sweet...thanks for the notification. btw I updated my blog for last week's entry, will be drinking another later this weekend (tomorrow to post another one quickly!) the blog link is on the first page.
I also went to the Food Safari at Suntec City and my friends and I did walk through the entire thing and sampled some of the nice food. But as for the drinks and wine, I visited every wine booth and for most of them I wasn't very satisfied; here's a quick summary and my thoughts of the various wine booths.
California Wine Institute: Sampled 2 Californian Chardonnays, Stone Cellars & Cycles Gladiator. In the US both are considered entry level wines with the Stone Cellars one of a cheaper price. Over there at Suntec it retailed at a promotional price of $21 & $30 respectively. Cycles Gladiator was 'better' in my opinion but still did not warrant a $30 price tag; it had more body and complexity than the stone cellars one which had a very short finish and very simple, but it was suited at the $21 price point.
They had other californian wines for sale as well but most of them weren't for sampling. It was alright I guess with most of their wines in the entry level range but they did have some $80 wines.
Delphi: It brought in the Calvet line of wine that is available in supermarkets now, but of course they were selling it at a promotional price. I was with my French friend who is on exchange here in Singapore and she was laughing at one of the party sparking wine that they were selling. It was 3.5% alcohol and more for a fun and young people to drink, they came in flavours of apple, lime and others. It retailed for $12 and she said in France you can get the same thing for 1 Euros. I sampled the Calvet Bordeaux which cost $21 which was terrible, it was really over-oaked...too much oak, or as they say an 'Oak Monster'.
La Rouge: Another booth that showed only French wines at the Food Safari but their stores in Raffles Place, Market Street, Tanjong Pagar and Shenton Way bring in an international line of wine. It had various offers such as 3 wines for $90 for wine that cost $30 each which doesn't make sense: why say it's a promotion when all you're doing is $30 X 3 bottles = $90 anyway. I think they had a wine cooler as a free gift or something. You could sample all their wines but I tried 2 of their $30 wines: An E.Guigal Cotes du Rhone blend and a wine from Medoc of which I forgot the name. The Cotes du Rhone was definitely much better with notes of candied cherry, black pepper, spice among several others. Good complexity and worth the $30. The Medoc however was a disappointment, its flavors were there but the finish was very short which ruined the experience, felt like a under $25 wine.
Palitalia: Now this was interesting. This booth only brings in Italian wine and the owner was someone who said he has been in this business for almost 40 years. His store was primarily run by him and what seemed to be his wife with at least 4-5 teenagers helping out. Whether they were his sons or not I do not know but he really was the classic middle aged Singaporean salesman from the way he spoke. It's not a bad thing, he is a good salesman just a little stereotypical, confident but mildy overcompensating but we did have a decent wine talk as I could hold my own and he did realise I was not an uninformed consumer. The place sells all forms of Italian wines and they have a showroom in Hotel Windsor that opens from 11-2pm as they are importers and distributors rather than retailers, but they also allow regular consumers to enter and purchase stuff. Up for sampling was a $60 Chianti and Prosecco (price can't remember). They had an ongoing promotion that if you spend >$200 you will get 20% off and they kept informing us of the 'promotional price' of each wine which was a little sneaky if it wasn't already terribly obvious. In my opinion, $60 or even $48 after 20% for that Chianti is overpriced. It is not because it was bad, it was quite good and decent but it just wasn't $60-good or $48-good. But they have a very good range.
Solymer Asia: I came to the Food Safari primarily for this company. I had corresponded with them over email because I was interested in their products. They are importers and distributors of spanish food products and wine. I had fallen in love with Spanish food/wine while travelling Barcelona earlier this year. I have found many wines from Spanish that provide great bang for the buck. They had Iberico Jamon (ha-mon), or black pig cured meat which is ridiculously expensive even back in Spain due to its rarity and delicious taste. They had small samples and a whole leg there that they carve the meat from. They also had a showcase and free samples of Spanish cheeses of various types (sheep, cow, goat) and duration of aging. My French friend and I really enjoyed the goat cheese very much: musty but not over powering and some earthy spiciness just before you swallow; very nice and would go great with wine. It does cost $9 for 200g though, pricey. They also had various tapas on sale such as Paella (pah-eh-ya) and of course thinly sliced Iberico ham at a hefty $12 for 40g, i didn't buy it but it is worth it. the taste is amazing and I ate alot of it while in spain.
but importantly the wine. They do not have samples but instead of small caps of wine for tasting, you can pay for tasting an actual glass of wine from prices of $3, $6 and $9 for a glass. There was only one I wanted to try from their catalog that they sent me 2 days ago: La Orbe from the region of Rioja. This glass cost me $9 but it was worth the money. 100% Tempranillo grapes, native to Spain, this is a full bodied, complex and very well balanced wine. It had so much going on on its palate, dark fruit, pepper, cinnamon, spice and others i forgot. I love tempranillo wine, they make excellent wines and if you haven't tried one before, head out and buy one. I ended up buying the bottle which costs $40 because, to me, this tastes like a $40 to $50 wine. Very very solid. The people there were great as well and I talked at length with the lady I corresponded with online about Spanish wines and Spain itself. Thumbs up!
I hope this very lengthy post will add a bit more information regarding wine in the Food Safari which is still open until this weekend ( i think). It's free entrance as well.