We travel to Asia at least a couple of times a year, usually with one trip to North Asia and one to South East Asia so that we can cover all of our Asian export markets. However on our first trip for this year we combined Hong Kong and Singapore (with a few days of R&R in Thailand between them).
It’s always nice to start a promotional trip away with a stop in the Air New Zealand Koru Lounge in Auckland and be served one of our wines. Our ‘Limelight’ Riesling was being served as part of the Fine Wines of New Zealand program. Air New Zealand selects wines from this prestigious list of wines and our Riesling was selected for the top tier of Air New Zealand lounges as well as on-board in Business Class.
In Hong Kong our wines are distributed by Jebsen Fine Wines and this year marks our tenth year of distribution with them. When we launched our brand, we announced 4 distributors – Negociants in New Zealand and three distributors in Asia, one of which being Jebsen Fine Wines. Ten years later, some of the team has changed but there are still some key staff who have been there since we joined them. We are still honoured to be on this fantastic portfolio of amazing wine brands from around the world including Bollinger, Pio Cesare, Robert Mondavi, Penfolds, and Guigal.
After a few days with friends in Koh Samui, Thailand, we headed to Singapore – which always feels like returning home having lived there for 17 years prior to establishing Misha’s Vineyard. We arrived a day early and decided to visit the incredible Gardens by the Bay – an incredible 101 hectares of garden in the centre of Singapore that includes a Flower Dome, a Cloud Forest, a Skyway walk as well as sculptures, speciality gardens and so much more. It is really world class and a must visit for anyone visiting Singapore. Costing SGD 1 billion to build, it demonstrates how Singapore’s small size as an island nation has never limited its ambitions!
Our final night in Singapore was a trade dinner at the famous Jumbo restaurant but at their newest outlet in the Ion Building in the heart of the Orchard Road shopping precinct. It was great to see some old friends including Sandra from the National University of Singapore Society (NUSS) who’s been buying our wines for many years, and to have to chance to showcase our range of wines with some of Singapore’s icon dishes – including Chilli crab.
It must have been a successful trip to Singapore as we have just confirmed a return trip in November! On our next visit we’ll also take the opportunity to visit Malaysia and the island of Langkawi and work with our distribution partners there. We can’t wait!