Campus Digest

HKBU Wine Association team crowned Left Bank Bordeaux Cup (HK round) champion for two straight years

22 Mar 2016

(From left) The HKBU Wine Association team, John Au, Melinda Jing and Faye Chan, successfully wins the championship in the Hong Kong preliminary round of the Left Bank Bordeaux Cup (From left) The HKBU Wine Association team, John Au, Melinda Jing and Faye Chan, successfully wins the championship in the Hong Kong preliminary round of the Left Bank Bordeaux Cup
(From left) The HKBU Wine Association team, John Au, Melinda Jing and Faye Chan, successfully wins the championship in the Hong Kong preliminary round of the Left Bank Bordeaux Cup

 

A team comprising three members of the Wine Association of HKBU recently took part in the Left Bank Bordeaux Cup 2016, the prestigious competition for oenological tasting clubs of universities and schools around the world. The team successfully won the championship in the Hong Kong preliminary round, making it the second consecutive year the team has claimed the top title. The HKBU team performed brilliantly in the competition and triumphed over six delegations from local tertiary institutions with their abundant knowledge in oenology and professional wine tasting techniques.

 

The HKBU Wine Association was formed in 2013 and took part in the Left Bank Bordeaux Cup the same year. In these three years, the Association has successfully taken home the championship title twice. This year’s HKBU delegates Melinda Jing (Master in Producing for Film, Television and New Media), Faye Chan (Master in Chinese Medicine) and John Au (Government and International Studies, Year 4) were awarded a cash prize of HK$50,000 from the Union des Grand Crus de Bordeaux. They also got the chance to represent Asia in the final to be held at Château Lafite Rothschild in Bordeaux on 17 June. The HKBU team will be competing with the other top seven qualifiers from France, Europe, North America and Asia for the world championship title.

 

Organised by the Commanderie du Bontemps, the Left Bank Bordeaux Cup is one of the world’s largest amateur oenological tasting contests which includes two parts – multiple choice questions and blind tasting. Contestants put their wine knowledge to the test, from appellations, properties, château and labels, to the history of the Commanderie and wine classification. They would then compete for the title in three challenging rounds of blind tasting to identify different bottles of wine, such as vintage and vinery.

 

Mr Emmanuel Cruse, Chief Commander of the Commanderie du Bontemps, praised the HKBU team for their exceptional performance in blind tasting. He said the overall standard of the contestants was very high and of approximately equal strength and ability, however, the panel of judges placed a greater emphasis on the performance in the blind tasting.

 

The HKBU team said: “The victory we achieved once again this year would not have been possible without the support and legacy of the Wine Association members of the previous year. We are also grateful for the support provided by our patron Mr Jonathan Chong Chong-yip to the Association as well as the continued encouragement given by HKBU and the HKBU Alumni Association. We would like to express our gratitude to our coach Mr Fourson Kwok for his guidance which enabled us to win the competition, bringing additional splendor to the University’s 60th anniversary celebration. We are delighted that wine has brought us together and we sincerely hope that we could gain even more in Bordeaux.”

 

Each year, different presets are carried out in different international cities, where two teams from each area are selected to enter the final contest to compete for the Left Bank Bordeaux Cup. The preset of the North America region was held earlier in New York at which the Yale Law School and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania took the first and second place respectively. The Huaiyin Normal University won the preliminary round in Shanghai and will join HKBU to represent Asia in the final. The presets for Europe and France will be held later in April and May.