Christine Parkinson is a refreshingly humble person for someone with such an encyclopaedic knowledge of wine. Hakkasan’s group head of wine modestly describes how she “didn’t have a clue” which wines would pair with Chinese food when she initially set out to build the restaurant company’s wine lists.

“What goes with Chinese? Someone suggested Gewürztraminer, but we couldn’t create a wine list just from that,” she recalls.

And she painfully recounts a meeting with a respected journalist at which she recommended a food and wine pairing only for them both to discover — to her horror — that the pairing was a terrible mismatch.

Story continues below
Advertisement

The journey that Parkinson and the Hakkasan teams around the world have undertaken since that chastening experience has involved a process of discovery that has seen every one of the hundreds of wines listed on the menu (350 at Hakkasan Dubai alone, including 160–170 exclusive special imports) — and every new vintage of those wines — tried and tested with the restaurants’ food.

Tuesday tastings take place every fortnight with the sommeliers and other staff. Parkinson admits it is a subjective process as everyone has different tastes and flavour receptors. “That’s why we do it as a team — by committee,” she says.No one has a ‘black ball’ or veto as such, but Parkinson is looking for general consensus.

“You will experience very different flavours throughout the meal, so they can’t all pair perfectly,” advises Parkinson,“but we need to make sure no wine ruins the meal.

“A wine can be great with three courses but if it bombs with one, it doesn’t make it.

“Some wines are just terrible with some of our food,” she admits, candidly. “For example, left bank Bordeaux wines are fiendishly challenging.” And equally, she adds, Cantonese cuisine has a lot of sweetness and that can be difficult to partner with wine.

This special Tuesday Tasting (which happens to be on a Monday) is co-hosted by Olivier Gasselin, Hakkasan’s head of wine for Middle East & Asia, who has already reduced an initial longlist to a shortlist of two whites and three reds:

• Reisling “Blue Slate” Dr Loosen 2013 (12.5%)
• Sauvignon Blanc “Kekerengu Coast” Astrolabe 2012 (13%)
• Pinot Noir Astrolabe 2014 (14%)
• Primitivo Salento “Sasseo” MasseriaAltemura 2013 (14.5%)
• Fitou Domaine de Roudene 2011 (13.5)