Château Haut Brion goes masstige with Clarendelle

What is there left to do when your wine is already acknowledged as the best in the world, with a reputation so steeped in history that it was already being praised in the mid-17^th century? For Prince Robert of Luxembourg, owner of Bordeaux First Growth Château Haut-Brion, the answer was to create the masstige brand Clarendelle, a range of wines positioned as being super-premium while at the same time affordable enough for the masses. 

The name Clarendelle pays homage to Prince Robert’s great grandfather Clarence Dillon, an American financier who purchased Château Haut-Brion in 1935. Although both brands share the same winemaking team and blend of grape varieties, Clarendelle is a generic Bordeaux blend while Château Haut-Brion is entitled to the superior appellation of Pessac-Léognan. In other words, Clarendelle is the result of wine bought from producers around Bordeaux and blended together. 

Joan Mourgues, Export Manager at Clarence Dillon Wines, is quick to point out that Clarendelle should not be compared against other mass-market brands looking to bask in the reflected glory of a superior label (could this be a poke at Mouton Cadet?). “The fact that our 2010 vintage obtained a score of 90 from wine guru Robert Parker shows the level of positioning we want to achieve.” 

There are other motives as well. By introducing a generic Bordeaux label, Clarendelle is able to drain off some of the excess production in the region and in the process provide producers with the capital necessary to modernise and improve quality. According to Joan, the company pays producers a higher price for their wine than the market rate. A common problem in Bordeaux is that while the grand crus have no problem selling their wines, producers lower down the food chain suffer from a lack of distribution channels and branding.

Photo courtesy of Domaine Clarence Dillon

The Clarendelle range consists of Clarendelle Rouge, Clarendelle Blanc, Clarendelle Rosé and Amberwine, the last being a sweet wine. The Clarendelle Rouge, Clarendelle Blanc and Amberwine were poured at a trade dinner held at the Flutes at the Fort Restaurant. Guests were also treated to the Bahans Haut Brion 2005, which is the second wine of Château Haut-Brion (renamed to Le Clarence de Haut-Brion starting from the 2007 vintage). 

It was perhaps difficult to judge the merits of the Clarendelle Rouge on its own, being served afterwards by the far superior Bahans Haut Brion, but the standout wine that evening was the Clarendelle Amberwine 2003, a toothsome mix of candied pineapple, honey and quince paste. Paired with a white chocolate cannelloni, the wine highlighted the smooth creamy flavours of the chocolate while not losing any of its own character. 

As an interesting titbit, the company’s foray into social media has revealed some insight about the audience for their wines. While Japan is still their largest market, Turkey and Indonesia contribute the most Facebook “likes” for Clarendelle. An indication of where valuable marketing dollars may next be spent perhaps?

Clarendelle is distributed by Crystal Wines Pte Ltd.

Navigating Savour 2013

Savour, the food and wine festival voted as one of the world's best by CNN, is back for a second round. Having visited Taste of London, I have high hopes for this event, which I will be attending for the first time. From what I heard, the first iteration was marred by some dishes that did not live up to the hype. Hopefully the organisers would have pushed down the average price for a dish to saner levels, although I have a feeling that wishing for everyone to start carrying their own grocery bags would have the same effect. 

Speaking of pricing, it looks like the latest trend in Singapore is to obfuscate the simple process of buying a ticket such that it resembles an evil Sudoku puzzle. Savour has ticket options which vary based on which section of the festival you want to visit, and when you want to go. Below is a table which summarises the various options.

	Savour Premier Pass	Savour Pass
Ticket price	$65 ($55 for lunch session)	$35
Savour dollars included	$30 ($20 for lunch session)	$20
What’s included	Access to Gourmet Village, Gourmet Auditorium and Gourmet Market	Access to Gourmet Market only
Validity	Either lunch (11am-4pm) or dinner (5pm-11pm) session on one day. Lunch session is only available on Saturday and Sunday.	Valid for one day. Gourmet Market is open from 11am-11pm except for Thursday when it is open from 5pm-11pm.
Notes	·         Savour 2013 will be held from 11-14 April at the F1 Pit Building and Paddock, 1 Republic Boulevard. ·         Kids under 6 get in free. ·         Savour Dollars are used to purchase items (you can buy more Savour dollars at the event). ·         Complimentary access to all workshops, masterclasses and tastings with purchase of either pass.

