Opinion | ‘Fewer Bordeaux and Burgundies at Italian restaurants’: what 6 Hong Kong wine experts hope to see more and less of in 2023
- We talk to Hong Kong wine experts, and find out the things they hope to see more of, and less of, in the wine and restaurant industries in 2023
- Several wish to see more natural, independent-grower and boutique wines and less from generic industrial producers who turn vineyards into biodiversity deserts
I’ve spent a lot of words over the past year, both in writing and in service at the restaurant, talking about what it means to produce wine ethically and sustainably.
While corporations continue to pollute our water systems and destroy countless hectares of healthy soil with pesticides, the artisans and dreamers you’ll often encounter in the natural-wine movement have been united by one simple truth: a vineyard is a microcosm that’s more than the sum of its parts.
Native grasses and trees, butterflies, bees, birds and dozens of other species that live among the vines are what makes a vineyard resilient in the face of adversity – be it bad weather or disease. Allowing life to flourish can be a challenge for humans who chase only profit, so of course corporations choose the ease of monoculture.
Anyone who’s driven past one of those lifeless vineyards, bare-skinned without grass cover, stomped over by heavy machinery, deathly quiet in the absence of birdsong, will never forget the sadness of sameness.
Without a doubt, diversity is the backbone of pesticide-free farming and sustainability in the vineyard, but so is the industry.
