Supermarket Senarios - Cabernet or Carménère

Today, we take a look at the shelves in Giant at Supermarket for some affordable swill. I'm thirsty for some red wine tonight. I just bought a steak which I am planning to fry in a pan full of butter. I am going to caramilize some onions first. Don't forget to season the steak with sea salt and cracked pepper. I am going to cook some potatoes in the oven with the rosemary and thyme.

We have:
1) Table Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon. $17.90, South African from Stellenbosch. It's from a mediterranean climate, meaning the climate can get hot in the summer, up to forty degrees. I am expecting this Cabernet to be ripe, full-bodied, full of fruits and maybe some cigar box if it is oaked.
2) Deetlefs Cabernet Sauvignon from Rawsonville at $22.80. A South African from Breede River Valley in the Western Cape. The climate is almost similar. This one is at 14% alcohol so lots of heat and ripeness too. Rawsonville and Stellenbosch are not very far from one another but Rawsonville is further from the Ocean. I think this will be even jammier than Table Mountain. Not good to have a fruit bomb affect the wonderful flavours of steak.
3) Hemisferio Miguel Torres  Carménère from the Central Valley in Chile at $25.50. Carménère is a grape with lots of tannins too like Cabernet, but less harsher in texture. It is usually smells of cherries, smoke and earth and tastes of red fruit, tobacco, leather and dried herbs. If you don't like sometime as harsh as Cabernet, go for this.
4) Hemisferio Miguel Torres  Sauvignon Blanc from the Central Valley in Chile at $25.50. Grassy, herbaceous and probably bland in the mid-palate  just like other Central Valley examples. Not always a bad thing but at $25.50 for the same price as the red, forget it.

My decision: Go for stellenbosch. It's much cheaper than the Carménère and has bolder flavours with the steak. But if you like something softer and are willing to pay, the Carménère is good. Serving temperatures at 16-17 degrees Celsius. Forget the SB because SB doesn't work well with steak. Forget Deetlefs because if you want to go for that, you might as well get the Table Mountain.

Internet dating & Wine

At supermarkets, it can be mind-blowing when one comes across endless shelves of different wine brands. The consumer is confronted with so many choices. Time is of an essence. What do we choose? Most of the time, it is the eye-catching bottle that has a nice label. The physical played the most part in making a decision. Sounds a little like me when I choose to hook up with a woman because of her looks without considering the goodness of her character. By the end of the night, the woman, just like the wine, disappoints.

An article was published in The Economist on February 11th 2012, titled “Sex and love”. Some interesting points brought up were:

1.   Internet dating sites offer a huge range of choices and a system that can help match your specifications as to what you are looking for in a partner. Thus, it assumed that finding a suitable long-term partner through the internet would be easier.

2.   Data suggest that we do not know what we want and that our preferences differ from our selected choice.

3.   When presented with a large volume of choices, less attention is paid to characteristics that require evaluation by both thinking and conversation. Instead, more attention is paid to the physical attributes.

This applies in the context of wines. With internet sales getting more popular, it still doesn’t solve the choice dilemma in supermarkets. There may be more misses than hits, even if you were to use the advanced search to narrow down your choices. This re-affirms the old adage that less is more.

Many do not know what wines they are looking for. Sommeliers get frustrated with such customers. You help narrow down their choices and they still don’t like the wines. Knowing what your preferences are requires time and opportunity to taste various wine styles. You know you like it when you keep coming back to it.  I love big oaky vanilla-flavoured reds and rich buttery chardonnay. What about you?

Supermarket Senarios: Spoilt for Choice

I recently read a book about how humans are poor in making decisions when presented with more than two choices. I am starting a new series on situations where one goes into a supermarket and meets a wide range of choices. What do you do? Take a look at this.

 Let's say you are looking at the above. You have 5 minutes to come to a decision for tonight's dinner soiree. You have to  think of your wine in terms of price and style of what you want. You don't have much information because you have not tasted the wine but you can at least make educated guesses. The options are:
1. Piper-Heidsieck Champagne for SGD54. Not a bad price for a bottle of Champagne. Maybe to impress people who don't know much about wines but know that Champagne sounds like a great idea because of the brand. Expect leesiness, nuttiness and high acid. Tonight will be oysters and shellfish.
2. Asti from Italy for SGD34.40. A pleasing wine for most people. Sweet and good as a starter to get the good mood started. I like that with cake.
3. Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc for SGD25. For 25 dollars, it should be your typical grassy SB with lots of asparagus and passionfruit. Give me salad with that!
4. Lindemans sweet seasons for a special of 18.95. You may not know the wine but from looking at it, you can guesstimate that it probably has sweetness in there. No idea what grape it is but for that price, it is more about the sugar than the expression of a single varietal. This one is for quaffing and hopefully you won't wake up with a killer-headache.