 

Note that these prices are valid only if you purchase via Sistic and excludes the booking fee. Tickets are more expensive by $5-$10 if you purchase at the festival itself. 

This being a wine blog, I am naturally more interested in the wine talks that will be featured during the festival. Below is a summary if you want to plan your time around these talks (info extracted from the Savour website). The talks will be held at the Wine Theatre within the Gourmet Market. 

 Thursday 11th April

TIMING	CLASS / TOPIC
1730 - 1815	Blend Your Own Wine Equatorial Wines' Mike Back, director and former winemaker takes us through what wine making is all about. He'll even walk you through blending your very own cuvee! Try your hand at putting various varietals together (you may stumble on a second career!)
1900 - 1945	Riedel Glass Masterclass Yes, the glass makes a difference. Don't believe it? Taste for yourself at this eye opening (or should we say palate opening) workshop!
2200 - 2245	Wine & Cheese Pairing It's a match made in heaven! Learn more about how to pair these two divine products - you may be converted to give up dessert for a cheese platter!

Friday 12th April

TIMING	CLASS / TOPIC
1330 - 1415	A Taste of Germany Get your German wine fix here. Join presenters from Magma as they bring you through a wine tasting session and get introduced into the world of German wines, grape varieties, and vine regions.
1630 - 1715	A Scottish Whisky Tour Get a tour of Scotland's whisky producing regions, offering a chance to discover the typical aromas and flavour found within each of Scotland's diverse whisky regions presented by Spirit of Scotland.
1800 - 1845	Riedel Glass Masterclass Yes, the glass makes a difference. Don't believe it? Taste for yourself at this eye opening (or should we say palate opening) workshop!
2100 - 2145	Wine & Cheese Pairing It's a match made in heaven! Learn more about how to pair these two divine products - you may be converted to give up dessert for a cheese platter!

Saturday 13th April

TIMING	CLASS / TOPIC
1630 - 1715	A Taste of Germany Get your German wine fix here. Join presenters from Magma as they bring you through a wine tasting session and get introduced into the world of German wines, grape varieties, and vine regions.
1800 - 1845	Sparkling Wine of Italy Italy has become quite famous for its fine Proseccos. Sandro Giorgi takes us through the wonderful bubbles of Italy - a tasty way to spend your time!
2100 - 2145	A Scottish Whisky Tour Get a tour of Scotland's whisky producing regions, offering a chance to discover the typical aromas and flavour found within each of Scotland's diverse whisky regions presented by Spirit of Scotland.

Sunday14th April 

TIMING	CLASS / TOPIC
1200 - 1245	Sparkling Wine of Italy Italy has become quite famous for its fine Proseccos. Sandro Giorgi takes us through the wonderful bubbles of Italy - a tasty way to spend your time!
1500 - 1545	Blend Your Own Wine Equatorial Wines' Mike Back, director and former winemaker takes us through what wine making is all about. He'll even walk you through blending your very own cuvee! Try your hand at putting various varietals together (you may stumble on a second career!)
1630 - 1715	A Guide to Food & Wine Pairing You might not know it but there is a general how-to guide to pairing your food with wine. Vincent, sommelier and wine guru at Absinthe shares his tips and tricks to making the perfect match.
1800 - 1845	A Taste of Germany Get your German wine fix here. Join presenters from Magma as they bring you through a wine tasting session and get introduced into the world of German wines, grape varieties, and vine regions.
2100 - 2145	Samaroli Whisky Tasting Excellence and uniqueness, these are the words enthusiasts currently use to describe Single Cask Single Malt whiskies at Samaroli tasting sessions. Taste the passion in these artfully crafted whiskies plus a special tasting of an aged Rum from Scotland!

