Great Wines of Italy Erawan Bangkok

Asia’s Italian wine market is booming. How else to explain the nearly 1500 consumers and local wine trade who registered for Great Wines of Italy Hong Kong and the 1300 who registered for Great Wines of Italy Bangkok last week? Space (and wine) constraints forced us to turn away hundreds more who requested tickets.

The explosive week started in Hong Kong at the Four Seasons. The record-breaking event in the Grand Ballroom featured more than 80 prestigious Italian wine brands, wines like Bruno Giacosa, Ornellaia, and Fattoria Le Pupille. The night before Wednesdays’ grand tasting, JamesSuckling.com hosted the producers at a welcome dinner at the Michelin-rated Duddell’s and uncorked around 90 magnums and about half as many bottles of sparkling and white wines. Attendees chowed down on barbecue pork buns, mingled on the open terrace and grooved to Surahn Sidhu’s rock-and-roll tunes. Sidhu was on guitar, bass, and vocals for Empire of the Sun for several years and frequently goes on global tours.

Producers seemed keen to taste (and finish) the Barolos first and after went for the Brunello di Montalcinos. That trend repeated itself the following day during the grand tasting during both trade and consumer sessions. During the latter, the ballroom was packed within 30-minutes of the doors opening—and remained so until the very end of the tasting. Coravin, a sponsor of JS.com, was on hand demonstrating their device, as was the ocean preservation group Sea Shepherd, a charity supported by JS.com.

As soon as the event in Hong Kong ended, JamesSuckling.com boarded a red-eye to Bangkok to prepare for the same event at the Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok. As a clear sign of Bangkok’s growing premium wine market, attendance has rapidly climbed since JamesSuckling.com first hosted the event, from 500 in December 2013 to 1300 for this year. The event kicked off on Thursday with a welcome dinner for producers and invited guests and featured a tribute video to Thailand’s late king with a short violin piece of his majesty’s song “Falling Rain,” a screening of Cannubi: A Vineyard Kissed by God, which James produced in 2013, and a special piano solo by Sidhu. A seated five-course Thai dinner followed with food from Grand Hyatt’s top chef’s as well as Bangkok’s hottest young chef Ton Tassanakajon, but producers didn’t stay seated for long. They first poured their wines for those at their own table before getting up and pouring at the other tables nearby. Come Friday, it would seem as if all of Bangkok’s wine circles were buzzing and ready for the event. Doors opened at 4 p.m. and within an hour, the grand ballroom had a crowd of 400-strong. Attendees streamed in up until the end of the night.

Source: http://www.jamessuckling.com/event/great-wines-italy-asia-2016-smashes-attendance-records/?mc_cid=a5abd7117b&mc_eid=58046ef144