And up goes the alcohol tax!
After stagnated at same rate for a decade, the latest Singapore budget will raise alcohol tax by a whopping 25%. Within minutes, many social media active alcoholics expressed their outrage before setting out to dry taps and bottles. Expecting additional 125 million dollars in tax revenue to derive from this adjustment, is this driven by number […]
Wine by volume – how is Singapore drinking?
After taking two weeks break for Chinese New Year, it is time for me to get back in business. During this period, I took some time to look through the alcohol tax figures released in late January by the custom authority. Now this makes a good trivia question, do you know how much volume we […]
Is direct to consumers the way forward?
If there is a way to bring wines straight from fields to door with a snap of the finger, I will be exhilarated. But in reality, wines go through many hands and vehicles before they sit in stores waiting to be picked up. Dollars and cents along the way compounded into the final price tag […]
Wine fraternities – Italian Grandi Marchi
I am sorry amici. But whenever I think Italian, the first thing that comes to mind, is Mafia. That’s before pizza, wines, truffles and olive oil. No offence but that’s how Hollywood portrayed you guys. Blame it on Francis Ford Coppola. Istituto del vino italiano di qualità Grandi Marchi, or the Italian Wine Institute of Premium Brands represents nineteen family owned […]
Finding underdog wines
For weeks, my mind had been revolving around this topic and trying hard to find a wine that fits the bill. Just when I was about to throw the towel in and admit this was not going to work, a bottle proved my search was worth the time. Find a sub-$100 wines from less heard […]
Bordeaux En Primeur 2012
In the past weeks, the world wine market has its eyes fixed on the Bordeaux en primeur. With every price release looking like an IPO, wine merchants are often kept waiting with eager anticipation. Marking wines to market wrongly can be disastrous, result in either massive loss in profits or lack of interest from customers. Both […]
The Old, New and the Reluctant wine drinkers
Like anyone who gets questions about wines, the most commonly asked was “What’s Old World and New World”. Generally accepted, notion of Old World points to wine-producing regions within Europe, and New World being everywhere else. But wine making has been the livelihood for people outside Europe for centuries, the Australians been at it for […]
Celebrating Performance – Wine education
A joyous evening filled with lots of wines, good food and great company. Company of fine people who went against excuses for busy schedule and other no-no to meet their target. Individuals who made it and earned the title, Certified Specialist of Wine. Certified Specialist of Wine is a theory-intensive programme targeted to develop confidence over […]
Market Palate – Is there too much alcohol in wine today?
In life, nothing can be better than having things for free. This blessed kid (i.e. me) has a pair of friends (Mr. C & Mr. R) who are very generous with their regular uncorking of wines such as Pian Delle Vigne and Léoville Poyferré. Needless to say, I shamelessly turned up for their drinking invites when I […]
Quick thoughts between Hong Kong and Singapore wine scenes
Over last weekend I went on a not-so-relaxing holiday trip in Hong Kong, one filled with forest walks and country parks but no wine drinking. (Insert groan here.) Fortunately, between stops in the urban setting of Central (Hong Kong island) and the slightly remote area of Stanley (the back yard of Hong Kong island) I […]