 
Fingers crossed for favourable weather. See you there!

Charting the Course for Cool Climate Wines

 

If you want to make great wines, you have to be cool. Cool-climate, that is. That was the premise behind the Cool Climate Wine Seminar held in early March at the Taberna Wine Academy.  The discussion was facilitated by a panel with serious wine credentials, among them Masters of Wine Annette Scarfe and Andreas Wickhoff, author and German wine expert Joel Payne, and local wine educator Tan Ying Hsien. 

While scientists and politicians continue to debate the existence of climate change in their ivory towers, those whose livelihoods depend on cooperative weather have no doubts. Tasmania, a region with the distinction of having the coolest climate in Australia, suffered a series of heatwaves in January, reaching record temperatures of 41°C while in the northern hemisphere, widespread frost in Austria last year reduced the crop by 40%. “Temperatures are not moving only in the warmer direction,” said Andreas. “The extremities are also increasing, and that means colder winters, and drought issues. Younger wines are challenged, that’s a fact.”

Why the fuss about cool climate wines? Ying Hsien expounds, “Quality wines come from quality grapes, and the best quality grapes need a certain amount of time to grow, ripen and concentrate their phenolic elements. A cool climate helps to a large extent in terms of the growing process.” Additionally, a cool climate helps to preserve acidity and freshness in the wines. This was exemplified in the first flight of wines tasted, a selection of whites from Germany and Austria. “There is a real purity of fruit and a taut minerality here,” remarked Annette. “This is showing the grape at its best with a real expression of individual variety.”

Not all grapes are suited for cool climates. Late maturing varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache would lack colour and have unattractive stalky notes if planted in cool areas. The seminar focused on early ripening varieties such as Riesling and Pinot Noir, along with lesser-known red Austrian varieties such as Zweigelt and St. Laurent.  Also showing promise was Gruner Veltliner, a high quality white grape that is Austria’s claim to fame. Paired against a top Chardonnay from Burgundy, the panel found that the GV showed better, a result that has been duplicated at other blind tastings. Andreas commented that “Gruner Veltliner is a variety with great diversity. It is one of the few grape varieties that can handle artichoke for example. Try artichoke with Chardonnay or Riesling, and it will most likely clash.” 

The seminar covered three cool-climate wine regions located in the Old World; Austria, Germany and Burgundy, although the panel noted that the New World had its share of cool-climate regions as well such as Central Otago, Tasmania and Patagonia. With their common history, Austria and Germany share many wine terms, including a classification system based on must weights. This system has its roots in the not-unfounded belief that only the best sites could ripen grapes sufficiently given the cool climate of both countries. Climate change however has turned this notion on its head. “In Germany, sometimes we can harvest an Auslese (grapes that are extremely ripe) now in September when we could only harvest a Kabinett (grapes at normal ripeness) in November fifty years ago,” said Joel. Austria and Germany are now moving back to appellation-based systems; the former via the DAC system and the latter via the VDP four-tier classification.

During a highly anticipated blind tasting session, Pinot Noir wines from Burgundy were pitted against their counterparts from Germany. In an interesting twist, two vintages were included, the young 2009 and a more mature 2002. The 2002 Negociant Leroy Gevrey Chambertin was easy to pick out due to its tertiary notes, but it was a challenge identifying the other three wines. When the wines were revealed, it was a German Pinot Noir which had been voted the best by the audience. “Something that most people tend not to know is that after France, Germany and the United States have about the same amount of Pinot Noir planted. In the case of Germany, it is more than Australia and New Zealand combined,” commented Joel. 

The seminar lasted for seven hours, far longer than the normal duration for wine seminars. Yet despite the intense discussions and quantity of wines tasted, I was far from exhausted at the end of it. Annette gave another insight into the benefit of cool-climate wines – that they tend to be lower in alcohol. “We would never have been able to do a full day seminar if it involved heavy, alcoholic wines; everyone would have fallen asleep!”

