• i was back at my fav city London (the city with the jazz) 3 times this year
• i visited Spain once, France once, and Italy twice
• i had a great 2 week break in Thailand
• I made 4 trips to Singapore, mainly for business but managed to squeeze some wine tastings in it!
• learnt new photography tricks at a special trip to Sukau, Sabah
• Met global entrepreneurs in Hong Kong
• took tons of pictures at Angkor Wat, Cambodia which left me in aw and wanting more.

2010 promises to be a year of CHANGE, and more updates coming along!Have a great Christmas break and don’t forget to drink good wines - life’s just too short for the crappy stuff.

A thousand men worked on the site using more than 50,000 tonnes of stone. It’s amazing when you think of it. Today we take construction of things like this for granted but in AD 38 when construction started, I cannot even begin to fathom how they managed to lift the stones and place them in the correct position. No cement was used to join the stones, and it’s all just precise architecture holding it.

This is on the Unesco World Heritage list, and it deserves to be on it!

These 2 pictures were taken from the top of the Pont (where the water used to flow across). I did a very amaterish job of combining the photos to give you a better representation of the view which I appreciated today!

We then went for lunch and then to Nimes, a place which I already went to yesterday. Tomorrow we begin proper business of meeting wine producers and doing further tastings so I better take a good rest tonight. More later…

First day at Sud de France. I was overwhelmed when I walked into the hall. Some 1500 wines are available for us to try - just look at the rows of wines.

I found a few interesting wines - at least label wise. This one says “Croak Rotie” - obviously a Rhone wine maker with a sense of humour. Tried it, it was nice for the price but doubtful that it’s a Cote Rotie…probably why it’s “Croak”

1+1=3  I like this concept!

Great looking art on the label. These wines are bio dynamic wines and I must say, I quite like all 3 of them. Mainly Syrah, Grenache, Carignan blends of different proportions but it’s fruity, has a nice jammy note to it, and leaves an impression in your mouth.

I decided to go spend a night with Chateau Mas Neuf the next day since there was not much going on at the show. We will be back to serious business in 2 days time.

chateau Mas Neuf is distributed by Wine Cellar in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Luc the owner and winemaker was kind enough to allow me to spend a night at their guest house.

The guest room I slept in

Nice little kitchen and dining area

There is another guest room upstairs

After breakfast today, I decided to take a walk around the vineyards just surrounding the main house.

Some old vines - it’s winter now so you don’t see much

Well pruned vineyards waiting for spring to bud.

The kind of “soil” for the vines. The more stress it creates the better the wines.

They also have 1 hectare of olive oil - totally forgot to taste it! Darn! Luc, remember to bring me a bottle on your next trip to KL!

There is a lab inside this building which tests the wines.

The numerous awards and accolates given to Mas Neuf. It’s true - I can verify it for all of you my valued customers. Luc wasn’t lying when he came to KL and told you guys….

The tasting room area. I noticed that there were some wines we do not carry and did not have information about (see top shelf, last 4 wines on the right corner). The sweeter wines which Luc told me later that they only do once a year (about 400 bottles only) and it’s different each year. Nice!

We had lunch nearby at a nice restaurant which offered such a good value lunch at Euro14. And the chef uses only what’s fresh for the day hence offering only 2 choices respectively of each course (starter, mains and dessert). It was scrumptious!

Some barrel tasting after lunch - all I can tell you is expect to have some kick ass wines coming your way when it’s bottled.

Time to go - Luc dropped me off at Nimes, a smallish town of 300,000 people or so. I walked around a little before taking the 8pm train back to Montpellier.

The Arena like the one in Rome and Verona (dejavu). But this one had the matador statue in front. From what little I have heard here, they quite enjoy playing games with the bulls. And the bulls have an appellation system (AOC) where their breed is controlled strictly - not everyone is authorised to breed these bulls.
 

Picture taken from Bar Rouge - a great view from the Bund! Unfortunately, it was not conducive to sit outside that night as temperature were around 2 deg Celcius

The west lake of Hangzhou in the background. Temperature was quite friendly at around 8 deg Celcius.

I enjoyed this very much as I like fruity and fresh style beers. This beer had a nice fruitiness to it and is a great refreshing drink to start  or end your day! haha….

It’s also the first time seeing a “free from formaldehyde” label on a beer can. There is an ongoing debate on whether Asian breweries use formaldehyde as a clarifying agent in their beers. And yes, formaldehyde can kill!  There are some reports on the use of formaldehyde by small Chinese breweries. Thank goodness I chose one which had this label on! Anyway, if it’s really true that some breweries use this as a clarifying agent, the owners should be shot - how can one knowingly add this substance which can cause leukemia and brain cancer.

CLICK HERE FOR AN ENLARGED IMAGE

 I was at Max’s kitchen last night enjoying a great 3 course meal but had to opt for the Portobello mushroom salad, the Cod fish and half of a Chocolate souffle. And guess what I drank?  I had Sole mineral water!

I guess it makes you focus - considering I have 4 official dinners to attend next week all revolving around wines, I am going to be put in a very difficult position to refuse good wines!

Wish me luck! And I would like to also welcome anyone out there to join me in this run!! Go check it out on their website:

http://www.singaporemarathon.com/en/