Wine Tasting Event : Carrefour International Wine Fair at Suntec City (28 Sept 2006)

This is the biannual Carrefour International Wine Fair, they usually alternate between the Suntec City and the Plaza Singapore locations. I missed the last one at Plaza Singapura because I had to go overseas for work. So in NO way I was going to miss this one.
This was a private invitation night, and the funny thing is that they always send the invite to my wife instead of me! It is really peculiar, considering that I am the main paymaster here!

I was a little late 7.15 pm and most of the wine tastings were almost finished, this time they had a quota for how many bottles they were going to open. Based on my guess, it is about 6 bottles per wine only. Personally, I feel that they may have saved some cost but lost out on people who buy in cases and cases of wine (It is true! We saw people with Trolleys filled to the brim!?). So it may not have been the most correct of decisions made. The spread of food available was pretty good with spring rolls, salmon quiches and chicken puffs.

K.T spent more time eating the food than sampling the wine. She managed to get some Blue (= stinky) Cheese as well at very reasonable prices. Another fascinating sight was that some parents brought their kids in for the Wine Fair, the concern is not so much the issue with legal drinking age limit of 18, but children + wine glasses = trouble. Luckily, there was no incident.

I bought two bottles, one is a second growth Chateau Leoville Poyferre vintage 1993 , the other is 2nd wine of a second growth Reserve de la Comtesse 2003, both of which I am going to open only for special occasions. They were at very good prices and I did see many people easily snapping up 6 to 12 bottles of each wine. Well, I think a good buy I did make during the Wine Fair was buying a Luminarc glass decanter for ~S$27, it is heavier and less elegant than the crystals ones, but it gets the job done!!
Wish me good luck for the lucky draw to win a Wine Cooler!

Wine Entry : Xanadu Secession Merlot 2002 (Western Australia)

Couldn't remember where I got this Xanadu already, but it cost me S$28 a bottle. I have tried the higher end Reserva version and it was pretty nice. The wine was a pale reddish-pink in colour, typical of a merlot which is not as full-bodied, but the taste was otherwise. I like the design of the bottle, very classy and chic, especially with the motif of the dragon. This should be the signature wine of this blog eh?!

Smell : Black berries, Cherries and Cherry pips, slight vanilla essence and oak.

Taste : Mild tannies with little fruit. Woody-like akin to cedar with a ribena base. Has significant structure for a Merlot varietal wine.

After-Taste : Oakish with spice and a grapefruit-like pull at the short finish.

Description at back of bottle : Full-bodied & generous. A contemporary style from Western Australia's South West.

Wine Entry : Peter Lehmann Barossa Valley Botrytis Semillon 2005 (Australia)

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Wine came presented in a sleek bottle with a screwcap top, I think I purchased this from Cold Storage wine section costing [S$----deleted] should be S$19.80 instead. Under the light, the wine is a clear straw pale yellow colour. Though it is a Botrytis wine, I find it lacking in the strength and authority of other more renowned Noble Botrytis wines.

Smell : Bitter honey lemon, slight sulphur pungency with flora scents.

Taste : Sweet nectarish, orange lemon marmalade style. Flows easily with not too much viscosity.

After-taste : Citrus-lemon with a strong sour pull at the intermediate finish.

Description at back of bottle :
The 2005 Botrytis Semillon has been made predominantly from botrytised grapes grown on the small Peter Lehmann Semillon vineyard by the banks of the Para River in Tanunda. It is a superb wine of great freshness, balance and luscious elegance. With natural fruit sweetness and tantalizing complexity. It is the perfect accompaniment to a creamy blue cheese, peach tart or a warm winter pudding.

Wine Tasting : Wine Garage

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Hey everybody, just got back from Wine Garage after drinks. It's located at Riverside Point very close to Robertson Quay and was really packed & happening. The clientele was mostly professionals and a large number of expats, a pretty chic crowd. Most of the people were seated outdoors enjoying the breezy evening cool after the heavy rainstorm in the afternoon. The great thing about the place was that no-smoking was allowed, and that helped the air quality (though most patrons just took a walk to near the river for a puff).The indoors area had a very nice array of wines from floor to ceiling, but the indoors area was catered mostly to dining customers. The only flaw I had about the place was that metal steel drums we used to decorate the exterior, which was pretty unappealing to me. Perhaps they wanted to create the warehouse/garage look.

