Highlights

This 3-hour workshop aims to help wine students, novices, and enthusiasts discover the art of wine tasting and develop their tasting skills. Through this immersive experience, participants will learn the skill of blind wine tasting, enabling them to evaluate wines impartially, without the influence of labels. These skills will help them successfully identify the grape variety, region, quality, and price point.
 

Our Speaker

 

Ms Jennifer Docherty, Master of Wine

Jennifer Docherty became the first ethnically Chinese and Mandarin speaking Master of Wine (MW) in 2015 while living in London. Jennifer is one of three MWs in Hong Kong and one of 424 MWs globally. She worked in the wine business for 16 years with roles in buying, sales and fine wine at wine distribution companies in the UK, Hong Kong and mainland China before becoming a freelance wine consultant and educator.

In addition to wine she has also earned the SSI Master of Sake (kikisake-shi), WSET Level 3 Award in Sake, and is a panel chair judge for the IWC Sake Competition in London.

During the pandemic, she became interested in mental health and earned a master’s in applied neuroscience from King’s College London and is now pursuing a PhD in psychedelic studies at The University of Hong Kong in the Medical Ethics and Humanities Unit, at the LKS Faculty of Medicine. 

WHAT IS MASTER OF WINE (MW)?

Becoming a “Master of Wine” (MW) means entry into a unique wine community, and it is regarded as having the highest status and recognition in the wine community worldwide. MWs are renowned tasters who are regularly asked to judge at wine competitions all over the world, to lecture on wine courses, to lead tastings, and to assess some of the world’s finest private cellars. This niche programme is organised by the Institute of Masters of Wine in UK, and it is a global programme attracting students from all around the world. As at April 2025, there are now 424 active Masters of Wine based in 30 countries, spanning a wide range of areas in the wine industry, and the MW credential is the most coveted in the wine industry and comes after proving one’s understanding of all aspects of wine by passing most rigorous examination in the wine world.

For further details of MW, you may visit this website: https://www.mastersofwine.org/

Workshop Objectives

1. To develop blind wine tasting skills to analyse wine and judge wine quality
2. To understand your own senses, train and sharpen them
3. To identify the grape variety, region and price point through wine tasting
4. To conclude with skills to be able to purchase wines for your own enjoyment

Details

The 3-hour workshop will have about 10 selected wines tasting (blind wine tasting included).

On satisfactory completion of this workshop, participants will be issued the Statement of Attendance within the HKU system through HKU SPACE.

Medium of instruction

English (supplemented with Putunghua), using English materials

Entry Requirements

• Participants shall be aged at least 18 years or above, and do not have any health problems that made them unfit for wine tasting.
• Participants with fundamental wine knowledge are preferred.