On Friday night I was asked along to dinner by George & Kathy Tong, old friends of Corney & Barrow, who had reserved a table at the Shatin Clubhouse of the Hong Kong Jockey Club as the famed 3* Michelin Chef Alain Passard was in town as guest chef for three nights.

The menu was very good indeed and featured, as I understand he usually does, the best and freshest vegetables.  The course that sticks out a mile as the best was also the simplest, and this was the Slow Roasted Chicken. I have never tasted chicken like it and it was served simply with smoked new potatoes and savoy cabbage with a delicious cream, stock and white wine velouté.  It was cooked for 4 hours at 100 degrees C and frequently turned.

To accompany the first three courses we drank Dom Perignon Oenotheque Rosé 1990.  This had been disgorged in 2007 and showed superbly – the extra contact with the lees for a late disgorged champagne gives the wine an extra depth and dimension that you won’t find in the standard bottling but also a freshness and delicacy that made it a delight to drink. 

We then moved on to Petrus 1982, a wine that has attracted some conflicting views over the last few years. My personal view is that many of the 1982s are now fully mature although will continue drinking for some years and I include Château Pétrus in this category.  I also feel that 1982 as a vintage has been put on such a pedestal for the last 15 years that sometimes the wines will only ever disappoint given their price / level of maturity / exalted reputation.  Petrus did not disappoint at all and was so disgracefully easy to drink that it had the sort of narcotic effect that a pre-med injection has before you are wheeled off to the operating theatre.  George revealed that he had bought this wine from us a few years ago so I  was also relieved to find that the wine was indeed Petrus and not something else!