Wine Tasting : Miss U Café at Upper East Coast Road – Vinus Cabernet Merlot 2004 (Australian)

-
-

-
-
My wife and I went for dinner at this place called Miss U Café along Upper East Coast road, Jalan Pari Burong to be exact, near where all the prata shops congregate together. This was happening place recommended by Gracie. Apparently they have wine buffet on Thursday nights, and that is on our list of things to do soon. The place is also featured on Yummy King and if you take a look at their website www.missucafe.com they even have the video of Andrian Pang introducing the place. When we were there, it was relatively 70% full with what I suspect are residents around the area, whom are mostly living in private housing. The food was pretty good, my Rib-eye steak costing S$16.90 was soft and juicy, my wife’s tenderloin though more expensive at S$22.90 was somewhat more disappointing in terms of tenderness but was still quite tasty. The soup of the day Clam Chowder was a little runny, but nice and affordable at S$2.70 each. Overall, I must say that the prices are reasonable, they have a very tempting set dinner at S$13.50+ and even the wine is affordable at S$29.80. (which is the whole point of this entry eh?!) This cafe styles itself as a Cafe and Wine bar, it has a nice array of wines (though primarily Chilean and South African) in the shelves behind my picture.











-
It was indeed a good recommendation - Vinus Cabernet Merlot 2004 by the waiter for the wine, and in fact it was the wine on promotion at S$29.80. It was a bright vibrant intense reddish colour, and complemented the steaks very well.


Smell : Light oak wood scent, interlaced with ripened blackcurrents

Taste : Full of fruit, sweet on the taste buds. Round, plumness and easy on the palate.

After-Taste : Non-existent tannins, slightly oaky, fruity and smooth finish.

Description on the bottle : Enjoy this fresh and vibrant wine, which exhibits rich blackberry cabernet characters softened by velvety blue fruit merlot characters. The palate is complexed by a hint of French Oak – Winemaker Michael Clayden.

Wine Entry : Kloster German Riesling (2002) on board SIA plane

-
-


Been meaning to do this for sometime but never had to the opportunity to get the photo shoot in until today on the SQ886 to Seoul. SIA has a very nice selection of red and white wines as well as port. (though personally I have not ever tried it yet). But the German Riesling onboard [The glass on the right! The one on th left is water] is impeccable to the ones I have tried before, and compared to the ones that I get at the DFS Changi.

It has a very nice balance of acidity and sweetness, first mouthful fills you up with lemony / grapefruity zest, with a slight herbaceous scent but a much uncomplicated smooth finish with a flora nose at the end.

The description in the notes is lively yellow wine with green notes. Containing ripe yellow fruit and peach with a harmonious dry soft finish.

Part B : Wine /K.T’s Housewarming/ Scrabble & GOL board games session

-
-

------------------------Even the soft toys want to get into the photos

After the golden nectar wine, we started playing K.T.’s housewarming gifts of Game of Life. It took a little understanding and trial&error before getting the hang of the game, but it was quite interesting with the choice of being salesperson, policeman etc and the aim of the game is to retire rich! (Guess this is the hope for every Singaporean). Doc was a very good banker for the bank, by being exceeding slow in dishing out the gamemoney. The next wine we tried was the Chateua Pontoise Cabarrus 1999 French red which is a Cru Bourgeois. It has a nice age to it, still bright red in colour with no taste of tannins whatsoever, highly fruit and drinkable, more akin to a Aussie wine than French. We also had cheese (bought by K.T at Cold Storage) with the wine, but the blue was not the most popoular.

Scrabble was the game is was struggling to play at about 11.30pm in the night, my mind was somewhere with Portugal on whether they will win their soccer World Cup match with Iran (which they eventually did). We didn’t finish the bottle of French Red and K.T. will probably be sharing that with her other guests to her condo in a few days time…

-

-
Dolph wondering when she can get to drink wine...

Part A : Wine /K.T’s Housewarming/ Scrabble & GOL board games session

-
-

----------------------------Proud Owner of the Condo and Wine


This was a fantastic get-together & condo-warming session at K.T’s new "Sunny Haven" condominium. Instead of the normal KFC and Pizza Hut, we ordered in Thai Express. (I myself never knew that they had a takeaway menu, considering that we eat there also once a month at least) Damn! I just remembered that we have the Orange Discount card, didn’t manage to ask if that was valid for takeaways as well. Missed out on a 10% discount, I’m losing my edge as an uncle-member wannabe. Though Thai Express was a little bit more pricey on the wallet, the food was very tasty and not so dry as pizza and fried chicken. We had Tom Yum soup, green chicken curry, pineapple rice, kangkong and mango salad.

Of cos the highlight of the evening was the Skoff Chardonnay Trockenbeerenauslese (TBA) http://winedragon.blogspot.com/2005/10/austrian-wine-appreciation-workshop.html which K.T bought sometime ago costing her $98 and we were all awaiting this joyous occasion to open it. It’s a smaller 375 ml bottle so every drop was like liquid gold, figuratively (see the photos) and literally. Very smooth on the palate and at the same time intensely aromatic with fruity richness and alcohol was not overwhelming the soul of the wine. We had to save some of it for Dolph who was late going around buying wedding shoes with her hubby. (A little later and there will be none left!)

