Great wines and masterpieces of art to celebrate 50 years of friendship between Italy and Hong Kong

Nothing like a toast with a glass of great wine can celebrate a friendship, even between countries. And to pay homage to the 50 years of diplomatic relations between Italy and Hong Kong, a strategic market of Made in Italy in Asian countries, also for its role as a “showcase”, things get bigger. In the Year of Culture and Tourism Italy-China and the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two nations, the Everlasting Wonder Gala Event (whose organization has been entrusted by the Government of Hong Kong to the Chinese-Italian Cultural Society), which will also seal a new collaboration between the Gallerie degli Uffizi in Florence, one of the most important museums in Italy and the world, and the Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA), will feature Italian wines, directed by Gelardini & Romani Wine Auction, the first Italian auction house specialized in wine and the only operator in the panorama of international auction houses to have guaranteed a “physical” event and not “only” online, in 2020, in Hong Kong, the Asian epicenter of the fine wines market, offering Italian wine visibility never reached before. And so, if the Uffizi Gallery will lend to the Hong Kong Museums 42 works of the Renaissance, including ten paintings by the master Sandro Botticelli, many will be the wine masterpieces in the chalices and at auction in the events signed by the auction house.
Before October 25th, the Everlasting Wonder Gala Event, there will be a series of popular and promotional events, with wine dinners in the best Italian restaurants in Hong Kong, dedicated, among others, to Sassicaia with five vintages (including the legendary 1985), Barbaresco di Gaja, with a retrospective until 1971, the jewels of Antinori (Solaia and Tignanello) vintage 1995, and Le Pergole Torte di Montevertine, with cult vintages such as 2013 and 1990, just to name a few. On October 25th, then, grand finale at the Hong Kong Museum of Art which, for the occasion, will be closed to the public to allow the 400 paying VIPs (with tickets between 2,500 and 5,000 euros per person) a private visit and a preview of the exhibition, followed by a gala dinner, all under the banner of excellence of Made in Italy, whose menu was entrusted to the chef Umbero Bombana, the only 3 Michelin stars Italian in Asia, while the wines, strictly from native Tuscan vines - with the exception of the bubbles, Barone Pizzini’s Franciacorta - have been selected by the Master of Wine Sarah Heller - to pay homage to the cradle of the Renaissance, Bibi Graetz 2018’s Testamatta Bianco Isola del Giglio 2018, the Igt Toscana Montevertine 2015 from Montevertine and the Brunello di Montalcino 2008 from Tenuta Greppo di Biondi Santi, which will be provided by Gelardini & Romani Wine Auction, one of the main supporters of the event - together with American Express and the Cathay Pacific airline, for which a docu-film, both of the gala event and of the making-of, will also be made, which will be available on all flights of the airline and of its sister company Cathay Dragon, from the beginning of 2021 for three months, reaching a global audience.
But that’s not all: the event will also be an opportunity to give even more visibility to the great Italian wine, to introduce at the institutional and entrepreneurial “elite” of Hong Kong an auction catalog, which will be beaten later by Gelardini & Romani, with real jewels for collectors. From 1978 to 2000, a trilogy of Brunello di Montalcino Riserva di Biondi Santi Brunello di Montalcino from the 1975, 1983 and 1990 vintages, from the historic winery of Tenuta Greppo, Giacomo Conterno’s Barolo Riserva Monfortino, vintage 1990 and 2013 in double magnum, the same format as Masseto 1995, and rarities such as Le Pergole Torte Riserva 1990 di Montevertine, a great selection of Barbaresco di Gaja, including 1971, 1978, 1982, 1985 and 1997 vintages, cases of Barolo Riserva Granbussia by Aldo Conterno of the 1985 and 1989 vintages, the Barolo Rocche di Castiglione and the Barolo Riserva Speciale Falletto by Bruno Giacosa, 1971 vintage, and again a vertical case of Solaia from 1990 to 2005, with some lots also from the 1980s, a unique piece like the 15 liters of Colore 2015 by Bibi Graetz, directly from the company’s library. A catalog still open, which promises to become even richer.