Wine

[ikileo]

their website looks shady man

 

[stayhappy21]

their website looks shady man

It does! The whole thing looks very 'scam-ish' to me..

The salesman knows nothing about wine at all.. I told him the wine we're drinking is no good at all, and he offered to open another bottle. He brought me to see their entire collection for 'tasting': the whole lot was from NTUC FairPrice; 2 Californians, 1 from South Africa and 2 Italians. All are from the $25-$30 price range.. (Hey! We can invite them for our next tasting!) I told him the wines are a bit young (mostly from the 10 and 11 vintages), and asked if he can decant it with a decanter before we drink. He told me he has never heard of a decanter before, and ask if it was a machine??

Irony is there was a decanter just behind him..

Lesson learnt: Never invest in wine from anyone who knows less about wine than you do..

 

[hkm520240]

In my opinion that wine investment has never been easy. You must equip with good wine knowledge before you put money in it. Wine that worth to invest are top wines from the region, first growth or so call blue chip wines with proven track record of cellaring potential.

You need to know the wine price and the market in order to grab the opportunity when it come. I have a friend who bought a few cases of Lafite 2008 realised few hundred % profit when he sold the wines last year. When Lafite 2008 released in 2009, the whole world was facing recession and few have intention to invest in wines. If I'm not wrong Lafite released En Primeur 2008 at SGD$300-$400? (Sadly I didn't grab such opportunity). Coupled that Robert Parker have not release the score, all the wines were released at a very cheap price. When RP released a favourable score and follow by economy recovery in following year, Wine prices soared. Especially Lafite has a huge followers in China the prices are many times more that when it released. When it released the bottle with a Chinese character 八 (8) to suit China market, the price was at the peak. But sadly after that the chateau learned the lesson, coupled that 2009 and 2010 were great vintage, they released record high price with favourable RP score and booming economy. But personally I would not think that 2009 & 2010 are worthwhile to invest as it released at a very high price. In fact I understand the current market price for this 2 vintage are more or less same as released with some even went lower than that. So only one opportunity, you missed it and that's it.

On the Australian wines investment, I don't think it is worthwhile to invest. I have few friends invested in Australian wines with Australia Wines Index and all got burnt. They bought the wines many years back but the wines price never increase. They also complained to me that AWI did not do well to help them offload the wines and therefore they have to find the buyers themselves. That's why you can see many of them sell to local retailer at a loss. Many times we can see WEA come up with very good offer for back vintages Aussies wines often labeled "Distress investor seeking to liquidate his investment". That keep me wondering how many more investors want to liquidate their holding? According to my friend that these investors often sell at 50% loss to the local retailer. Well, their loss is my gain and I often could not resist buying these investor stock as they are too cheap and you don't need to wait long to enjoy compare to the current release.

So for me it is simple, wine is for pure pleasure and never meant for investment

 

[MuthuCurry]

agreed with hkm's point, another thing to take note of the wine investment is the liquidity of the wine. I doubt tt there are many buyers looking for Aussie wines, thus, you may have problem to unload the wines (at a gain or loss) as there is no buyer in the market!

 

[stayhappy21]

agreed with hkm's point, another thing to take note of the wine investment is the liquidity of the wine. I doubt tt there are many buyers looking for Aussie wines, thus, you may have problem to unload the wines (at a gain or loss) as there is no buyer in the market!

Thanks for your many advice.. I didn't feel cheated as I didn't invest in them.. I felt cheated as it was a complete waste of my time..

Anyway to complete the story, the gift of the $600 dollar wine (as promised for attending the talk) didn't materialise either.. They gave me 2 options: pay for a delivery fee of $68 for the wine to be delivered to my place (which I believe is a way to rip off customers.. $68 for delivery), or store the wine with them for 3 years upon which they will sell the wine on the customers' behalf and then pass the profits to the customers.. I doubt they will be around in 3 years time, so I didn't want the 2nd option.. And I didn't want to pay $68 for the wine either!

This simply confirms my suspicion: this company either doesn't know what it is doing, or out to rip people off..

 

[ikileo]

popped by Artisan Cellars in Palais Renaissance cos I always wanted to visit it. Grabbed their remaining half bottle of 2008 Calera Pinot Noir, Central Coast, USA.

