Last Tuesday evening (25th Jan) was Burn's Night. I've been celebrating this Scottish knees-up since living in Edinburgh in the early 90's and nothing can stop me from reciting a bit of poetry and piping in the Haggis. Even when I lived in Melbourne, Australia, for a year, I managed to get a Haggis from a department store in town. Not this time! It seems that although the Singaporeans like nothing more that a bit of Pig Organ Soup they draw the line at lungs and oatmeal wrapped in sheep's stomach lining; what the hell's wrong with them?!
Disappointed, obviously, I had to settle for the next best thing - Australia Day! This involves eating pies and sausage rolls, stuffing barbequed meat into rolls and then into mouth and guzzling lager at speed and in quantity. This is exactly what we're been doing for years in England; we just call it Friday or Saturday night.
Even I wasn't thrilled at the idea and was naively considering a day off the booze until the evil Twitter, Facebook and Blogger triangle conspired to make me go out. While innocently trawling through a list of wine companies that might potentially give me a job, and signing up to all sorts of social media sites, I was virtually be-friended by Greg, of The Asia Wine Society.
The Asia Wine Society is also affiliated with Rubicon Reserve Wines and Greg was helping organise an Australian Day bash at the company's headquarters on Clarke Quay. The event was to consist of an unlimited (Free Pour) bar of wine and beer and as much BBQ, sausage roll & meat pie as you could eat. Was I interested in a complementary pass for me and the Missus? Is the Pope a Catholic?! As Greg is American and I am British, the idea of us both going to an Australian Day booze-up was like a Buddhist and a Hindu popping in for Holy Communion. Hey; there was plenty of bread and wine!
As I was networking, I thought it was only right that I didn't get completely smashed even though the opportunity was there...how I've changed...!
As Greg was so kind to invite me along I did a few notes about the wines on offer. The guys at Rubicon wines were keen to point out that these were more quaffing wines as this was a fairly relaxed event, but even so I found some really good stuff here and the retail prices were very reasonable. Here are my thoughts on the night's selection:
The best of the evening's wines was The Lakes Reserve Brut fromYaldara, a sparkler from Adelaide Hills. The cheapest wine of the night, at $25 it represents seriously good value.
Fresh lemon and grapefruit flavours abound with a creamy spritz - delicious!
My second favourite was the Goode Pinot Gris 2009 a great South Australian wine that should go down a storm here in Singapore. It seems made for Asian dishes: lots of lychee, white pepper and spice on the nose and palate. Rich yet refreshing.
Of the reds, I thought the Red Earth Shiraz was very interesting: Plum crumble. blackcurrant, cloves, bay and cola cubes were all present on the palate. At $32 this was pushing the price a little, but this is Singapore and prices are always steep so still a relative bargain.
I look forward to trying the more 'serious' wines at some point in the near future as this was a great start!
Thanks again to Greg and the gang.
Was starting to worry about you ...! Good to have you back.
ReplyDeleteTell me more about this 'complementary pass' - what did it go well with? ;-)
PS the word verification check for my last comment was 'nestsin' - irritatingly close to that classic chocolate bar, Nutsin ('so good, it's a sin').
ReplyDeleteWhere did Nutsin go eh?!
ReplyDeleteDid they realise their innuendo too late?