This is what I’m asking you to do this week! In conjunction with the Harley riding winemaker Fritz Hasselbach from Gunderloch and Johannes Selbach from Selbach-Oster’s visit during the week of 20/8-27/8/08, we decided to do a German Fest in August 08 and hence you need to only Kiss French and Drink German this week!

Throughout the week, we have planned wine dinners, wine tastings, and a wine fest with wine workshops. If you only can come to 1 event, I would recommend you sign up for our

AUGUST FEST: Kiss French, Drink German event.

for only RM35/person (refundable if you purchase RM150 worth of wines), you get to try 15 types of German wines from top producers, and 5 types of German beers. Click here for further information.

See you there!!

We had a very successful wine dinner with Ed Soon (click here for information on it if you did not read about this)

Thanks Ed and to the team from D!sh - looking forward to the next WOW event!

(L-R): me, my partner Eu-jin, Ed Soon, Jenny, Alex and Charles

i love music, both listening (mainly to jazz, rock and pop acoustic) and playing. So when I read this article that said that research has found that music can change the way wine tastes, i needed to find out more!  Apparently, if we tasted a piece of rock music with Cabernet Sauvignon, the Cabernet Sauvignon is perceived as being 60% more powerful, rich and robust than when no music is heard.

This is going to be my next experiment with my team after we are done with KISS FRENCH and DRINK GERMAN week! (for those who want to attend, go to http://www.winecellar.com.my/augustfest.htm for more information)

Have a read, and if you have tried it, please email me your comments!

In the midst of tasting some of the greatest Italian wines on my recent trip to Villa Le Corti in Tuscany, we were invited to try 7 of the finest champagnes ever made in the world. My initial thought was “what a strange place to suddenly get a chance to try some of the great growths like Salon 96, Krug 96 and so on”. But who am I to complain if someone wants to open RM5000 worth of champagnes for me to evaluate.  I instantly agree to participate!

The room was packed. I was lucky we had special arrangements to bring us in. We had a real treat as sitting in front of us were a few representatives who were flown in from Champagne just to give us a running commentary whilst we taste the champagnes. On the panel were: Didier Depond (from Salon), Marcelo Luneli (from Ferrari), Nicola Sarzi (Italian distributor of Henri Goutorbe), Jean Louis Bonnaire (from Bonnaire).

I immediately suspected upon seeing the way the wine mats were layed out that this was going to be a blind tasting, and I was extremely certain that it was to prove a point. And it was so true - there is no free lunch in this world!

The objective of today’s tasting: To line up 7 of the top champagnes against 1 non champagne from Ferrari and it will be served blind to eliminate all external factors which affect the taster’s perception of the wine, and find out if the majority is able to pin point which glass is the non champagne from Ferrari.

The 7 Champagnes and 1 sparkling but we didn’t know in what order it was being served in.

But we knew what the 8 wines were. An impressive list as follows:

(1) Champagne Bonnaire Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs 2002
(2) Champagne Delamotte Blanc de Blancs 1999
(3) Ferrari Giulio Ferrari Riserva del Fondatore Talento Trento DOC 1995
(4) Champagne Henri Goutorbe Special Club 2000
(5) Champagne Krug 1996
(6) Champagne Legras & Haas Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs 2002
(7) Champagne Pol Roger Brut Vintage 1999
(8) Champagne Salon 1996

Bruno Bruchi (right) giving a commentary in Italian before the bottles were unvieled.

The foil on the bottles were unvieled one by one as the owners/importers of each Champagne/sparkling wine gave a short description of the wine.

I got everything wrong in my guess work except 2 champagnes - which 2 do you think I managed to suss out? (results at the end)

Anyway, here is a short description of each wine we tasted:

Champagne Bonnaire Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs 2002
100% Chardonnay. Delicate and extremely complex, it has an immense wealth of floral, leafy tones. Its short ageing process has imbued it with warm and exquisite fruity notes…superb scents of almonds and pralines.

