Amarone Opera Prima and its 2017 tasting
The 2017 vintage is a warm year that will require a very poor hand to make an under-ripe Amarone della Valpolicella. With plenty of richness in the wines, will there still be finesse in the mix?
Nizza – Going forward, but what’s next?
Nizza must become the butterfly, spreading its wings to markets abroad. Failing which, even the most glorious state will fade into obscurity.
ICCCW – Crossing cuisine and wines boundaries
International Congress of Chinese Cuisine and Wine (ICCCW), it sounds like a mouthful of syllabi. But the name is very appropriate for this subject, so complicated yet often generalised by our friends from the western world. Singaporean wine veteran, Ch’ng Poh Tiong, organised another edition of this dinner in Singapore to prove that breaking rules […]
Prosecco – Classification, to what ends?
Tell people you are going to visit Champagne and that will undoubtedly conjure a state of admiration. But not the case when I am heading to visit the Prosecco wine region. Never mind that it is the Prosecco DOCG, Valdobbiadene area. It just doesn’t seem quite as lovely. But if a landscape of the region […]
Corvina – L'anima della Valpolicella
Last month, Cellarmaster Wines engaged me to present the wines of Gerardo Cesari at a Gusto Italiano dinner. It was a sold-out dinner with a long waiting list. Considering Singapore’s insatiable thirst for Amarone, we can probably do two dinners and still manage a sellout. Better yet, this makes my work a lot easier, since these […]
Hot 100 South Australia struck consumers chord
In a wine world where age worthiness is king, where exactly should deliciously delightful wine stand? That is a question that often goes quietly into the good night. Now, wine experts from South Australia are revolting and giving awards to wines that drink so well, keeping them in cellar is deprivation of pleasure. Who are these mavericks? They […]
Italian white wines for Singapore
“Italians don’t make interesting white wines”, a casual remark I heard after few pints of beer. If the probable beer-triggered gout didn’t kill me that evening, that statement against Italian white wines almost did me in. This misconception is common as Italian white wines are obviously a victim of its red’s success. Although I lost count […]
The De Marchi returns to Lessona
Given an opportunity, would you move back to where your ancestors’ came from? Unlikely for me. But now and then, there are some people who are driven by a dream of restoring family greatness, they actually do make the move. Here’s a story about Paolo De Marchi, the man who is better known for the famous Isole […]
Is the sun rising on Japanese Wines?
Japanese Sake, plum (ume) liquors, whiskies, beers and strange tasting tomato juices. So, how about Japanese grape wines? Over past few years, I seen many attempts to bring Japanese grape wines into Singapore, with little success. Now with the Suntory folks placing their chips on Singapore, is the Land of The Rising Sun finally going to shine in the […]
Groot Constantia – The monuments of South Africa wine industry
One country that I hardly touched on is South Africa. This is a country with 330 years of wine production history, torn apart by fifty years of apartheid, and recently came out to be one of the promising economical zones in the upcoming decades. Fortunately, despite the many changes to political power, a very important monument of […]