The service was pretty good as well, even though they were busy, they took the time to hand us the detailed wine list after the first menu which was catered primarily for fingerfood and a limited list of wines. They also had a sommelier who introduced to us the wines that they had used for wine tastings that evening. He was kind enough to provide us two glass of Pinot Nior, of which the burgundy was far superior to the aussie victoria one. However we decided to go for another wine in the wine tasting list :

Chateau La Conseiller Bordeaux Superieure, France 2003.

The wine was deep ruby maroon in colour with strong alcoholic legs. The bottle also needed breathing and decanting to temper the oakyness and bring out the sweetness of the wine, which the waiter was very kind to perform the decanting for us.

Smell : Aromas of blackcurrent, spice, ripen fruit.

Taste : Smooth on the palate, delicate dark chocolate and well balanced fruit tannins.

After taste : Emergence of the tannins, with cigar and oak interlaced inside.

Description at the back :
This wine boast an inky/ruby/purple colour as well as gorgeous aromas of grahite blue berries blackberries and scorced earth. Offers copious amounts of sweet fruit low acidity and superb ripeness as well as depth.

Wine and Pizza Birthday Celebration

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Happy Birthday Ms Poh and K.T.! Best wishes for our two wine drinking birthday gals in September. We celebrated their birthdays at K.T.’s spiffy condo with Pizza Hut new Cheesy Pizza, buffalo wings and KFC chicken. The wine that we had went pretty well with the Cheesy Pizza, however, I think it was opened too young before reaching it’s full potential.

The cake we had gotten them was the delicious Häagen-Dazs ice cream cake. It was strawberry in flavour with very crisp and crunchy chocolate pieces and shavings all around the cake. Good choice BlueDolp!

Here are the two happy birthday girls and the soft toys with the cake =>

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The wine that we had was purchased from Carrefour, probably costing somewhere around S$30. The wine Chateau Le Merle was a Saint-Emillion Grand Cru and a Grand Vin de Bordeaux, vintage 2001 with a mellow ruby colour.

Smell : Intense blackcurrents and cherry, big on the alcohol.

Taste : The wine has no significant fruit, deep grape skin/stalks taste, filled with licorice nutmeg and woody.

After-taste : Oak, cigar, with mild astringent tannins. I would say a few more years in the cellar would do the wine good.

Wine Shopping Day !

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Today was my wine shopping day! Running to three wine outlets in Singapore.

Firstly was the Jason’s Wine Cellar International Beer and Wine Fair organized at Raffles City.
There were quite a significant number of wine agents and merchants booths. The best deal that I got was the Noble One Botrytis which usually costs >S$45, but I managed to get it at S$36 from Hock Tong Bee exhibiting there. The sales staff were very friendly and introduced other wines as well such as St Claire’s New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

Next stop was Centrepoint where we were looking for a housewarming gift for Mr and Mrs Bluedolp, finally found it here at Ponti Wines http://www.pontiwinecellars.com.sg/ on the 4th floor of centrepoint. They call it the rabbit wine opener as it does resemble one. Later when we went for the housewarming party, they were very thrilled at having such a spiffy wineopener, and Mrs Bluedolp even had a trial and found it so easy to use. Ms Poh want to buy one for your Bro?

Details :
Metrokane Houdini Corkscrew Silver Made in USA

Notes:
A high-quality lever-style corkscrew. Works like magic.
Push down, pull up and PRESTO!—the cork is out of the bottle!
Push down, pull up again and SHAZAM!—the cork is off the corkscrew! Opens any-size wine bottle. All gear teeth made of hardened metal
Mechanism tested for 20,000 cork pulls by independent laboratory
Handy storage tray holds Houdini Corkscrew and separate foil cutter

My last stop was at Brix http://www.brix.com.sg/ at Raffles Place opposite the Chulia Street OCBC building. I had a bit of problem finding it. They sell very good French wine and the clientele was very “bourgeois”, seems to be patronized a lot by lawyers. They were having their first anniversary sale and I took advantage of that grabbing 5 bottles of bordeaux wine.
Here's the damage to my wallet :-

• 1 bottle Chateau Camensac Usual 59.00 Now 49.90
• 2 bottles Chateau du Raux Usual 40.00 Now 28.00
• 1 bottle Chateau Duthil Usual 48.00 Now 35.70
• 1 bottle Chateau Rauzan Gassies (2nd Growth) Usual 74.00 Now 58.80
  
  Three locations in one day! Wine addict…