Epic Wine Fail

I had been looking forward to this winery tour for a long time.  Ever since Rakesh, the owner of Platinum Wines, told me of its existence well over a month ago.  The event was organized by Wine Lovers in Hong Kong, although upon arrival none of the organizers were in attendance.  Odd.  Do they know something I don't know?

Let me back up.  Paul and I take the subway, to the bus, to an hour away little island called Ap Lei Chau.  Neither of us had been, but we had heard rumors of designer stores and to me this translated to this is going to be an awesome cute little beach town.  We arrived 2 hours before the wine event to check out the island and get some pictures for Foodie's Street View.  Fail number 1.  Ap Lei Chau is abandoned.  There were no cute stores or restaurants, although we did find one pizzeria from which we were stared at for a minutes and then ignored.  There were however, an abundance of 711s.   Feeling betrayed we sat, Diet Cokes in hand, and watched the fisher boats float by.

Looks can be deceiving

Wine time and we took a taxi, who had never heard of 8th Estate Winery (clue #1), to this industrial park where there are no stores, no people, and absolutely no signs of a winery.  We saw a similarly lost looking couple and deduced they were looking for wine too, so we wandered together until we finally found the building.  Go up an industrial elevator, down an industrial hallway, turn an industrial corner and all of the sudden you're in this beautiful tasting room.   The room is full of barrels and in the center of the room is a large dining table with 2 cheese spreads (which weren't that great and when the crackers ran out, they were never replaced.  Poor form).  We were characteristically the first to arrive so we stood around and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  After 10 or so people arrived the staff decided it would be ok for us to "try" the first wine.  Oh and did I mention this cost $180 each (~$22) and two hours of commuting?  By "try" I mean there was a little splash in the bottom of your glass, sipped once and it was gone.  And then we waited and waited and waited.  Finally enough people had gathered so we got the "tour."  The founder, Lysanne,  began the tour with a preamble "Sorry I'm so ahhhh, but it's been a whirlwind of wine events these past few weeks."  That's nice but it's 4 o'clock in the afternoon, drink a coffee and pretend like you're happy to see us.  The tour went into one room where she very generally described their wine making process.  They get their grapes from Australia, Italy and Washington, USA, so they came make wine year round.  I would like to tell you more about their wines, but that's basically all I got from the tour.  It was quickly ended with, "You guys probably want to get back to drinking, so let's go back to the tasting room."  Yes, true story, but sadly the drinking she alluded to didn't so much exist in this winery.  We tasted, literally, 3 red wines and a dessert wine, they took our glasses and we were left to stand empty handed.  When we asked if we could buy a bottle and sit outside one of the staff replied, "Ugh, well, I have some paper work to do, so you can stay til I finish that, but we don't want everyone staying."  Well ok then, we're out.

So that concludes the worst wine event I have ever been too.  Uninformative, lack of actual wine tasting, and lack of any enthusiasm from anyone at the winery.  WTF?  Who opens a winery and isn't super excited to tell everyone about it!?  PS aren't you trying to SELL your wines?  We got not even one smile from the 3 people working their, no way would I spend even a dollar here, even if the wine was superb.  (Their shiraz was actually pretty good).

New friend Nina and I out in LKF

Silver lining: We met great new friends!!  Nina and Kenny just moved here from NYC a month ago, and Kenny's co-worker/friend from Deutsche Bank, Andrew, just got here a few weeks ago as well.  We all got on so well, bonded about how much the winery sucked, so we cabbed it to Happy Valley Brew Pub for BEERS and fries.  We went out all night and made plans to meet again for Sunday Funday.  I suppose if wine tasting is going to suck, it's better to suck it together.