Drank it in the cinema while watching Spider-Man. Nice stuff. started off a little jammy with a touch of alcohol but developed quite nicely. Nose of candied and fresh cherries, there are cocoa and vanilla elements from the oak and developed further to reveal a floral character on the nose.

flavours on the palate were of ripe cherries. not the most complex but well made and quite in balance with integrated tannins and a long finish. for a 14.4 alc% wine, that's pretty good. Cost $35 for a half bottle.

 

[SoggyBear]

Any cheao decent wine to intro that i can buy from wine connection?

 

[ikileo]

can...they have a wide selection of reasonable prices.

depends on what you define as cheap: under $X?
also red or white or other types?

 

[SoggyBear]

20-30 possible?
any type is fine, prefer something slightly sweet

 

[dfstan]

Buy to drink. If price increase, it's a bonus

 

[wahakuy]

popped by Artisan Cellars in Palais Renaissance cos I always wanted to visit it. Grabbed their remaining half bottle of 2008 Calera Pinot Noir, Central Coast, USA.

Drank it in the cinema while watching Spider-Man. Nice stuff. started off a little jammy with a touch of alcohol but developed quite nicely. Nose of candied and fresh cherries, there are cocoa and vanilla elements from the oak and developed further to reveal a floral character on the nose.

flavours on the palate were of ripe cherries. not the most complex but well made and quite in balance with integrated tannins and a long finish. for a 14.4 alc% wine, that's pretty good. Cost $35 for a half bottle.

Woaaaaat do u drink from the bottle or plastic cups ? Don't tell me you brought you're own glassware

 

[ikileo]

Brought my own stemware of course. Not those Glasses with the tall stems. I brought the stemless wine glasses So it's vey convenient to drink anywhere. U can get them at Iowa or department stores and it's not expensive at all.

 

[reign]

Brought my own stemware

Hmmm,someday must try wine when i go for moviem

 

[ikileo]

only shaw lets u bring outside food in. so usually at i do it at Shaw Lido cos the cafe outside the cinema sells wines and if u wanna bring them into the cinema they will give u in plastic cups.

 

[Baggio10]

20-30 possible?
any type is fine, prefer something slightly sweet

Birds & Bees for sweet red..Argentinian wine..

 

[ikileo]

20-30 possible?
any type is fine, prefer something slightly sweet

then an off dry style like a Brown Brother's Cienna. light in alcohol, some residual sugar and easy drinking. available in fairprice for under $30. now got $19.95 promo i think.

 

[ikileo]

this coming weekend is my sister's birthday. family is celebrating it at Jumbo seafood restaurant. Free corkage for first 2 bottles. Subsequent bottles @ $10 per bottle.

'cos it's seafood, i'm thinking of bringing a muscadet wine from the loire valley. it really works with seafood and highlights the natural sweetness of crustaceans such as steamed fresh prawns. yum yum...

 

[Baggio10]

Btw nice selection sent out by intervino today. Yes, finally getting the mailers.
Hkm, they still have several of those 1999 Lamaiones!

Any reviws on the 1999 Lamaiones?

how much it cost?

 

[ikileo]

$80-$90+ I can't remember. 100% merlot. Broke my bottle when I went to collect. Managed to salvage a little bit. Smelt and tasted very nice. Ripe, hints of Tuscan notes but starting to develop more mature flavours

 

[ikileo]

Drinking this now. Bought at FP Finest for $26.90. A sparkling wine from a co-op that operates across many french regions. This is their wine from the Rhone valley from the small town of Die. They have another entry level sparkling that's dry from bordeaux made of 100% semillion.

This wine is a blend of 85% Muscat & 15% Clairette. It is as it's described on the bottle: Fruity & Rich. Nice residual sugar, it will be very popular with the casual drinker but it's got decent persistence for a sparkling wine. Starts off a little sweet with lychees, rose, white meat & white flowers, it finishes a touch drier which is nice. Simple, enjoyable, balanced, not cloying due to sufficient acid.

While champagnes are made in the méthode champenoise (regionals outside of champagne that use the samer method call it methode traditionale) this wine is made in the Methode Ancestrale method which is an older and classic french technique still found in specific regions like Limoux (the birthplace of sparkling wine). More info on Methode Ancestrale in this short article here: Methode Ancestrale sparkling winemaking technique

This is a good buy and worth seeking out for casual drinking and just enjoying it. Stick it in the freezer for 15-20 minutes and it will be ready for drinking.