There aren’t many places in the midst of Hong Kong’s concrete jungle where you’d find a newly built three-storey detached house with a great rooftop. It’s even rarer to find a rooftop stocked with a large selection of excellent wine and wine experts at the ready for a tasting. We fell in love with Natural Food & Beverage’s HQ earlier this year and were blown away with their organic wines and spirits. These guys pride themselves on sourcing wines from premium wineries from France, handpicked for their organic farming methods.
We must admit we were sceptical at first, seeing as so many products are labeled with the buzzword organic without any real merit to them that we weren’t sure how the term affected the final product. To help us understand and taste the difference in their wines, Jean-Loup and the Natural team invited us to their rooftop last month for a tasting of wine, Armagnac and a few nibbles, all sourced from France. The tastings were blind and we were given two brands each of rosé, white and red to taste from to see if we could really taste the quality without the labels.
Immediately we could taste that some wines were sweeter than others, some were darker and richer in colour and some had a lot more depth. What we found to be non-organic were the sweeter varieties and the Natural team explained the disconcerting fact that most non-organic wines have sugar added to the final product. The wines they source all comply with the principles of organic or biodynamic farming, which means the grapes have no chemical herbicides and are manually harvested in order to prevent over-handling. For a white wine, we recommend their fruity and light Chateau La Coste, perfect for a hot evening. For a red, with its deep rounded flavour, we recommend the Chateau Vieux Taillefer.
As for their Armagnac, we blind tasted their V.O.S.P. with a Cognac and found a smoother mouth feel with a strong woody note. By the end of the evening, we were all biodynamic wines and Armagnac converts and of course, the great view on the cosy rooftop helped. Word on the street is that you can pop by the Natural Food & Beverage office anytime, buy a bottle of wine and enjoy it on their rooftop. It’s useful to know if you’re ever looking for good quality wine and a space to sip it.
Natural Food and Beverage, 8 Wa In Fong East, Sheung Wan