Complete list of wines:

Photo courtesy of Wein & Vin

 
Flight 1
Dönnhoff Riesling trocken 2011
Loimer Riesling Kamptal DAC 2011
Loimer Grüner Veltliner Kamptal DAC 2011

Flight 2
Loimer Spiegel Grüner Veltliner Erste Lage Kamptal DAC Reserve 2010
Henri Boillot Puligny Montrachet Les Pucelles Premier Cru 2010

Flight 3 (tasted blind)
Loimer Spiegel Grüner Veltliner 2002
Negociant Leroy Meursault Blagny Premier Cru 2002
Loimer Seeberg Riesling 2008
Dönnhoff Hermannshöhle Riesling GG 2008

Flight 4
Heinrich Zwiegelt 2010
Heinrich Blaufränkisch 2010
Heinrich St. Laurent 2010
Heinrich Leithaberg Blaufränkisch 2010
Heinrich Alter Berg Blaufränkisch 2009

Flight 5
Heinrich Pannobile 2009
Heinrich Gabarinza 2009
Heinrich Gabarinza 1999

Flight 6
Loimer Terrassen Pinot Noir 2010
Heinrich Pinot Noir 2009
Huber Malterdinger Pinot Noir 2009
Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Village 2009

Flight 7 (tasted blind)
Huber Alte Reben Spätburgunder 2002
Negociant Leroy Gevrey Chambertin Premier Cru 2002
Huber Schlossberg Grosses Gewächs Spätburgunder 2009
Armand Rousseau Charmes Chambertin Grand Cru 2009

My top picks and tasting notes:

Photo courtesy of Wein & Vin

 
Dönnhoff Riesling trocken 2011 – Dönnhoff is one of the most famous estates in Germany and one of only ten that received a five star rating in Joel Payne’s German Wine Guide. Gossamer purity and steely acidity with a core of green fruit and lime. The term “moreish” is usually applied to food but could well be used here. And this is their entry level wine!

Loimer Spiegel Grüner Veltliner 2002 – Winemaker Fred Loimer has been practicing biodynamics since 2005 and espouses a minimal intervention approach to winemaking. This wine exhibits the heights that Grüner Veltliner can achieve with age. A nutty nose with smoky elements, overlaying green pea and fruit salad. Slightly oily on the palate with balanced acidity. Shows intriguing complexity. 

Huber Alte Reben Spätburgunder 2002 – Weingut Huber is located in Malterdingen, an area with a long tradition of making wines from Pinot Noir. The same Cistercian monks who brought Pinot Noir to Burgundy also brought the vine to Malterdingen, finding that the area had similar soils to that of the Cote d’Or.  This wine, made from vines ranging from 20 to 40 years old, exhibits seductive nuances of raspberry and red fruit with hints of underbrush and soya sauce. Firmly structured with soft tannins and a silky texture. Beautifully balanced. 

Wines available from Wein & Vin.

Bordeaux 2010 Revisited

The benefit of penning down one's thoughts is the ability to view snapshots of the past. Looking back at my notes written two years back during the Bordeaux 2010 en primeur, I wondered then if prices would rise or fall coming on the back of another stellar vintage. Those who had the stomach to ride the fine wine roller coaster would be heartened by a report in The Business Times indicating a rally as interest returned after a steep decline during the financial crisis. The price of a case of Château Latour 2010 traded for £10,994 on Liv-ex in late February according to the report, still down slightly from the £12,500 at which it traded soon after release in 2011. Latour of course has also made headlines by pulling out of the en primeur market altogether. 

The Union des Grand Crus was in Singapore on the 23rd of February to present the 2010 vintage. The organisation was flawlessly handled by Ch'ng Poh Tiong and his team from The Wine Review - no small feat given the number of visitors and chateau representatives present. There was a good cross section of Bordeaux appellations among the 80 participating chateaux, including Graves, Pessac-Léognan, St-Émilion, Pomerol, Margaux, St-Julien, Pauillac, St-Estèphe and the somewhat less prestigious Médoc, Haut-Médoc and Moulis appellations (although these last three do offer excellent value for money). Barsac and Sauternes were present as well, the wines from these appellations being barrel samples still as they had not completed their aging in oak. 

