Tuesday, June 22, marked an important moment for James, as his friends and loved ones watched him receive the French National Order of Merit at the at the the residence of the French consul general in Hong Kong.
In the above photo, James poses with his wife, Marie, and French Consul General Alexandre Giorgini. James was officially notified in December by French President Emmanuel Macron that he had been bestowed the title and rank of Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite. He is the only wine critic based in Asia to have received such an honor.
‘VIVE LA FRANCE!’
The following is the text of James’ speech upon receiving the award:
It’s a great honor to be here today to receive the Ordre National du Mérite de France. I am proud that the Republic of France acknowledges my 40 years of covering the great wines of France as a journalist and wine critic. I am also happy that France understands all of the work I have done to develop the world of wine in Asia and particularly in Hong Kong and Mainland China. The great wines of France have been at the head of this movement to promote the culture and joy of wine, and I have done my best to report on this.
However, I have to admit that it all seems a little strange to be here today. It seems like yesterday that I arrived in Paris on a TWA flight on a freezing morning on January 2, 1985, on on adventure that continues today. I came to Paris as the European correspondent of The Wine Spectator, but I also came for my love of France and how it had become the center of my love of food and wine. And I wanted to report about it as a journalist.
Many of you know that I began my adult life as a daily journalist and worked my way through university and graduate school as a reporter on a number of newspapers. I knew at an early age that I wanted to be a journalist, but it wasn’t until I started writing about wine that I knew that I wanted to report about wine and not about governments or anything else like that. At the time France was the center of the universe for food and wine, and, of course, for culture. For a born-and-raised Californian from Los Angeles, France signified the sophistication and verve of everything foreign and European. It seemed to be the center of the universe for me at the time and I remember almost every day waking up joyfully and going out to my local bar in the 7th arrondissement for a coffee, then shop for lunch in the local markets and again in the afternoon.
If I wasn’t cooking something in my kitchen for dinner I would be exploring local restaurants and wine bars in Paris. Life was indeed a moveable feast and my waking hours were spent mostly thinking about what to eat and drink and later write about. It was the French way of life which became my way of life: a life of experience and culture that began with a glass of wine at the table.
If that wasn’t enough, I traveled all over France and the rest of Europe, visiting vineyards, interviewing winemakers and tasting wines. So many people were so kind to me as a young man in my 20s, particularly in France. I met so many of the legends, from Emile Peynaud and Baron Philippe de Rothschild to Henri Jayer and Gerard Jaboulet. And I saw them and learned from them many times. Their doors, like hundreds of others, were open to a young journalist who had hundreds of thousands of readers in a fast-growing market called the United States of America, and those doors are still open as I communicate to millions of followers in Asia about wine.
But it was the conversations, experiences and the wines of France at an early age that became the basis of my career as a wine critic. The French concepts of winemaking and terroir were firmly entrenched in my mind and heart. The French idea of great wines that firmly spoke of their origins yet remain fresh, structured and drinkable became the basis of my psyche as a wine critic and wine lover. More important, every wine I rated in the world after that experience in the 1980s in France has been rated by comparison to those great French wines of that period and beyond that I have tasted and consumed. Without France, I would not be who I am today.
So thank you dearest France from the bottom of my heart for this great honor of the Order National du Mérite. I really should be thanking you for all you have given me.
Vive, la France!
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