Tokyo is a city that moves at a million miles an hour; A thriving hubbub of delectable juxtaposition, from the Gucci’s and Todd’s of Ginza to the Harajuku girls congregating around the Meiji Shrine – a blog such as this will never truly do it justice. Consequently, rather than tell you about the spectacle of live sumo (left. I never thought that watching fat men wrestle could be so hypnotic), the wonders of the Tokyo National Museum, or the greatest Manhattan I have ever tasted (forget ‘Lost in Translation’, Radio Bar serves the city’s best cocktails hands down… ), I have decided to simply tell you of one of my highlights, the Tsukiji Fish Market.  Tokyo has long been a Mecca for foodies, with Japanese chefs now dictating modern dining trends the world over, and so on our first morning we dutifully made the pilgrimage to Tsukijishijo Station, the home of the largest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world.

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In an attempt to live up to Charles Walter Berry’s famous 1930s definition of a wine merchant: ‘The closest link between the people who make the wine and the people who drink the wine’, I recently headed to Frog’s Leap Winery in Rutherford, Napa Valley to help out for a week during the harvest. I’d never been to California before and I must admit that in the few days before my departure, the relentless suggestions from colleagues that this was nothing more than a glorified holiday had started to infiltrate into the sub-conscious. However, on arrival it seemed that owner John Williams and General Manager Jonah Beer hadn’t received the memo and I was quickly put to work.

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I must say I feel rather sorry for Jasper Morris, Burgundy Buyer for Berry Bros. and Master of Wine. When he first visited Hong Kong in 2005, his trip might have included some leisurely lunches and tastings with the select few who were developing a passion for the region of Burgundy and its spectacular wines. Fast-forward five years and in a three-day whirlwind tour of dinners, interviews, master classes and tastings, there was barely a second to draw breath. On making this rather apologetic observation at the end of the first day of his trip (his crammed schedule was, in part, down to me), I was relieved to be greeted with a grin, “This is exactly how it should be!” enthused Jasper, “no time to let the jet-lag set in!”. Of course this was no ordinary trip as clutched in Jasper’s right hand was the culmination of all his unsurpassed experience in one of the most complex and revered wine growing areas in the world, his new book Inside Burgundy.

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I was recently challenged by a good friend of mine to name a Hong Kong drinking establishment known for its signature tipple. As one of the world’s foremost cosmopolitan cities (if you’ll forgive the pun) one might think this a relatively straightforward task. In Venice, say, an epicure of any repute might head to Harry’s Bar to savour Giuseppe Cipriani’s famous 1948 cocktail the Bellini. Similarly, a true cocktail aficionado would be hard-pressed to visit London without dropping by to sample one of Alessandro Palazzi’s revered Martini’s at Duke’s Hotel in St. James’s. Hong Kong unfortunately fares less well. After some serious deliberation the only two we could come up with were the strawberry daiquiri at Feather Boa and the jelly shots served at Al’s Dinner. A sad state of affairs indeed!

Things are changing though and classic cocktails are fighting their way back on to the menus of the city’s best drinking dens. This resurgence can perhaps be attributed to a new breed of bartenders who have set out to evangelise the fine art of cocktail making. We were lucky enough to welcome several of these pioneers to the eagerly-anticipated Hong Kong launch of No. 3 London Dry Gin, hosted at The Fine Wine Reserve by BBR Brand Heritage Director Ronnie Cox.

In attendance were Peter Kendall from Sugar, Sam Jeveons from The Upper House, Matt Radalj from Republik and Roy Woo from KEE Club. I was genuinely enthused by meeting these guys. Their knowledge and the enthusiasm they have for their art is infectious. With new venues putting an onus on sophisticated elegance rather than ostentation, the zeitgeist looks like it might endure.

Geordie Willis