Wine for Dragons

Singapore Wine Blog... Wine Reviews and Tastings... Review of Wine bars and Wine accessories...

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Wine News : Corkage fees in Singapore

The Strait Times on 19 May Sunday wrote about the Corkage Fees in Singapore by Rebecca Lynne Tan.
I read the article and wanted to pen down several thoughts.

http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/SoShiok/Story/A1Story20130521-424304.html
  • The reason given for the corkage charge "The corkage charge is there because we handle the wine with care, we decant if necessary and we provide and use the most suitable glass for that particular wine." is so lame and unbelievable that the journalist actually published it. All that work does not cost $50-$100.
  • The main reason for restaurants to charge a corkage fee is that they actually mark up the prices of the wine by up to 300% ! If you bring your own wine to the restaurant, even with the corkage fees, you will be better off financially (depending on the price of course, more expensive the less the fraction of corkage it is).
  • The public service done by the journalist is to list down the restaurants that have BYOB and one-for-one offers.
  • But in conclusion, prices for wines in Singapore restaurants are out-of-the-world and you are better off enjoying your wines at home.

posted by DesDragon @ 8:47 PM   0 comments

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Wine Entry : Villa Maria Pinot Noir 2010 (New Zealand)

Villa Maria Pinot Noir 2010 from New Zealand
Light, smooth, easy drinking with fresh cherries overtures
Will I drink again ? Yes, together with a light meal

posted by DesDragon @ 4:27 PM   0 comments

Friday, March 22, 2013

Wine News : Chile vs Argentina Wines

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I personally have not had good impressions of Argentina wines compared to Chilean ones. I find them more rough and unrefined in comparison.


Why are Cabernets in Argentina consistently bad when compared to the Cabernets made just across the Andes in Chile?

I just don't think you're going to impress many by pouring an Argentine Cabernet. Why is that when they Cabernets from Chile come from the same mountain range and the Malbecs from here are so good?

Generally The pacific side of the Andes provides more rain and humidity allowing the Chilean Cabernets to flourish. The Argentine side is much drier and favors the Malbec.

Here is the write-up in Bloomberg trying to promote them.

Argentine Wines Have Mile-High Taste, Rock Bottom Prices

After nine years of economic boom, Argentina again teeters on its own fiscal cliff. Yet the one continuing bright spot in the country's economy is its wine industry, which has record sales abroad based on high quality wine at remarkably modest prices.

According to the Wines of Argentina, sales of the country’s malbec, the dominant varietal here, grew by double digits worldwide from 2004 through 2011, while the number of cases exported to the U.S. more than doubled from 2007 through 2012. At a time when the global market is glutted, Argentina is the world’s fifth largest wine producer.

The country’s last financial crash in 2002 gave the wine industry a boost when exports benefited from a weaker peso and falling land prices made it cheaper to plant vines.

Seventy percent of Argentina’s wines come from the Mendoza region, whose 900 vineyards occupy 370,500 acres spread across desert-like terrain as high as 5,800 feet. The altitude, dry soil and low humidity help protect against the effects of global warming. The influence of warm and cold ocean currents el nino and la nina are mitigated, and phylloxera blight is kept at bay.

Wine Pioneer

A number of highly-praised labels are now coming out of Argentina, including Bodegas Salentein and BenMarco. But none has the pedigree or clout of Nicolas Catena Family Estates, founded in 1902, with vineyards throughout Mendoza.

His great granddaughter, Laura Catena, is both managing director of the company and a physician. She graduated magna cum laude in biology from Harvard and earned a medical degree in emergency care from Stanford. The mother of three (her husband is also a doctor), Catena splits her time between her San Francisco medical practice and her family’s winery in Mendoza.

“My personal motto is ‘Hard on issues, soft on people,’” she told me during a visit to the Catena Zapata winery. “We constantly work on quality through rigorous blending. A bottle of wine is like an orchestra: the instruments are all wonderful on their own, but together they create a truly beautiful sound.”

The family was also a pioneer, starting in 1994, in growing malbec, a grape used for softening cabernet blends in Bordeaux, which is now Argentina’s most admired varietal.

Beginning in 2001, Catena brought her scientific knowledge to bear on improving malbec to the point where it replaced cabernet sauvignon as their principal varietal.

Catena Zapata’s high altitude vineyards now produce some of the most prestigious wines in Argentina, none exceeding 14.5 percent alcohol levels. “We hate high alcohol,” Catena insists, as we sample some of her wines.

posted by DesDragon @ 5:18 PM   0 comments

Monday, February 25, 2013

Wine Fair : Enoteca Wine Promotion

Enoteca Wine Promotion from 1 Feb to 31 March 2013. They are located in the basement of Takashimaya Shopping Centre. Enjoy!


posted by DesDragon @ 5:05 PM   0 comments

Thursday, January 03, 2013

Wine Entry : STABLES 2011 Late Harvest Hawks Bay (New Zealand)

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Opened this bottle of sweet wine to welcome in the New Year 2013 ! Nice and fruity, mildly sweet but had a metallic aftertaste.

Taste description at the back of the bottle - "luscious palate of ripe peach with lingering flavours of turkish delight. Best served lightly chilled." Maybe their aftertaste of turkish delight was metallic???

posted by DesDragon @ 4:58 PM   0 comments

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Wine News : Robert Parker's wine bible moving to Singapore

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Wow! Ground breaking news! Robert Parker's The Wine Advocate is moving to Singapore ! The Wine Advocate's current office is next to Parker's home in Maryland farm country. Hope the staff will not feel claustrophobic in Singapore!

It looks like he sold out to a group of interested wine lovers from the Finance and IT sectors. I guess with the advent of the Internet and demise of the printed media, it was a good decision to do so. The only thing I found really funny in the article was that it said that "Singapore is a Southeast Asian financial centre with close business and cultural links to China." Any wonder why Forbes even mistook Singapore as being in China?

http://www.soshiok.com/article/21697

posted by DesDragon @ 3:55 PM   0 comments

Saturday, December 08, 2012

Wine Entry : Gibbston Valley Pinot Noir 2011

Taste : Nice bright Pinot Noir from Central Otago, richer and denser in flavour than most Pinots, but had too acidic an aftertaste for my liking. Would probably do well being decanted or left to cellar longer.

Write up at back of bottle : Blended from Gibbston Valley's Bendigo and Gibbston Valley vineyards. This is a full flavoured style with real intensity, length and elegance. Cellar between 5-10 years. Winemaker : Christopher Keys.

posted by DesDragon @ 6:16 AM   0 comments