Wine Features Master Inspiration Q: Why did you start learning wine and how was your road of wine? A: I started to love drinking wines and alcoholic drinks when I was in UK. With the life and culture there, it was inevitable for people not drinking anything. It was extremely common to order wine when dining in restaurants. Besides, I had been travelling around Europe for many times during the years in UK and had chances to go to wineries to taste wines. I found that interesting for different styles and variations of wines, and would like to know more in detail.
I decided to study wine in 2006/07 for WSET Level 3 together with a group of friends. I then started writing blogs about wines, getting to know more bloggers by that time and grouped together to taste more wines. I completed the WSET Diploma at 2009.
Q: Winelist.HK has a special meaning for you. Can you tell what is it? A: Yes, the company was founded on my birthday, and it was exactly the same day in 2008 when Henry Tang, the financial secretary by that time announced the cancellation of tax of alcoholic drinks with 30% abv or below. I used Winelist.HK to write about wines as hobbies. Besides, I also started to work on wine promotion, marketing and event management projects. Q: What had initiated you to take a step forward to study in Master of Wine? How’s your feeling as being one of the potential candidates to be the first Hongkongese and Chinese Master of Wine? A: When completing the WSET Level 4, I was thinking if I should further my studies in wine. I discussed with Debra Meiburg about the course of MW and gave myself a try. I often had a belief that if I’d like to get a better qualification, I should do it at a younger age. One other main reason why I took the step is because I believed the industry should need a voice from Chinese to speak for Asians, to help wine promotion in Asian countries, and to achieve something that is quite impossible in many people’s eyes as we are not locally born in wine growing/ production regions. Up till now, all the MWs are all westerners or Japanese.
As the first MW for Hongkongese or Chinese, it is still unknown yet. Apart from me, there’s one student from mainland China at similar stage with me. We are now both working on the thesis. However, some current Year 2 students can also finish the whole Master of Wine course at similar time if they are fast and things are going smoothly enough. Anyways, I expect to get the qualification in 2015.
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