Champagne Delamotte Blanc de Blancs 1999
100% Chardonnay from Cote des Blancs: Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, Avize, Oger - some of the best sites for Chardonnay grapes in Champagne. You get aromas of white blossom, apricots and peaches and on the palate candied fruit and ripe citrus zestiness.

Ferrari Giulio Ferrari Riserva del Fondatore Talento Trento DOC 1995
100% Chardonnay. The only non Champagne in this tasting. Elegant and well-balanced, with velvety, well-knit fruit that is remniscence of vanilla, acacia honey and freshly-mown hay, combined with attractive floral notes. All of these sensations contribute to an overall flavor of great breed and remarkable persistence.

Champagne Henri Goutorbe Special Club 2000
70% Pinot Noir 30% Chardonnay blend. Hints of toast and strawberries in the aroma. On the palate, very lively with dried apricots and slight red berry notes.

Champagne Krug 1996
A blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir & Pinot Meunier. A very intense champane with flavours of toast, mocha, ripe fruit, fresh pear, candied lemon, honey and gingerbread.

It’s been said that this wine could very well be the next 1928 which was one of Krug’s best champagne made this century. Only time will tell!

Champagne Legras & Haas Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs 2002
100% Chardonnay. Quite light and delicate, this champagne has a nice balance between toast/yeast and an “appley”zestiness.

Champagne Pol Roger Brut Vintage 1999
A blend of 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay. Floral aromas of roses with an underlying toastiness like brioche. Flavours of candied fruit and tanginess coats your palate.

Champagne Salon 1996

100% Chardonnay. This was my favourite wine and I picked it our almost instantly. I’ve always said to people, if you want to know which years are good in Champagne, there’s no need to refer to vintage charts and all that - just check out Salon’s website and find out which years they produced champagnes. Only 37 vintages were produced in the last century (1900-2000) - that’s how anal they are about producing good quality champagnes.

Salon 1996 is crystalline and lively. The bubbles are fine & active Aromas of green apple, followed by citrus, lemon and grapefruit appear followed by subtle notes of pear and kiwi after some aeration. On the palate, there is complex freshness and pronounced minerality. This wine is well-defined, virile, vigorous and with contained power.

The 2 wines I managed to suss out:

1) Champagne Salon 1996
2) Champagne Krug 1996

but both were extremely different in character albeit same vintage.

In the end, very few people actually managed to identify the non champagne wine from Ferrari. And this really reinforced the purpose of this blind tasting to show the world that Italians can make a sparkling wine of equal or better quality than Champagne! Bravo to the organiser and Mr Bruno Bruchi! I look forward to your next super blind tasting……..

the ed soon dinner is this tuesday 12/8/08, and i’m especially excited because I’ve not met my friends from Singapore for quite some time. Young, energetic wine & food writer Jenny Tan, her entourage and Ed Soon, renowned wine author, enologist, speaker and friend whom I’ve also not met for ages will be down to lead us all through a dinner themed:

The Perfect Pairing with Bordeaux Wines

One exciting part of the evening is where Ed Soon will show us how we should and should not pair Bordeaux wines with - an interactive session where you will get to try the combinatons of wine with chilli, lime sauce, fish sauce, and black sweet sauce.

If you enjoy reading about food & wines, Ed Soon will also have limited autographed copies of his latest book “Wine with Asian Food” which you can purchase for RM75/book if you are attending this dinner.

We only have a handful of seats left and a few books left for purchase so if you can make it, please book as soon as you can.

Anyway, details in summary:

Venue: Tasting Room wine bistro (www.tastingroom.com.my)
Date: 12/08/08 (Tuesday)
Time: 7.15pm sharp
Price: RM259/person

Click here for more information

I was recently given a bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and it had the new revolutionary cork called Zork on it. I read about this a couple of years back but had not seen one in real life before so this was quite exciting.

We finally had some time to try the wines.

Presenting to you …..ZORK!

Zork - made out of polyethylene which is supposedly the purest form of polymer available for the food packaging industry.