Many members of the trade were there; distributors, sommeliers, writers, as well as a fair number of non-trade visitors. For the chateau representatives, black and red seemed to be the colours of the day... were they cashing in on the Chinese New Year spirit? Spittoons and bread were liberally spread throughout the room, efficiently emptied or filled as necessary.

My general impression of the vintage is that it is still extremely young. While the 2009s are already charming, plump and full of juicy fruit, the 2010s are still tannic with many of them displaying noticeable alcohol (especially the wines from St-Émilion). There is plenty of power and concentration though. The sweet wines from Barsac and Sauternes on the other hand were lovely to drink due to the lush tropical fruit character, fresh acids and plenty of residual sugar. Clinton Ang, Managing Director of Hock Tong Bee Pte Ltd commented on the wines, "Some are approachable, some are too early to drink but they show potential, with good fruit concentration. A classic style."

A selection of my personal favourites as follows:

Château Carbonnieux (Pessac-Léognan) - 65% Sauvignon Blanc and remainder Semillon. Citrus, starfruit and guava notes with lovely minerality underpinned by a slightly oaky note. Well structured with high acidity supporting balanced fruit. 

Château Climens (Barsac) - A really classic Sauternes. Pure and unctuous yet maintains incredible freshness. Pronounced intensity both on nose and palate with barley sugar, apricots and honey. A superbly long finish.

Château La Tour Figeac (St-Émilion) - Loads of ripe black fruit. Warm and fleshy but wears the alcohol well. Approachable now. 

Château Le Bon Pasteur (Pomerol) - Quite unique... lots of expensive oak character. Toasty with clay and mint notes.  Not a hint of green here. 

Château La Lagune (Haut-Médoc) - Winemaker Caroline Frey continues to work her magic. Elegant and complex, with ripe dark fruit, cedar, underbrush and dark chocolate notes. Hint of blueberry. Oak is well-integrated.

An Interview with Olympia Romba of Monteverro

Olympia Romba has had a hectic schedule since she joined Monteverro as their Sales and Marketing Manager. Her first two years with Monteverro were spent establishing the brand in Europe and the United States. This year, Olympia’s schedule includes seeking distribution partners in Asian countries such as Bangkok, Cambodia, China and Singapore. Over drinks at the Fullerton Bay Hotel, she shared some background on this Italian winery.

How did Monteverro get started?

We are located in the Tuscany region, approximately an hour’s drive north from Rome. The land was bought in 2003 by Georg Weber, whose family’s core business in Germany is garden centres. He searched for years and years for the right place to plant a vineyard, until a friend told him to look in the Maremma area in Tuscany. He contacted Lydia and Claude Bourguignon to do some soil analysis, and asked Michel Rolland to check the place. Everyone said that this would be a gorgeous place to plant vines, because the terroir is very rich in minerals, and proximity to the sea creates fresh, cooling breezes. The first vines were planted in 2004, and the first vintage was in 2008. 

Who are the other people behind Monteverro?

Our Technical Director is Michael Voegele, he constructed the cellar, which works on gravity instead of using pumps. Matthieu Taunay is our winemaker, he joined in 2008 for our first vintage. He is assisted by consulting oenologist Michel Rolland, Alpha Omega winemaker Jean Hoefliger, pruning expert Michel Duclos and soil experts Lydia and Claude Bourguignon. I joined in 2010 when the first vintage was bottled. Previously I was working in Bordeaux for fifteen years. 

What is the range of wines that Monteverro produces?
 
We make a limited quantity of Chardonnay from 1 hectare of vineyards located nearest to the sea, around 3000 bottles. We also make a Syrah/Grenache blend called Tinata from 2 hectares of vineyard, and we only produce 8000 bottles. These two are our niche products. The majority of our activity is Bordeaux grape varieties – Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot. Of our second wine, Terra di Monteverro, we are producing 30,000 – 35,000 bottles, and of our Grand Cru, approximately 15,000 bottles. 

