Wine

[reign]

@reign, they still have a whole bunch of stuff, while stocks last of course. browse through their list, shortlist the ones you want and email them if they're still available.

The problem is.. I'm NOT well expose yet.. so don;t know what to choose!! Oh gosh

 

[Delusion_Disorder]

Sure lot of interesting stuffs gone already

like the only one bottle "Pavillon Rouge du Margaux 2006 750ml Red S$97.5" and 2 bottles Robert Weil KG Auslese 2005 gone...

BBR vintage report for 2005 vintage Germany white : -

A superb vintage with excellent weather conditions throughout the season and, more mportantly, during harvest.

Very high sugar levels and therefore ripeness resulted in few Kabinett wines produced but the wines are matched by the all-important balancing acidity.

Surpassing the excellent 2001, this is not a vintage heavy with botrytis, but with exemplary concentration and ripeness of fruit. Superb!

 

[reign]

Sure lot of interesting stuffs gone already

like the only one bottle "Pavillon Rouge du Margaux 2006 750ml Red S$97.5" and 2 bottles Robert Weil KG Auslese 2005 gone...

BBR vintage report for 2005 vintage Germany white : -

A superb vintage with excellent weather conditions throughout the season and, more mportantly, during harvest.

Very high sugar levels and therefore ripeness resulted in few Kabinett wines produced but the wines are matched by the all-important balancing acidity.

Surpassing the excellent 2001, this is not a vintage heavy with botrytis, but with exemplary concentration and ripeness of fruit. Superb!

Wow... Seem like i really miss alot things....

 

[ikileo]

u can google or use cellartracker to see which ones have a generally good review.

but to beef up your knowledge in a fun and entertaining way, u can visit tv.winelibrary.com to watch wine videos. it has hit about 1000 videos already. He covers many many regions and types of wines and often gives out lots of information about them. u will take a while to go through all the videos, but u will have lots of knowledge by the end of it all.

the videos may be a bit nonsensical/crazy at times, but they are very informational.

 

[Delusion_Disorder]

The problem is.. I'm NOT well expose yet.. so don;t know what to choose!! Oh gosh

Interesting/very informative link from BBR (very established UK wine merchant) and useful for beginners like us..

http://www.bbr.com/wine-knowledge

 

[ikileo]

some other sites i visit often:
www.decanter.co.uk
www.thewinedoctor.com
tv.winelibrary.com

plus if there's anything i dunno about the bottle/producer/winemaking technique/region/sub-region etc...i just google it and there's usually an answer.

 

[Beta_Tester]

what are some nice Italian red wines? from

http://www.castellobanfi.com/



Thanks

 

[solidghost]

After reading through this thread, I am actually even more confused about wines. lol.

 

[ikileo]

@beta_tester: sorry if i understood u wrongly, is it you are asking whether castello banfi has good italian wines?

@solidghost: haha...which part u didn't understand. must read and let it digest slowly. took me a while also. but once it clicked, it all made sense.

 

[Beta_Tester]

Yeah tats wat I meant. Paiseh.. I was tired n I just type tat.lol

 

[nautilus]

@beta_tester: you may want to run a search on this thread for "banfi". I attended a tasting for this producer in BKK and found some of the wines to be pretty good.

 

[ikileo]

Castello banfi is a big producer in Montalcino, Tuscany. I was considering whether to visit there but didn’t have enough time. Due to its size it produces a large range of wines, from entry level to the more premium stuff. I’d say you should spend more time with the upper middle to the higher end ones, starting from the Rosso di Montalcino and the premium Brunello di Montalcino.

 

[Beta_Tester]

hope i can get a good price. mention some time back i probably can get..

 

[Beta_Tester]

@beta_tester: you may want to run a search on this thread for "banfi". I attended a tasting for this producer in BKK and found some of the wines to be pretty good.

all right.. thanks..

Castello banfi is a big producer in Montalcino, Tuscany. I was considering whether to visit there but didn’t have enough time. Due to its size it produces a large range of wines, from entry level to the more premium stuff. I’d say you should spend more time with the upper middle to the higher end ones, starting from the Rosso di Montalcino and the premium Brunello di Montalcino.

i go beo their 'arsenal' of wine. think they have some for recommendation.

