Hong Kong’s first US Boutique Wine Festival opened at the JW Marriott hotel on April 23, a two-day event where the chief attraction was sampling or buying wines by predominantly family-run vineyards from California to Oregon and Washington. Over 40 winemakers showcased their wines uncorking hundreds of bottles for festival-goers. Unlike in the US, many locals were unfamiliar with the festival’s line up of wineries that listed respected boutique wine producers such as Macphail Family Wines in Napa Valley or Pisoni Vineyards at Monterey County. And how could locals be familiar with such names when none or very few of these labels are available in restaurants or retailers in Hong Kong, mostly due to the small production of these estates. It also swung both ways: most of the winemakers we met at the festival claimed this was their first time in Hong Kong and were thrilled to fly across the continent to interact with the Asian visitors.

According to organisers Altruistic Wines, this mutual vino exchange and education was the whole point behind this ambitious wine extravaganza. Founders Raiford C. Cockfield III, an ex-Lehman Brothers banker who made his passion for wine a full-time career with partner Karin Ho, also strives to fill the gap in the market for niche American wines to be more accessible to the local audience. Cockfield says this festival also encourages people to meet the winemakers themselves to understand the story, the artist and the craftsmanship behind the bottles, as opposed to completely commercial wines just made for the masses. Other events in the festival’s program included a charity wine auction as well as celebrity chefs preparations, including Hosea Rosenberg from Colorado who won the Top Chef TV show in Season 5. Watch this clip to get a flavour of this event as the organisers elaborate on the philosophy behind the US Boutique Wine Festival.

For more information about the next US Boutique Wine Festival or the wines featured at the event, go to www.altruisticwines.com.