The goal of Monteverro is to become the “Premier Grand Cru” of Tuscany. What does that mean?
 
Our wish is to be considered, in five, maybe ten years, equivalent in quality and reputation to the Premier Grand Crus of Bordeaux, like the Chateau Latour of Italy. 

And in price as well?
 
[laughs] For the moment, we are very affordable compared to some Bordeaux wines. 

 
Are you experimenting with any other varieties?
 
Starting around March or April this year, we will be releasing a Vermentino based white wine. It is a light and easy drinking wine for the local restaurants.
 
There is an unusually high percentage of Cabernet Franc in the two Bordeaux blends (around 40%). Why is this so? 

If you ask me and if you ask our oenologist, which is the most noble grape variety in our area, we would say Cabernet Franc. It grows well for what we want – we want elegant wines, very fine wines with a certain structure and aging potential, but not too blockbuster. If we were to produce a wine from a single variety, we would choose Cabernet Franc. 

What would you like people to think about when they are drinking a wine from Monteverro?
 
A lot of people who have visited our winery have said that we are the locomotive of this area. We are the pioneers to produce a high-quality, Super Tuscan wine in this part of Tuscany [Maremma], which is not as well-known yet as Bolgheri.

Cool Wines Seminar

Wein & Vin is holding a Cool Wines seminar on the 9th of March (Saturday) featuring wines from Austria and Germany (with a couple of top-notch Burgundies thrown in as well). The seminar is billed as a learning platform for cool climate wines - definition, climate, geography, terroir, taste profile, and styles. 

I would go just for the opportunity to taste these wines, but as icing on the cake the tasting will be guided by wine experts Annette Scarfe MW, Andreas Wickhoff MW, Joel Payne, and Singapore's own Tan Ying Hsien. 

Details as follows.

Date: 9th March (Sat)
Time: 9.30am to 6pm
Venue: Taberna Wine Academy
17 Binjai Park, S 589825
Price: Whole Day Seminar (including lunch) at $400 (save 20% - early bird package)
Registration after 1st March is $450.

To register e-mail Wein & Vin at info@weinvin.com or call +65 9009 3827. 

More info here.

Of Arcane Wine Gadgets and Wine Tasting

Somewhere in the not too distant future, a man bringing his wife out for a romantic dinner will chance upon a highly-rated restaurant in their neighborhood. Entranced by the gleaming, modern interior, the young couple decide to give it a try. Hoping to impress his wife, the husband orders an expensive wine using a tablet device provided by the waiter (printed menus have become so passé). The sommelier then sweeps in wearing an impeccably pressed uniform and trailing a faint whiff of Romanée-Conti. That’s when the fun begins.

"Thank you for joining us this evening sir. I notice that you have selected the Chateau Pretentious to accompany your meal. An excellent choice. May I recommend a glass to suit your wine?" The husband, somewhat confusedly, nods his head. "We have a collection of over twenty types of glasses. For your wine I would choose either the Riedel Sommeliers Bordeaux Grand Cru or the Spiegelau Vino Grande Bordeaux. Both are designed to enhance the subtle nuances of your wine and deliver greater drinking pleasure." The husband chooses the former as it is easier to pronounce and the sommelier efficiently delivers both wine and glasses to the table.

"How would you like your wine to be seasoned Sir?" "Seasoned?" asks the husband. "Yes sir, it's the newest trend in drinking wine. Just like how the flavour of food can be enhanced by a dash of salt or pepper, now we provide customers such as yourself the option to alter the taste of wine according to your preference. The tools that make this miracle possible use either frequency technology, metal alloys or magnetic fields."

The husband is starting to sweat. This discussion is definitely venturing into realms arcane. "Uh lets try the metal alloy thing." From a deep recess of his apron, the sommelier whips out a small device shaped like a comma. "Every second this is immersed in your wine, it ages the wine by a year." "That's amazing!" says the wife. "Lets see what this wine will taste like in 30 years!" The sommelier duly pours out two glasses and dips the device in each glass for exactly thirty seconds. The couple taste the wine and look at each other. It certainly doesn't taste like the wine had been aged for thirty years, but they are reluctant to override the sommelier.