The wine that decided to embrace Zork.

The honour to open our first Zork experience was given to Lindsay. Step 1: Break the plastic seal and remove the tear tab.

Pull it out

Pull the Zork out and you’ll hear a conventional POP just like a cork!

The good thing is that you can reseal it by pushing the Zork back in quiet easily without worrying about breaking the cork. And the best thing of all is when you remove the Zork again, the POP sounds magically comes out!

In my opinion, it was easy to open, and a good alternative but i have the following questions and worries:
- what is the long term performance of a Zork? are there conclusive tests on this product?
- is it environmentally friendly to produce the Zork? what is the carbon footprint like?

More information can be found at www.zork.com.au

What are your thoughts on this? I’d like to know.

We are inviting Ed Soon, a friend whom I haven’t met for ages to come down to our new wine bistro Tasting Room to do an interactive Bordeaux wine dinner entitled “The Perfect Pairing with Bordeaux Wines“. I hope to see some of you there for this dinner as we have got some interesting pairing experiences for you.

Ed Soon: wine author, speaker, and enologist

Details of this dinner:
Location: Tasting Room wine bistro (www.tastingroom.com.my)
Date: 12 August 2008 (Tuesday)
Time: 7.15pm sharp
Price: RM259/person

Please RSVP to Ms. Lindsay Searle at 03-20931919, 20932919, 017-2400640 or lindsay@winecellar.com.my

A one-night only affair, the dinner will be conducted by renowned wine author, speaker and enologist Edwin Soon. A familiar name in Malaysia for his regular wine columns in The Star newspaper, Soon will be sharing the principles of food and wine pairing with guests during the Bordeaux wine dinner and will put some emphasis on Asian dishes. Unlike most wine dinners, this will involve an interactive session, where guests will be able to test and taste for themselves how different flavours can bring out the best and worst of wines.

Five Bordeaux wines will be tasted ranging from whites, reds, and Sauternes. It will be accompanied with a 4 course customised European menu with hints of Asian influences.

We will also be making available Ed Soon’s latest book entitled “Wine with Asian Food: New Frontiers in taste”. Limited autographed copies will be made available for sale on the night of the dinner for RM75/book (normal price RM100). Please ensure you make a booking for your copy when you reserve your seat with us.

For more information on this dinner, please click on this link.

if money was no object!!

it’s one of those days in which i wish i was in semi retirement enjoying my any claret of my choice whilst reading my favourite book….:)

anyway, this was the 1928 chateau haut brion which is one of my associates in london is trying to sell off:

It seems like it’s in pretty decent condition. Estimated retail price in Malaysia probably RM15,000 per bottle.

Anyway, if it’s still available when I semi retire very soon(!), I’ll post up another invite to you guys k?

Ratings from Robert Parker (97/100)
At its best, it is the most concentrated, port-like wine I have ever tasted from Haut-Brion. Its huge, meaty, tar, caramel, and jammy black fruit character is unctuously-textured. The wine oozes out of the glass and over the palate. In some tastings it has been over-ripe, yet healthy and intact, but nearly bizarre because of its exaggerated style. There is a timeless aspect to it.

have a good weekend and stop drinking that plonk! life’s just too short for crappy wines!

cheers,

I came across this interesting bottle with a doggie’s paw all over it. I think my two dogs would be quite pleased with it.

I can’t tell you where this bottle came from though. If anyone has seen this bottle before, please drop me an email. I really want to know which vineyard is producing this.

 I was given this bottle by an Indian wine producer - am unsure if he is actually using this as his official bottle as it seemed to me that he only used this bottle to carry his sample white wine from India. Anyway, the wines tasted quite bad - so nothing great to blog on!

This was one of our ad hoc trips which took us to the suburb of Manjalara - somewhere near Kepong where we ate at a stall which specialises in Dim Sum, the chinese style dumplings. True to our style, we ate and drank to our heart’s delight and kept sufficiently sober to report our findings to you!

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