As Shanghai Daily’s wine columnist, I’d like to think they need me when they choose wines for an important event. The iDeal Shanghai Awards held last Tuesday proved this premise wrong. I still don’t know who choose the wines but despite my initial trepidation, I was most pleasantly surprised by the two wines served.
The rule of thumb at most big non-wine centric events is to find the cheapest wine possible, or even better get the wines sponsored. Sponsored wines are often the ones the importer can’t sell and there are usually good reasons they can’t sell the wine. Budget wise this makes sense, but this common formula for choosing wines often results in wines that are unimaginably dull or undrinkable.
In the resplendent elegance of The Rose Ballroom of The Peninsula Shanghai as guests were being seated, we were served a white wine. I examined the color, then with some unease took a sniff and a small mouthful of the wine. This was good, and just as important, it was different. The white wine like the subsequent red wine were both from Austria.
The white
Coincidentally, I’m writing this week’s abbreviated column while on an Air New Zealand flight to Auckland. Air New Zealand was one of the three winning airlines at iDeal Shanghai Awards, and one of the reasons they won are the good Kiwi wines I’m enjoying now.
