor of smoke dominates the wine and the fruit was overpowered. A hint of spice but I thought it was little bitter, similar to the first time I had this wine. I don't think there are enough substance or fruit to compensate the bitterness. Finish is decent, and there is a lingering eucalyptus taste, a little minty, a little mediciny, but pretty interesting. I thought this wine was B- when I drank it this past February, but I am now bumping this up to a B just because of the eucalyptus tasting finish (which I did not notice the first time). However, the bitterness killed the score a little, but good thing the bitterness didn't carry to the finish.

Hey, I just realized that my fridge is really small. My unfinished bottle of wine wouldn't be able to stand up in my fridge in one of the side holders in the fridge that people put milk and juice in. It would have fit, but with the addition of the winestopper, it doesn't fit. This is horrible . . . . I think I need a better place, but at least I am saving money . . . Which might end up going to the high wine prices here, so I might no come out that ahead . . .

Oh yeah, if anyone is coming to Hong Kong, can I trouble you to bring me two bottles of wine? =)

My Apartment is TOO Small

My stuff arrived from New York to HK this past weekend, and I pretty much spent the whole weekend cleaning up my place and putting everything in its proper place. However, it is quite difficult as my current apartment now is about less than 1/2 the size of my old apartment, and even though I didn't bring over everything, I am not sure whether I can fit it all into my new apartment in HK. Apparently though, I can, after a weekend of cleaning. However, I think because of the amount of stuff that I had, things look a little cramped in the apartment right now. Perhaps if I took out all the grabage and when there are not stuff littering on the floor anymore, then it will look decent. However, I still have a couch and also a dining table to come in, and that just might cramp things up even more. Also, many of the things I have to put it into the one bedroom that I have designated as storage room, since I cannot take them out of boxes and I have no other room or cabinet space to put all those stuff. I really should have gotten a bigger place . . . .