Image Credit: Azure 45 Tokyo
Denise McCann is a global winepreneur having travelled to over 30 countries in as many years. Currently living in Tokyo after a 4-year stint in Singapore, purveying the culture, sights, sounds and tastes (and tipples) of the internationally inspired orient with her husband, Patrick. They describe themselves as wine connoisseurs, restaurant gourmands, art lovers and gallivanters!
They own and manage a luxury holiday retreat in wine country In Victoria, Australia called TS Valley Villa Luxury Retreat. Denise seeks out local luxe dining experiences with each culinary experience documented in her exquisite journalistic voice, although this Australian couple are more than inquisitive to get out from the high street and experience hawker dishes, and any concoction of street food available across South East Asia and beyond. In Denise's words, "It’s all about people, place and produce."
Image Credit: Azure 45 Tokyo
ROCK STAR TREATMENT: Michelin Star, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, 45th Floor. Opulent and eye-popping, we were escorted through the grand hotel lobby, passed the bar and into the restaurant like we were the most important people there - which, of course, we were. Hats off to the service.
D&D INDULGENCE: We love trolleys. An ideal dinner would be a bread trolley followed by an olive oil trolley and then one for Iberico ham, another for cheese and one for cake! Well, Azure 45 opened with a Champagne trolley! It set the tone: it was going to be great, and it was. Chef Shintaro Miyazaki prepared a fabulous omakase (degustation) menu that included carpaccio with shitake mushrooms and chives, Noto-Taka farm vegetables, butterfish with tougan (a winter melon) and vermouth and topped with Racan pigeon with pig’s trotters and shiso!
WOW FACTOR: When we arrived, the view from the 45th floor was blanketed in cloud. But it cleared and we were offered the chance to move to a recently vacated table up at the window. Service: wow! The food: wow! The view: amazing!
INFORMATION
A. 9-7-1 Akasaka, Minato-ku 45th Floor, The Ritz-Carlton Tokyo Midtown, Tokyo 107-6245
W. www.ritzcarlton.com/en/hotels/japan/tokyo/dining/azure-45
S. www.facebook.com/ritzcarltontokyo
ABOUT FOUNDER WOW WOMEN OF WINE
Denise’s passion is wine and hospitality! She has over 25 years of corporate hospitality experience. She is a qualified WSET UK Sommelier, wine educator, events management specialist, bespoke luxury wine tour operator, international wine tourism specialist, writer and public speaker. Denise is passionate about the wine industry and has travelled extensively to wine regions around the world to hone her craft and share her skills and experience. She has run her own wine events company Women Of Wine since 2007. Since embarking on the expat life back in 2016, Denise has thoroughly enjoyed the consumer side of discovering, experiencing and writing about the food and wine scenes in Asia.
