Wine

[MuthuCurry]

after some snooping around online, i finally made a reservation at Bedrock Bar and Grill for my anniversary dinner. Free corkage on mondays

i was told that the steaks at bedrock are pretty good, but, be prepared to burn a big hole in ur pocket!!

 

[ikileo]

yeah i saw their menu pricing. but it's ok. i've prepared a budget for it.

 

[hkm520240]

a lengthy but thoroughly good read:

http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/wine-scams-a-counterfeiter-confesses

Faking 100 points wines?

Nice and interesting article

 

[looiwte]

@hkm: sounds like a great idea. I am on holiday from 2nd Dec and i will touch down on 14th morning. Perhaps that weekend or friday we can meet up?

So that's 16 (Fri) or 17 (Sat) Dec?
How about the rest, are you all available for these dates, though I know the year-end is party time for most!

Themes? Should we go countries, varietals or styles? Maybe 100% varietal wines?
Do we stick to a proper meal or do something like cheese and chocolate? How about hawker food?

ikileo, maybe you can do a recap on the wine outings so far, I only joined in later on so am not sure what you guys did previously.

 

[ikileo]

So that's 16 (Fri) or 17 (Sat) Dec?
How about the rest, are you all available for these dates, though I know the year-end is party time for most!

Themes? Should we go countries, varietals or styles? Maybe 100% varietal wines?
Do we stick to a proper meal or do something like cheese and chocolate? How about hawker food?

ikileo, maybe you can do a recap on the wine outings so far, I only joined in later on so am not sure what you guys did previously.

I am good for 16th dec at 17th I have to cook a dinner for a group of people.

As for themes, perhaps since it’s the festive period and time of sharing; let us share with the rest “Wines That I Like”. So you’d have to bring a bottle of wine that you really like. If could be a good producer, if could be a favourite country or vintage or varietal, whatever. Just something that YOU personally really like. And since it’s a fancy time, are you guys open to upping the cap? Perhaps between $50 - $100? If you are not comfortable with it let me know.

As for the food, I’m good with hawker but I think we might be limited to lots of whites (I lurve whites, but I also want variety) we can always go to a Chinese restaurant for a sit down dinner and have a variety of food and wines. But as usual we are open to other suggestions. If u know of a western place we can do it too!

We had wine outings at Wine Connection, Botak Jones, Dim Sum and casual French @ Saveur.

 

[ikileo]

Last minute I got invited to the wolf class vinters dinner! Woot!!!

 

[hkm520240]

Wow enjoy! I just attended the Wolf Blass tasting and it's a different class compare to masterclass I attended during wines journey.

Why no one invite me to the dinner...

 

[ikileo]

just got back. food was not bad, but not all dishes were executed at it's best; probably due to the amount of servings for each table.

as for the wines, they were very nice, well made, but unfortunately, none of them (especially the aged platinum label stuff) showed worth of it's price point.

they were good, balanced well made wines, but i can get similar or better quality at a less price. i expected the aged stuff ('98 Plat Shiraz, '95 Black Cab Merlot) to show more complexities. it was smoothened and softened due to the age. the nose was nice and complex but the palate still seems a little one dimensional for an older wine.

will upload details and tasting notes later this week.

 

[hkm520240]

I actually quite like both Black label and Platinum label when it's young. Especially Platinum '06 with good freshness, harmony, a touch of elegant with a fine and ripe tannins although the palate is still primary. But I also enjoy the older Black Label '93 & '95 which is drinking well now with soft & round palate and almost dissolved tannins.

Agreed that after I have tasted some aged Aussie wines, I found that many still not develop as well as some old world wines in terms of complexity (Especially French wines with my own experience). So I would think that Aussie wines maybe more suitable for medium term consumption than long term.

 

[hkm520240]

I am good for 16th dec at 17th I have to cook a dinner for a group of people.

As for themes, perhaps since it’s the festive period and time of sharing; let us share with the rest “Wines That I Like”. So you’d have to bring a bottle of wine that you really like. If could be a good producer, if could be a favourite country or vintage or varietal, whatever. Just something that YOU personally really like. And since it’s a fancy time, are you guys open to upping the cap? Perhaps between $50 - $100? If you are not comfortable with it let me know.

As for the food, I’m good with hawker but I think we might be limited to lots of whites (I lurve whites, but I also want variety) we can always go to a Chinese restaurant for a sit down dinner and have a variety of food and wines. But as usual we are open to other suggestions. If u know of a western place we can do it too!

I'm good with 16th Dec evening and it's a good idea to share wines you like. I will bring a special wines to share although I have not decide what to bring. Perhaps we can even do a blind tasting. I'm ok with any food and I leave it to others to decide. Cheers.

 

[ikileo]

I actually quite like both Black label and Platinum label when it's young. Especially Platinum '06 with good freshness, harmony, a touch of elegant with a fine and ripe tannins although the palate is still primary. But I also enjoy the older Black Label '93 & '95 which is drinking well now with soft & round palate and almost dissolved tannins.

Agreed that after I have tasted some aged Aussie wines, I found that many still not develop as well as some old world wines in terms of complexity (Especially French wines with my own experience). So I would think that Aussie wines maybe more suitable for medium term consumption than long term.

