It was with heavy hearts (and heavy bags of wines) that the Hong Kong team plodded round to a nearby Japanese restaurant last week for the farewell dinner of the inimitable Miss Jessica Law who left Farr on Friday 19th after 4 years with the company. True to form our departure was delayed by Jessica deftly juggling last minute customer calls and getting in the final sales order for the day. Once we finally got there drinking the wine certainly helped lighten the bags but it was only the promise of future visits and social calls from Jessica that helped lighten our hearts – well nobody could stay down through any evening that started with Dom Perignon.
After the wandering and resourceful eyes of some staff recognised the capsules of the wrapped bottles last time, Jo was even more meticulous in keeping the identity of the reds secret for this occasion.
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First up was the Dom 2000 showing the fruity flavours of peach and apricot with some of the creamy, vanilla notes which really differentiate this from the crisper more acidic 02 which we were fortunate enough to taste when Stephen was last in Hong Kong. Next we tried Domaine de Chevalier Blanc 06, amongst all the citrus and green fruit flavours and aromas picked up by the team the most regularly heard was green melon. The wine matched the seafood starters very well and we were soon settled in for the blind tasting of the reds.
The first flight of 3 came with two clues, two of the wines were the same Chateaux and two were the same vintage. The respective pairs indicated from Jo’s clues were identified, with a 2007 and 2005 Phelan Segur being the same Chateaux, and the other wine being a mystery 2005. Even with the use of our collective taste buds, pooled knowledge (and a discrete bit of Google) none of us managed to guess the Fiefs de Lagrange which was universally enjoyed and is great for drinking now. This second wine is on sale at 180 GBP / case and certainly makes for a great value everyday drinking wine.
A further hint from Jo suggested that we hurry up and finish this flight as there was something special to come next. Glasses were duly emptied and we waited to see what would be in the next round. The third wine clearly stood out of these three, although it took Jo’s clue about the Burgundian style displayed to guide us to identifying it as 2005 Tetre Roteboeuf. This was the first time I’d tried anything from this Chateaux and it was an excellent first impression – the velvety smoothness and long finish drawing out the cassis flavours in a delightful fashion.
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Our attention was next, almost reluctantly, re-directed to the other two wines in this flight. The first was a Lagune 05 which has was well received, but again it was only identified with difficulty – those capsule clues were such a help last time! The middle wine of the flight was Pichon Baron 05 which was initially tight but when it opened the classic flavours of cassis, camphor and leather came through and were enjoyed by many.
The wines were certainly the focus of the dinner, but the purpose of the evening was to bid farewell to Jessica. However, there was also some good news that week, so ‘with an auspicious eye and a dropping eye’ we took the opportunity to welcome Joyce Tsui to the Hong Kong team at the end of her first week in the office. From the Dom Perignon right the way through to the Tetre Roteboeuf the wines delivered a memorable setting in which to say goodbye to Jessica and welcome to Joyce.
