Typhoons and Taiwan

Misha reports on our recent trip to the wonder island of Taiwan.

My last visit to Taiwan was 28 years ago which coincided with a large typhoon which closed most of the island. This time, a couple of days before arriving in Taiwan as part of our North Asia trip in October/November 2024, we heard reports that Typhoon Kong-Rey was approaching the island. It hit the day after we arrived and was reported as the most powerful typhoon to hit Taiwan in 28 years. So I hope I didn’t bring the bad weather with me?

Just prior to our arrival with the impending typhoon news, our distributor, NZ Life Ora/New Wine Estate did some last-minute reorganisation of our schedule so instead of arriving and having a more relaxed start with a business catch up on the first day, we were picked up from the hotel just 20 mins after arriving and immediately headed to the New Zealand Commerce and Industry Office Taipei to present a Masterclass to a group of trade, media and Key Opinion Leaders (KOL). A huge thanks to Tina Wehipeihana-Wilson, New Zealand Director of Trade (Trade Commissioner) in Taiwan, for providing such a perfect venue for our first event and for accommodating our last-minute change. We were worried we wouldn’t get a good turn out of guests with the schedule change but also on the eve of a typhoon, there’s usually some level of preparation required especially when the government has announced the closure of all offices and schools.

Our fears were allayed when everyone arrived for the Masterclass – most of them also stayed on after the event when the Director of Trade hosted a reception for us which essentially became a pre-Typhoon party! We joined in waita (Māori songs), and shared food, wine and stories – what an incredibly warm and traditional New Zealand welcome to Taiwan. Tina is the first wahine and Māori trade commissioner to Taiwan and has held the role for the past four years. Māori and indigenous Taiwanese have a deep connection with 5000 years of whakapapa – genealogical connections and history. The Pacific ocean was their highway then – and is still today. Over the past few years there has been a significant increase in New Zealand’s exports to Taiwan, led by dairy as well as food and beverage, and a strengthening of the ties between Māori and the indigenous Taiwanese.

In the evening, Mark Cheng and Rita Lee from NZ Life Ora/New Wine Estate took us to dinner at Samwon Garden Korean restaurant in the Neihu District of Taipei. It’s known for it’s “palace cuisine” – high end Korean dining! Also joining us was the Samwon Garden’s Cellar Manager, Johnnie Hsieh whose a wine consultant, wine and whiskey lecturer and keen amateur photographer, along with Yen-Ting “Vincent” Lu . Both Johnnie and Vincent came to New Zealand last year and toured our vineyard and did in-depth tastings with us. At dinner we heard some wonderful news from them – they had just returned from the World Tasting Championship Chateau Dauzac in Margaux, France, where 39 country teams competed. They were part of the Taiwan team of four who tied for 2nd place in the competition – the world’s toughest blind wine tasting competition. Quite a feat from this Taiwan team!

We spent our second day in Taipei in a hotel room as Typhoon Kong-Rey passed over the island. Eating snacks and instant noodles from a nearby convenience store (which fortunately was open and doing a great business in ‘instant food’). It was a stark contrast to the amazing feast the evening before! When we drove through Taipei the next morning the extend of the wind became more obvious with trees up-rooted, debris across the roads and ponds of water. However the city was already back to life with people going about their business, trains operating and things heading quickly to normal. It was an amazing tribute to just how efficient Taiwan is.

Next morning, we were off on a high-speed train with the New Wine Estate team of Mark, Rita and Yvonne, and headed to Taichung – about half way down the island of Taiwan. We hosted a trade lunch at an incredible restaurant called Frenchie Frenchie – a French bistro style with an all star Chef and Sommelier team. What a treat! Attending the lunch were invited guests from hotels, some wine educators and ‘influencers’! The food was amazingly innovative and presented in such beautiful form. Each individual part of the dish was a piece of art and combined some of the tastiest meats, fish, vegetables and sauces. (see photos below) It was absolutely one of the best lunches in terms of ‘food deliciousness’ that we’ve ever had! What a great choice by the team at New Wine Estate.

After lunch, we headed back to the train station for another high-speed train down to the south of Taiwan – Kaohsiung, where the country’s biggest port is located. It’s the 3rd biggest city in Taiwan with a population of 2.7 million. Our evening event was at Vineum酒宅 where we hosted a New Zealand wine class for 30 people that went for well over two hours! It was a Friday night and everyone seemed very interested in learning more about NZ wine! Vineum his a wine merchant and has a wonderful selection of by-the-glass wines – and such a cool vibe! The next morning, we were back to the train station for the fast trip from the bottom of Taiwan back up to the top. This Kaohsiung to Taipei journey on the Taiwan High Speed Rail takes about two hours and covers 360kms.

Our final event in Taipei was at the 3 Michelin Star restaurant La Vie by Thomas Bühner in the ritzy Zhongshan District of Taipei where we hosted another very special wine dinner! What a great experience to taste dishes from the talented Executive Chef Xavier Yeung and his team, with Sommelier Max taking care of our wines. Max won 2022 Taiwan Best Sommelier and 2023 Taiwan Best Sommelier in French Wine. We actually took over the restaurant for the evening so it was just a Misha’s Vineyard Wine Pair Degustation! Amazing. Each course was a work of art and although it was contemporary European fine dining, the chefs also paid homage to Taiwan’s bounty. And for this special evening, in order to celebrate New Zealand, the menu included some delicious New Zealand Lumina lamb. There was also a gift from Trilogy New Zealand for all who attended. This dinner was the absolute highlight of our time in Taipei.

We owe a huge thanks to Mark, Rita and Yvonne from New Wine Estate 紐玩生活 who represent our wines so well in Taiwan and to their partner Allan Wu who’s based in New Zealand. It’s fantastic to spend time with one’s distributors as you to build some really close relationships and just understand each other so much better. Mark did an incredible job as our ‘translator’ at the various events in Taiwan, which took a lot of effort for which we are really grateful – he also hauled the large Misha’s Vineyard banner between cities! Rita was our ‘logistics’ guru ensured we had the right train tickets and were on the right platforms and also had all the car transfers sorted. What a team!

Andy and I are in our ‘happy place’ in Asia and really love being busy and moving from once place to another and hosting a range of events and activities and meeting so many people. I’ve travelled around Asia for more than 30 years, and Andy’s done a lot more than that as he was travelling across Asia in his early twenties. On every trip we learn more about the cultural and food differences from region to region and city to city. Of course once home we’re exhausted but a couple of days after we had returned from our Greater China trip to mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan trip, that had us in 8 cities, (and 8 hotels) over two weeks, I said to Andy, “I’d be happy to get on a plane and do it all again”!