Micky says, “sake”, and I say “wine” to pair with dinner. On 17 July, come join us at The Fine Wine Experience, and you decide. We spent last Monday night with our good friends at Bistro du Vin under the culinary leadership of Chef Peter Teo tasting through bottles of sake and wine to pair with our meal. Now, it’s all set for you to try. Which one will you like best – sake or wine - with each dish? Or do they both work and do you like them both?

The inspiration for this dinner is my recent trip to sake breweries and spending a week drinking sake with all my meals. At the end of January this year, I flew to Nagoya with my colleague, Kat Lee, and three other sake enthusiasts from Hong Kong as well as one passionate connoisseur from Macau for a sake brewery tour beginning in Gifu and including Toyama, Ishikawa, and ending in Fukui. Our guide for our sake adventure was the incredibly knowledgeable and devoted sake professional, Micky Chan. I was the only American in our group, so for most of the time, Micky who is Hong Kongese spoke Cantonese. However, at the breweries where our hosts didn’t speak English, he and Parco, another member of our group who spoke fluent Japanese, would translate from Japanese to Cantonese. Then, Micky would translate into English for me.

My cultural differences not only revealed themselves in terms of language, but also in terms of my approach to tasting sake and my palate preferences. I taste sake in the same analytical way I taste wine, and I’m drawn to sakes with earthy, minerally qualities and delicate notes versus those with more fruit dominate characteristics.

Micky and I hope these difference will come through in our pairing selections and offer different perspectives for our dinner together. I learned more about sake on my trip because I had the opportunity to experience it and to observe the qualities that my Hong Kongese sake lovers took in from their glass. At our dinner last Monday night, Micky said to me, I think wine is like people – it represents those that are direct and is more prone to clash with different dishes. Whereas, he said sake is like people that are humble; sake wants to agree and match the food.

Below is our menu for the evening. We are keeping the pairings as a surprise until the evening of the dinner. Micky will be curating premium sakes for his pairings (the average price range is HKD 600-800 per bottle); he will include sakes that are difficult to find in Hong Kong. I will be using a similar approach to the wine selection, with a range of fine wines both young and old This dinner is intimate as we want the attendees to have lots of opportunity for discussion as we go through each pairing. Micky and I look forward to sharing our love of sake and wine pairing with you. 

Menu by Chef Peter Teo of Restaurant Bistro du Vin

Grilled Maine Lobster,
Cold Angel Hair, Konbu
***
Duck Rilette
Herbs Salad, Toast
***
Crispy Scales Amadai
Leeks, Seaweed Velouté
***
Char Grilled Australian Wagyu Bavette (9+ marbling),
Watercress Salad, Horseradish
***
Creme Brulée

Micky Chan – DipWSET, 酒サムライ, CS, CSW, きき酒師 (SSI)
JSS Overseas Support Desk (Asia) & Ch. Mercian Brand Consultant

 
Mr. Micky Chan is actively involved in the Wine and Sake industry covering the Greater China area, as educator, social media, writer, international judge and industry consultant. 
He is the co-founder of the Hong Kong Wine Academy and the Japanese F & B magazine – “Umai”.

Micky is the first certified educator of SSA & WSET Award in Sake in HK. In 2017, he was appointed as “Overseas Support desk (Asia)” by Japan Sake & Shochu Makers’ Association, which link up the Asia Sake market and Japanese sake industry. He is also the second Chinese to receive the “Sake Samurai” title by the Sake Samurai Association.

Micky participates in various international competitions, which include International Wine & Spirit Competition (IWSC), International Wine Challenge (IWC), Berlin Wine Trophy & Asia Wine Trophy, moreover, the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Wine & Spirit Competition.