The perfect pose

-

-

-

-

Lost for words on the sweetness of the wine

Wine Guest Writer: KT

Hi folks, I shall attempt to do a more "got standard" wine entry for Desdragon.

Went to the Wine Hut yesterday, which i must say serves excellent food, the cheese platter, seafood basket, escargot and chicken wings are to die for.

Anyway not to take the pleasure away from the wine, we chose this from Legends Estate Winery, Ice Pinot Noir, which was a sweet red wine.

Smell: Sweet butterscotch, cherries and strawberry

Taste: The strawberry taste hits you first and it may be a tad sweet for guys who prefer the spicy and strong tannic taste of red wines. But i am guessing this is probably a desert wine. The sweetness is actually rather smooth. The aftertaste definitely is rather butterscotchy. (If there is such a description)

Anyway i will leave the proper review of Wine Hut to Desdragon...

Wine Guest Writer : K.T. on the spiffy wine opener

-
-

Once again we have our guest writer K.T. writing on a wine opener...it is a much improved version and I laud her on her effort. Though I have done also a little editing, the gist is there.

"Guest writer KT has decided to write a review of spiffy wine opener that Desdragon got for me during Christmas, i will get a foto of it and post it on the blog, unless desdragon has a photo of it...

Aesthetics: Excellent, its modern and sleek looking, just the perfect look for those with a retro swedish modern kitchen like mine ( haha, retro modern. Hows that for confusion?)

Ease of Usage: My friends and me had a difficult time at the beginning because we didnt kiap (ok ok, clasp) the neck of the wine bottle properly, but after reading the instructions properly, it was a breeze. We didn't have to use much strength as well.

Overall opinion: Excellent gift and practical as well since i have been converted to a wine drinker by Desdragon! May i uncork the TBA with ease and elegance on the 17th.. =) "

Wine Array : One-quarter of my wine horde

-
-

Hey everybody, well since K.T. was so proud that she had to publish in her blog (olimomok.blogspot.com) the number of wines she had (which is only 5 or 6) and also her new fridge which has an added wire shelving to contain the wines. I took the effort to pull out some of the wines in my horde and displayed them. (Just to irritate the hell out of her and make her feel she needs to get more wine). Note that this is only about one-third or one-quarter of my wine horde. Have a bad habit of buying and buying especially during wine fairs where I can taste them, I get into a drinking frenzy and just buy…Maybe that's their strategy...

Well as you can see, I have a wide variety of wines ranging from Australian to French to New Zealand, I prefer the French and Australian for the reds and the New Zealand and dessert types ( see the dark golden caramel like ones?) for the whites. I am most proud of the two impressively standing Magnum bottles at the far back, those are about twice the volume as the standard 75 cl bottles. I am pretty sure for K.T. to catch up with my selection and collection of nice wines, she will have to try very much harder.

More on wines...

Wine Entry : Reserve de la Comtesse Pauillac 1997 (French)

-
-

This was one of the two bottles of wine that C.K. and myself won from Carrefour Wine Fair lucky draw sometime in 2004 (I think?). It is probably in the range of $55-$60 and from the 2nd growth chateau of Pichon Longuevilla. It has a deep dark cheery red colour with absolutely not signs of aging even thought it is a 9 year old wine.

Smell : Intense fruit of cheery and raspberry scent, with hint of smoke and burnt oak.

Taste : The first taste of the wine hits you with full-medium bodied fruit, which slowly transitions to an easy palate and smooth flow with no/light tannins.

After-taste : Finishing with oak & spice, even gourmet cheese, dark chocolate at the end..

Other descriptions : Since 1978 this Chateau has been owned and run by Edouard Miailhe's daughter, May-Eliane de Lencquesaing. After having carried out an ambitious 12-year renovation program, May De Lencquesaing has now raised the quality of this Château to one of the highest in the Médoc. With a total of 185 acres under production, only 6,000 cases are produced under their second wine, Réserve De La Comtesse, which has been officially marketed since 1973, but was first introduced as early as 1890. Vinification in temperature controlled stainless steel vats, with aging 18 months in oak barrels (25% new).

When this vintage was first released it was, with the exception of Sauterne, a great dissapointment. However now this vintage offers great surprises. These wines are perfect to be drunk from 2004 onwards. Bordeaux did not enjoy favourable weather. Growth was early due to a warm spring but many flowers shattered, even rotted because of the rain at the end of May and June. Picking lasted a month. The properties that picked the Cabernet Sauvignon later were lucky. The dry white wines have a low acidity and therefore limited keeping qualities but there is stil a fruity well developped taste. For sweet wines, a demp and sunny autumn enabled noble rot to grow, making the sweet wines splendid.