"Ah, here come your appetisers now," says the sommelier. "I'll leave you to enjoy your dinner." A bustling waitress carrying a tray of food comes over to the relieved couple. "Would you like to have any other drinks?" she chirps. The husband and wife decide to play it safe and order water. 

"Certainly; we have tap, distilled, artesian, mineral, spring..."

Indigenous vs. International Varieties

Wine writer Jancis Robinson has just released a new book titled “Wine Grapes - A complete guide to 1,368 vine varieties, including their origins and flavours”. The ideal holiday gift for your wine-crazy friend, although at a hefty 3 kg, it would be challenging stuffing this into a Christmas stocking. A tasting masterclass was held last month to commemorate the book launch. A point of interest was that the featured wines included not a drop of Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon or any other international and well-known varieties. Instead there were wines made from indigenous grapes such as Norton, Godello, and the tongue-twisting Öküzgözü. Unusual and obscure, these historical cultivars still play an important role in their domicile market.  

From one viewpoint, things have never looked brighter in the world of wine. The influence of oenological consultants and flying winemakers has raised the average quality of wine substantially. Domestic wine consumption is growing steadily year-on-year, fuelled by a vibrant dining scene. This in turn has led to more wine events and visits from producers keen to establish a local presence. As British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan said to his electorate during the post-war boom years, “You’ve never had it so good.”

But have we sacrificed diversity at the altar of familiarity? A quick browse of supermarket shelves reveals a wine selection dominated by a handful of varieties; Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Shiraz for the reds, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling for the whites. The wine lists of far too many restaurants are filled with safe but bland expressions of the same repetitious varieties. This situation is a far different cry from the UK, a market so far unrivalled in the breadth and scope of wines available. 

In theory, we would all want to support having more wines made from indigenous varieties. We associate these wines as having more character and heritage, made in an artisanal style as opposed to mass-produced wines fashioned for an international palate. However, retailers have only so much shelf space to play with. Would they rather display an unproven wine or one whose label customers recognise? How much are we creatures of habit, and to what extent are we willing to experiment?

Winning consumer acceptance of an unfamiliar variety takes patience and effort. An effective and natural way is to promote these wines alongside their national cuisine. Recently, I was delighted to discover Blu Kouzina, an unpretentious Greek restaurant along Bukit Timah Road. The wine list contained an extensive selection of Greek wines made from indigenous varieties such as Assyrtiko and Xinomavro, which matched the food effortlessly. When a restaurant takes the time to craft a wine list that includes selections from the same locality as the menu, I am reassured that they are providing a truly authentic dining experience. 

Amongst wine critics, there is a disquieting worry that the globalisation of wine has caused a loss of distinctiveness. Jumping onto the bandwagon and emulating famous regions such as Bordeaux and Burgundy may yield short-term results, but in the long-term producers may find themselves in the uncomfortable position of competing with thousands of other identikit wines. More lamentable would be the irreparable loss of vine diversity and genetic material as indigenous grapes are uprooted and replaced with international varieties. 

How does the consumer fit into this debate? As our palates become more sophisticated, a sense of adventure is both healthy and a gateway to further wine knowledge. The joy of discovery is accompanied by bragging rights as well. A fellow wine lover may comment, “I had a glass of Château Mouton Rothschild 1996 last night…”, to which you’d reply “That’s nice, but have you ever tried a Narince from Central Anatolia?” Not very likely. 

Our collective appreciation and understanding of wines has progressed much in the last two decades. The next step is to move out of our comfort zones and actively seek out wine made from local varieties, which is usually more reflective of a region’s history and unique terroir than an international variety parachuted in to satisfy market demand. The day is surely not far off when we are as comfortable ordering a Nerello Mascalese as a Cabernet Sauvignon.


The above article was published in the December issue of Appetite Magazine.