All the wine in the world at Hong Kong Wine & Dine Festival 2014

Before it’s too late, I’d like to share the debauchery that went on at the Hong Kong Wine & Dine Festival 2014 earlier in November this year.

Now in its sixth year, this annual extravaganza sees wine dealers congregate in one sprawling location to share the best spirits they can offer. There’s good food, even better wine, and best of all, entrance to the four-day party is free! This year, it was held at the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal, which used to be the site of the Kai Tak Airport until 1998.

There were themed wine streets and villages in the “Country Pavilion” zone, including a wine village dedicated to Bordeaux, an izakaya street, a Latin American street showcasing wine from Argentina and Chile, and streets for Europe & France, Italy and Georgia.

Before we started on our night of revelry, each of us was given a Riedel wine glass and a booklet of wine and food passes which would pay for all our grub and drink that night.

Following the four-day party was the month-long CCB (Asia) Hong Kong Wine & Dine Festival. Throughout November, major dining districts and other members of the catering trade rolled out a host of culinary programmes, including Stanley Plaza World of Food and Music 2014, and a Wine Tasting Party at Fashion Walk.

By the time we were all done with wining and dining, I couldn’t quite tell whether the images on my camera were in focus or not. It’s definitely worthwhile to visit Hong Kong for this festival. Look at the prices for the wine passes and tokens – I got to drink a total of SIX glasses of wine and eat FIVE courses of food for only S$137 (HK$800)!! Insane value if you ask me. Of course, my share was sponsored by HKTB.

About 180,000 people attended the event this year, a 29 per cent increase in visitorship last year! The Wine & Dine Festival 2015 will be back from 22 to 25 October. Keep your eyes peeled at DiscoverHongKong.com.

In addition to the wine-and-dine experience was a special Hong Kong Pulse 3D Light Show, a 3D show at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre and Clock Tower played from 29 October to 16 November.

For more information about the Hong Kong Wine & Dine Festival, click here.

This trip was sponsored by the Hong Kong Tourism Board, the organiser of the Hong Kong Wine & Dine Festival. This blog post is the first-parter of a series of posts featuring where to wine, dine and shop off the beaten path in Hong Kong.

Follow six rising Asian chefs on 3-part series “My Taste of Hong Kong”, on Discovery Network Asia Pacific (TLC Channel). Air dates and timings:

Premiere Ep 1 – 20 Jan, Tue 10pm
Premiere Ep 2 – 27 Jan, Tue 10pm
Premiere Ep 3 – 3 Feb, Tue 10pm