Celebrating 15 years of Hong Kong’s first wine competition

Hongkongers love wine, but it hasn’t always been the easiest indulgence. For years, an 80 per cent duty meant that options were limited and rather expensive. But in 2007, the Hong Kong SAR Government halved the wine duty, before completely abolishing it the following year. As a result, the city became the first economy with a free wine port – and tastings, events and auctions sprung up across the city.

“It became clear that we needed an Asian-based professional wine competition,” says Master of Wine Debra Meiburg, who founded the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Wine & Spirit Competition (HK IWSC) in 2008. With Cathay Pacific as its title sponsor, the Hong Kong wine competition invites producers from around the world to submit their wines for the opportunity to win awards. Here, the focus is on reflecting regional tastes, rather than the preferences of international judges.

“We felt establishing a competition with Asian judges was necessary to select the best wines suited for our markets,” says Meiburg, who also consults on the wine lists available on Cathay Pacific flights. “For this, we needed to select, train and mentor a pool of Asian wine judges – the vast majority of whom had never judged a professional competition before.” Now, celebrating its 15th year, the HK IWSC has trained more than 150 judges, many of whom are now senior judges in competitions around the world.

Ronald Khoo, Wine, Spirits and Beverages Manager at Cathay Pacific, was one of the judges tasked with determining the winners in this year’s HK IWSC, held in September. Over three days, Khoo and the other judges were given blind tastings from each of the 42 categories. As with other years, they were also asked to rate wine pairings with different Asian dishes. A total of 61 trophies were handed out, along with 109 gold, 341 silver and 468 bronze medals.
Cathay Pacific's Cathay members were encouraged to get sipping, too. “Several Cathay Pacific's Cathay Diamond members were invited to join us as apprentice judges, with one of them assigned to my table for the first day,” says Khoo. “They were learning how to judge, and it was a great experience talking through what makes a Gold wine versus a Silver wine.”

Alongside the judging, the Test Your Palate event invited Cathay Pacific's Cathay members to sample the HK IWSC 2023 candidates and last year’s winners.
And now, you can purchase a selection of this year’s winning bottles in the Cathay Shop and in-store at the Cathay Shop – Cityplaza. Explore the selection here.

But the competition isn’t just about wine: there are tastings for spirits and beers too. “Spirits judges have a particular challenge as they must leap through a demonstrably diverse range of spirits and styles, such as tequila, baijiu and single malt whisky, all in a morning,” says Meiburg. “Beer judges have all the fun because they are not required to spit.”

The HK IWSC also serves as a source of inspiration for what goes into our lounges and on board Cathay Pacific flights. Three to four times a year, Khoo and Meiburg are joined by Cathay Pacific wine consultant Roy Moorfield to taste some 450 wines over three days. In curating the lists, they look for New World discoveries as well as local favourites from Old World regions such as Bordeaux and Burgundy. Other factors, such as a winery’s sustainability practices, also play a factor in the decision-making process.

But as with the HK IWSC, one factor remains the most important. “When we’re tasting, the first thing we look out for is quality. And if it’s from an interesting region, if it’s got an interesting story, then that’s helpful too,” says Khoo.
Time to order a glass and get tasting.  

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