My choice: Go with the Asti. Be cheap. Save your money for a good day. If you want to splurge, there are other stuff besides the Piper. But the Asti always loosens up the mood and women and new drinkers can associate with sweetness. Let the bubbles take you away. Marlborough is alright but for 25SGD, this one is suspect for ripeness. Good Marlborough SB this days cost more than 35 SGD these days.

Bubbles for your Troubles

Based on a recent report by Harpers (http://www.harpers.co.uk/news/news-headlines/12009-more-regions-look-to-sparkling.html), it seems that there is a growth in demand for Sparkling wines. Considering the current economic climate, I question what people worldwide are so upbeat about.

According to the report,  it says, "Sparkling sales grew 11.6% by value in the off-trade, while Champagne grew by just 1.2% in the same period (Nielsen, year to March 1, 2012). Star performers included Italian wines, up 48%, while Chilean and English were up by 26% each. French sparklers from outside Champagne grew 12.5% too".

Coming back not long ago from London and Italy, I must say that both countries have been doing a great drop in penetrating the bubbly market. English bubblies are of exceptional value and rival that of Champagne in quality but unfortunately we don't see them here in Singapore. As for Franciacorta, the Champagne equivalent of Italian sparkling wine, I have never come across any yet here in Singapore. The argument is that with the sort of money you pay for Franciacorta, you might as well buy a Champagne. Cremants, bubblies from outside Champagne, are delicious and so much more affordable than Champagne.

I suggest that if you are interested in tasting Cremants, try the ones from Burgundy, Bordeaux and Loire. They are widely available in Carrefour at Suntec city. And if you are adventurous, buy a bottle of Cremant de Die over there made from the Clairette grape. The Cremants from each region are made from different grapes so if you like something, say cheesy and leesy, go for Burgundy. Good acid and green apples, then go for Loire. Lemony and citrus belongs to Bordeaux. I can't remember if they sell Cremants rose from Bordeaux but that is absolutely delicious and reminds me of raspberry coulis.

Don't like the French? Have a go at Asti or fan-favourite, Moscato d'Asti. What's the difference? Both ASti and Moscato are made from the same grapes but Asti has a high alcohol and taste less sweet. Moreover, Asti has more bubbles than Moscato. Some say Moscato is a dessert semi-sparkling wine. Quite honestly, I could drink Moscato in the morning or anytime of the day, during any part of the meal. It's a convival drink, and most examples of it can be cosumed with levity.

The report also adds that Brazil is a country to watch out for and I must concur to that. I have managed to try a few from Vinexpo last year and I must say the quality is growing. Their style reminds me a lot of what Australia is doing from the level of ripeness obtained from their grapes (Hey, it's Brazil, it's hot). If you are interested, go to http://www.garnetnperidot.com. These guys are specialised in Brazilian wines here in Singapore and bring in Miolo bubblies. It's not a boutique winery but it gives you a taste of what Brazil is like. And if you are ordering some wines from them, you have to include their Quinta do Seival Castas Portuguesas. I know it's not a bubbly but I tasted that in London a month ago, and you can't hate a red wine like Touriga Nacional. If you like floral aromas, Nacional is your hero.

What is a Wine of Quality?

Whenever broaching upon the subject of quality, I get questions on what is a good wine and what is a bad wine. It is a strange question because we don't usually have problems telling the difference between a good and a bad apple, or an overburnt steak vs a tender juicy piece. The concept is no different from drinking a fresh orange juice vs diluted orange juice.

Judging a wine in absolute terms is the same as setting your own standards of what a good human being is. I prefer to look at a wine in context apart from just basing quality on absolutes.

Are you serving it with food? Get a wine that is not intensely concentrated in flavour or it will overpower the food.
What environment are you drinking it in - hot or cold? Have a robust red in front of the fireplace or a chilled white while basking in the summer sun.
What time of the day is it? Something ligter in the morning perhaps to start the day and heavier in the night to put you to sleep?
Are you drinking it with friend or acquaintance? Open the nice stuff for your friends or if you want to be a crowd pleaser, go for the sweet stuff.

Yes, the absolutes are important - generosity of aroma and flavour; balance between acid, sweetness and tannins; complexity of flavours with layers upon layers; harmony of sensations instead of disjointedness; a long length with a desirable finish of acceptable flavours; no bitterness in the back of the tongue or sourness that makes the wine experience unbearable.

Building a concept of quality requires time, patience and lots of tasting. You find the best pasta by going to different restaurants and comparing your present experience with the last. The same goes to wine and even love. It is hard to know what love is until you experience it or realise that you weren't happy in the last relationship because you notice the difference with your current relationship. You know what a good Pinot Noir is only when you try something better than the last. That's how you build hierachies of quality in your mind.

Most importantly, accept yourself as a unique individual with a unique taste and a biasness to specific wines. I love sherries and wines with huge amounts of oak. It may not be to everyone's liking, but it doesn't mean that it is poor quality. It is an acquired taste. There is quality but there is also knowing what you like to drink.