A group of us head down for some wine tasting at fullerton. One friend has some reservations about it and i personally thought that it was ok. not as fantastic as wine tasting at the vineyards.. u just gotta be where the wines grow.. the terroir as they call it..there used to be a debate over the french terroir vs California, Australia and the many regions of the world.. that debate can last a full post next time. anyway, there is indeed something about California’s unique weather and culture that reflects in the taste of the wine.
Popular grape varietals to be found at the event: Merlot, Zinfandel, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Souvignon Blanc and very little Shiraz and Moscat.
My default choice while in Cali is usu Cabernet Sauvignon or Shiraz, sometimes Merlot. Through this event, it rekindled some of my original liking for Zinfandel, Souvignon Blanc and Moscat!
Beringer’s Zinfandel was pretty good for a start. It comes in a slightly pink label alike to champagne bottle and cost about $35 at NTUC.. am definitely going to pick one up next time. It has a rather fruity, sweet and champagne-like taste to it.
Cuavison has one of the best selection at the event which might be attributed to the fact that they carry one of the oldest wines (2000 Cabernet and Merlot compared to others with mostly 2006 ranges). My fave Cabernet and Merlot has to be Cuavison (about $89/bottle) for the event itself. Somehow, the Cabernet has the right amount of tanins, just that i’m still rather dissatisfied with regards to the lingering opening taste of the wine as it goes down your throat. I only had one (rather orgasmic) experience in Cali in one of the restaurants. Perhaps it was the atmosphere of the place, the correct food combination, ambience, humidity whatever.. the Cabernet was truly good. too bad i cldn’t recall the name of that bottle but it’s likely to be of the early 2000s range (will blog abt the orgasmic wine experience next time).
Cuvaison also carries the 2006 Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Somehow Pinot Noir didn’t quite hit it off with me.. I don’t regularly go for it esp since it never quite blow my taste buds away.. perhaps i just need to meet the right bottle. the Chardonnay is pretty good though (best so far is still at Peju).
Whitehall Lane has a pretty good 2004 Merlot ($69/bottle) which some wine guide gave it 90 points. The taste of the 2004 Cabernet ($90/bottle) has largely left my mind though (also since i didn’t pen much about it)..
We chanced upon Quady who carries 2 range of 2005 Moscat – black and orange. Love the Elysium Orange Muscat which actually has a ‘tea’ smell and taste to it and it turned out not too sweet. The black muscats are made from blackberries. The bottles are rather colourfully designed and rather innovative label stickers were given out.
Speaking of labels, Kenwood (i vaguely recall it’s them) makes a pretty big deal about it. Every year, they get some artist to design the label and the most recent one is some japanese artist with some extract art painting on the label. interesting. no doubt packaging and labels affect a consumer’s perception of the wine, eventually the terroir (where it comes from), type of grapes and the vintage year of the wine will come first in my evaluation criteria. The winery brand name comes into play esp if it has an entrenched history and family names tends to hint that the wine has passed through generations.
Seems like not all the wineries promised showed up.. was looking forward to Robert Mondavi but didn’t catch them there.. Didn’t spot Dry Creek too.. Some of the tasting booths also sell wines or offer contact info since they’re largely the distributors themselves. There’s even 1 that gives 1 free for purchase of 5 bottles.. (so singaporean!)
Most of the wines come from Napa, Central Coast, Sonoma, Monterey area.. The crowd is largely working class onwards.. well, not much kids appreciate wine i guess? There’s a rather narrow scoping of wine varieties which is good for comparison purposes but will personally prefer a larger variety. There’s pretty good cheese, cheeseballs, grapes and variety of other food to go along too.
I scribbled notes in slightly under 20 names so that gives a rough estimate of the amount of sips i got for the night.. if you multiply that by about 2-3? I could still differentiate the premium ones but below a certain threshold, the taste kinda converges..
overall, it’s a pretty good event.. followed by some local food at glutton’s bay (guess who wants to eat ba chor mee after winetasting?) One of the better winetasting event in SG given that it’s in a hotel but definitely can review the range further. i recalled the selection of wines organised by my UK exchange campus wine and cheese society (which cost like 10 pounds) has a better range of wines (less so for cheese of course).
The wine culture in SG is picking up, just hope the prices are not but the selections are! =)
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