Wineshark weekly - 29 January 2012

This week is the Chinese New Year, let me wish all of you a prosperous Year of Dragon and may all your wishes come true this year! Always be healthy and happy!

Nice to have three holidays to allow me some time to take a good rest, and able to temporarily forget my job. Even though I still need to do something in the holiday, at least I can relax a bit and able to enjoy some quiet and peaceful moments.

On Monday we went back to my parents' home for dinner, and I had opened a really wonderful wine - Arinzano 2001. This wine is from a DO Pago in Spain, a single vineyard DO of exceptional quality. The wine is one of the best I have tried and costing less than $900 per bottle, really a good buy in my opinion. Should try to stock up more of this when I can find it again! You can find the tasting note in cellartracker.com or fb.

On Tuesday we visited Ivy's sister's home for the family lunch, and I opened a bottle of Marquis de Riscal Roblo. An inexpensive wine though a nice drink and suitable for such an occasion, we had a good time and then went to visit some relatives. That night we went to Tang Court in Langham Hotel for dinner, to celebrate Ivy's birthday. We had some wonderful dishes, like the soup, stuffed couch, pan fried garoupe, minced pigeon in cabbage wrap and dessert. A full meal and really delicious, not exactly cheap ($1400) but still a good place to go once in a while.

That night I also visited my friend, who came back from Germany for the CNY holiday. I am really happy to see him and we chatted a lot, and I brought two Marquis de Riscal along, one Reserva and one Gran Reserva. We also talked about planning a trip this summer to Europe to visit some vineyards. This year I really will do it and it seems quite a few of my friends are interested. Looks like we will have a big group and I can already think of all the fun and craziness of the group. Can't wait!

Because of family dinner, I could not go to visit another friend on Wednesday. A pity as I haven't met a few of them for a long time, and really want to reconnect with them. Maybe has to wait for the next occasion. And that ended my holiday...

I started work again on Thursday. With not that many people in office I actually found it quite productive and I was able to clear a lot of my email backlogs. Originally wanted to go to a restaurant in Mongkok that night but then found out it won't open until next Tue! What a long holiday! So instead we went to Jade Garden but it was really disappointing. The dishes were not good. Well, should not complain too much in the festive season probably...

During the weekend still got some places to go. I visited my friend's new home and had good time also. Drunk a bit too much on the night (I brought four bottles along, finishing all with three others) and today went to the Ten Thousand Buddha Temple. The fortune teller told me that I would have changes in my job around Oct, let's see whether it will happen...

Next week will be in Manila for 5 days, need to go packing and wish you all a happy beginning of year!