I concur with you. Nice wines, drinking well and well made. But for platinum label stuff going at $195, this will be a major pass for me. The point I will re-iterate is that I could probably get aussie stuff of similar quality at much lower price and there are many of those around. Wolf Blass just didn’t really do it for me last night. But there are aussie reds that can mature well.


As for the wine dinner, I would like to get a consensus from the rest. My only concern is that the $40-$100 price point may seem intimidating to some, especially those who may want to join for the first time but are scared ‘cos they think the wines they bring will not be able to match up.

Let me know what you guys think (price point or otherwise), but I would also like to re-iterate that this is not a competition but a sharing session and I really really hope some new guys and lurkers will be willing to join us 

 

[looiwte]

Wow am envious! Shiok to be a lobang king haha..

Nice to read your observations on aged Aussie wines, I've not tasted any more than a decade old wines, whether from Old or New World so can't contribute.

Ya, I'm good with the 'Wines I like'. I did want to suggest 'upping the cap' for the festive season too, but not sure what the others felt about it. Just not sure if I've any 'Wines I like' in my cellar that are ready to drink...

As for food, I'm struggling to come up with decent food options without corkage during weekends, other than the ones we've been to already. Maybe one of the other Imperial Treasure restaurants for some nice Cantonese roasts - char siew, sio bak, roast duck?

 

[ikileo]

Wow am envious! Shiok to be a lobang king haha..

Nice to read your observations on aged Aussie wines, I've not tasted any more than a decade old wines, whether from Old or New World so can't contribute.

Ya, I'm good with the 'Wines I like'. I did want to suggest 'upping the cap' for the festive season too, but not sure what the others felt about it. Just not sure if I've any 'Wines I like' in my cellar that are ready to drink...

As for food, I'm struggling to come up with decent food options without corkage during weekends, other than the ones we've been to already. Maybe one of the other Imperial Treasure restaurants for some nice Cantonese roasts - char siew, sio bak, roast duck?

I know right? Caught me by surprise. My colleague had an additional seat as we were invited by one of our media partners for the dinner.

Don’t get me wrong, doesn’t mean all aussie wines can’t age well, perhaps the proportion is not as high as fine wines from other regions such as France.

Chinese food is fine by me. Imperial Treasure at Great World City does good canto cuisine and free corkage while Asia Grand at Odeon Towers have consistently nice food as well with free corkage. But expect to pay about $50 a pax for a good meal. But $50 for a very good meal and a host of very good wines, IMO, is a STEAL.

 

[ikileo]

so how about:

Imperial Treasure Cantonese Cuisine - Great World City
Date: 16th/17th Dec
Time: 7.30pm
Wine Theme: "Wines That You Like"
Wine Value: "$40 - $100"
Wine Serving: All blind

Notes: You are welcome (and encouraged) to bring along a +1



what do you guys think?

 

[hkm520240]

I concur with you. Nice wines, drinking well and well made. But for platinum label stuff going at $195, this will be a major pass for me. The point I will re-iterate is that I could probably get aussie stuff of similar quality at much lower price and there are many of those around. Wolf Blass just didn’t really do it for me last night. But there are aussie reds that can mature well.

I am interested to learn from you (in your opinion) what Aussie wines is on par with Platinum label in terms of quality but much lower price. Pls name one or few?

In my opinion Platinum label is in a class of its own (put aside of the price) and much balance than Grant Burge Meschach '06 I tasted recently at WRX Grant Burge masterclass. That said I am happy to own a bottle or two in my cellar and in fact I'm little tempted at the tasting offer of $165 (No I didn't buy). But I tend to agree there ought to be wines that's cheaper with similar quality.

That's why I believe one of the incentive/enjoyment is drink wines that drink like double or more of the price that I paid.

 

[hkm520240]

so how about:

Imperial Treasure Cantonese Cuisine - Great World City
Date: 16th/17th Dec
Time: 7.30pm
Wine Theme: "Wines That You Like"
Wine Value: "$40 - $100"
Wine Serving: All blind

Notes: You are welcome (and encouraged) to bring along a +1

Imperial Treasure Cantonese Cuisine - Great World City is a nice place with good food and good services. I'm ok with it. Should be ok with both date although I prefer 16th. So I gues the standard is one bottle per 2 person? I see if I got friend to come along otherwise I will come alone.

 

[Do_As_Infinity]

I'm good with both date. Finally a chance to meet up with you guys. I'll try to see if I can get a friend to come along.

 

[ikileo]

i can think of a couple of producers that i have enjoyed at a lower pricepoint.

- d'arenberg dead arm shiraz
- clonakilla shiraz viognier
- kilikanoon covenant

i dunno whether it was those wines that night, but for me I didn't feel it was on a class of it's own.


btw, i updated the first post of this thread with the event details too and attendee list.

 

[looiwte]

Sorry I can only make it on the 17th (Sat), if it's ok with everyone.

 

[Do_As_Infinity]

I got a last min dinner on sat. Sorry about it. How about we change it to lunch or something?