 

[ikileo]

@beta_tester: you're headed to tuscany to visit them too?

 

[Beta_Tester]

nope. i got friend working with them or the distro of their wine..

 

[reign]

nope. i got friend working with them or the distro of their wine..

WOW!! must keep us in the loop.... if we can get it too..

 

[ikileo]

if i get to taste some while in tuscany, i'll let ya'll know.

 

[ikileo]

btw...Local Nose and Picotin are organizing a April Fool's black glass tasting at Picotin on 1 April. This is the 2nd year running (i think). it's 8 wines in black glassess so u dunno if it's red, white, pink. then you guess. there will be other games/trivia. there's also gonna be finger food.

it should be fun and a great way to learn how to pick up wine. i hope i get at least one right! just go to picotin.com.sg and send them a reservation. it's $40 a person for everything, net.

 

[looiwte]

Hi all, I'm a lurker coming out of the closet, heh, really nice thread here.

Have been into wine the last few months, but yet to find the right vocabulary, so am still trying out whatever I can get my hands on.

NIce to hear that ikileo is going to Florence. I was there last year for the MotoGP and really loved the place; a gateway to the Tuscan countryside, and such a difference to Rome, where I went for my honeymoon. I love the food - can eat Pizza and Pasta every day - the football, the cars, the fashion, the colourful, characterful people, and lately, the wine. I believe many Singaporeans will like the place for these same few reasons.

I've been trying to get into wine but for one reason or another - no expert around, and how many bottles can me and my wife drink when we hardly cook at home etc. - I've been limited to things like Cab Sauv, which I like, Montepulciano D'Abruzzo, which you can find at every Italian restaurant here, and my sis-in-law's penchant for Shiraz. That is, until the other day when I was catching the Green Hornet at Vivo, and they had a wine fair thing going on, organised by Jason's. There was this Italian there who let us try a whole series of Italian wines, from Moscato d'Asti, Barbara d'Alba, Chianti, to the extravagant Barolo and Amarone, picking up stuff like tannins, pairing with food etc. Had such a nice chat we almost missed the movie, which in hindsight wouldn't have been such a bad thing!

With the CNY festive season in mind, we picked up a reliable Chianti (30+), a recommended Amarone (60+) and an always popular Moscato (30) at offer prices abt $10-$15 off regular retail. They all turned out to be very good, especially the Amarone, which we had with dark chocolate and blue cheese as suggested. Of course, there was the maybe Italian tendency for exaggeration; the man says you can go crazy with these pairings, and with the Amarone, it tasted different every time you drank it! But he wasn't far off, I think I can try to describe it as well-structured and certainly complex. It's still selling by the way, but at $78, it's no longer on offer.

Btw ikileo, if you eat steak, you must try the Bistecca ala Fiorentina. I can receommend a place near the main train station. It's huge and tasty, coming from the large Chianina cow in southern Tuscany, and can be shared even be 3-4 people. Our mistake was that we ordered one per person! I tried my best but the failed to finish. At the time, the steak cost about 35Euro, and this was a 1-Michelin star place. We even got a complimentary dish of some porcini mushroom pasta, apparenly served to the Michelin judge. For the size of the steak, quality of service and standard of food, I thought it was good value.

Enough rambling, I'm just back from Vivo (again), buying and drinking this 2006 Villa Franz Riesling Kabinett (2 for $35 at B&B). Drank it together with my hotpot meal at J-pot, but didn't find it that fantastic. Not much nose, and quite a simple, uncomplicated wine not unlike some Australian moscatos I've tried, ie. sweet but without much body and moderate acidity. I also bought two Setanta bottles on offer that the shop staff recommended, a Shiraz (that will go to my sis in law) and a Sauvignon Blanc - a varietal I've not had before - from Adelaide Hills.

Another good wine I had recently was the Penfolds Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet 2008, that was on offer at Cold Storage. It was good but I don't quite know how to decribe it. Not very spicy, not very strong tannins, but ... very consistent and decent body. Some of my relatives liked it too, enought to find out what they were drinking...

OK that's may random musings for the day. Keep up to good work everyone!