I started tasting red wine since 1998. In these years, I have tasted broad range of vintages from different regions. In the beginning, I systematically followed the tasting course of red wine book. This was important since you gained a wide scope of wine knowledge. Now I have my own sense of picking red wine from the wine list in restaurant and from wine cellar. There is certainly some restriction but generally no fixed pattern of matching fine wine and food. Just use your imagination to compose your cuisine with wine. I found Chinese food could perfectly match with French red.

I consume red wine almost every week throughout these years. It is worth to write down some taste notes from now and share with you. I hope this taste note could help you on selecting wine. It is exciting to discover the treasure of reasonable price bottle against the well-known fine wine. We appreciate the small chateau owners who pursue fine wine making methodology. No preservative, no filtering, no artificial.

The basic reading material of serving a bottle of wine such as using the right glasses, decanting, wine storage or even more professional wine tasting notes (Robert Parker’s book, couple of inches thick) could be found in bookstores. My list is just my history.

Miguel Torres . Santa Digna . Cabinet Sauvignon 2001 Chile . Curico About USD6.5 without tax (60% wine tax in Hong Kong) This estate is under the same management as Torres of Spain. This wine has classical Cab favor, long length and great aftertaste. Maybe a bit lost in inner structure, making it less firm in body. Dry and lime, but smooth tannin flattens the sweet sign and indicates spicy background. At least one hour decant. I enjoyed it with Chinese fried disc of pigeon. Miguel Torres . Gran Coronas . Cabinet Sauvignon 1998 Spain About USD10 without tax The wine is beautiful made with enjoyable acidity of the grape. Soft and slight subtle tannin make it an mystery aftertaste experience, extreme excursion between acidity and tannin. Overall structure is good but maybe less complex. Good for ordinary dinner at this value." Hollick . Cabinet Sauvignon . Merlot 2000 Australia About USD13 without tax Usually I found Australia wines, especially Cabinet Sauvignon, are too strong, powerful for me. Although there are some exception which is subtle, such as Wolf Blass Black Label Cabinet Shiraz and more of high price. However Hollick is high value at fair cost. French alike style appearence of dense and rich taste. Fragrant smell just like wine from Margaux. The Merlot make the body round and ripe. 2001 has been mature enough. I just need half an hour to decant so it is ready for instant drink. The only missing part is the lack of tannin; otherwise the structure is more firm.

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