Huber's Food & Wine Fair 28-29th May 2011

*No images as I didn't bring my camera!*

A new event on the calender? Organised by The Straits Wine Company and Huber's Butchery. The Straits Wine Company has been holding the wine fiesta yearly around October season. A look at the 2009's Wine Fiesta by The Straits Wine Company here.

The scale of the Huber's F&W fair is pretty small, with just four 'booths' of wines covering mostly Australian and a dash of Italian wines. Food wise, there was smoke salmon (best dish in my opinion), ox tail soup, beef steaks, sausages, various types of breads and cheeses. The entry charge is SGD$25 per pax and it's all-you-can-eat.

Notable wine selection included Rocca Delle Macel Sasyr Sangiovese Syrah 2007 from Tuscany, Italy. Discounted price of $39 was reasonable. Copletrone Montefalco Rosso DOC 2007 from Umbria, Italy was great, with rose, deep floral nose and a very pleasant palatte. Moving to Australian, the notable wines were Woodstock Shiraz 2009 and Woodstock The Stocks Shiraz 2008 from McLaren Vale. The 2009 was had nose of white flowers, some pepper on the palette, saccharine notes, very pleasant. SGD$29! The Stocks 2008 was smooth, balanced and a delicate Shiraz for such a young vintage. The Stocks takes it's grapes from a 'monopole' with vines up to 110 years old. Priced at SGD$83, it's a great value for money Shiraz!

Other wines worth mentioning:
Woodstock Old Fortified NV. SGD$59 (RRP $68.80). Bernice, the representative from McLaren Vale, mentions that one can keep this for months in a fridge. This has the usual honeyed, chocolaty nose but a very pleasant light palate Bernice recommends Vanilla icecream + a shot of port and a crushed Ferrero Rocher (Can't wait to try this!!)

G.D. Vajra Moscato 2009 SGD$28 (RRP $34.80)
A very decent and delicious Moscato with good finesse. Acidity rounds off well in fine harmony with the fruity. A little too much sugar for my liking but this is a sure hit with the ladies. A first round TKO with Brown Brothers.


Wines not worth mentioning:
Schloss Schonborn Marcobrunn-Kabinett Riesling 2008
Flat, sugared drink. Would prefer some acidity to balance the wine out. Fruit was also not much present.

Personal thoughts: A good event to bring together friends for a lazy brunch or 'tea'. Would prefer the food to be warmer and some of the wines/beers more chilled. Hope to see more events from Huber/Straits Wine Company!

Wine Lottery

What's better than free wine? Getting a wine which is out of reach! Especially the aged and rare...

Chateau Cazeneuve 2000. Hint of rich chocolate in the first nose, then banyard all the way. Heavy and round, but balanced. Should be great with Stir-fry, BBQ, Roasts. Suggest decant 2-4hours.

Rioia 1975. Fruit still alive, tannins are still heavy, suggest 3hours decanting. Surf chilled.

Chateau Matras 1982,

One liner: Chinese herbs! Pretty heavy still and very interesting

Also had a Rhone white, can't remember the house/plot/year - pretty good

Louis Roederer Champagne lunch at Capella

Erm, yes it was a champagne lunch, but the one served was only the NV. Hence this post is dedicated to J instead, as she loves desert.
Notable delicacies included all version of Salmon: in a benedict sandwich, smoked, grilled, etc, all were fabulous. Mussels canape was great, and of course, the deserts,...many were spectacular! So was the Nesspreso Cuppa and Gryphon gold-dust infused flower tea specially concocted for the WGS 2011!

Birthday wines at Imperial Great World

Joseph Drouhin Chambolle-Musigny Amoureuses 2002 - Figs and the usual, didn't had the impact of the Amoureuses 2003 Pascal that A opened before. Still a pleasure to have an Amoureuses anytime!
Romanee St Vivant Ricolte 1992 (can't rem the domaine here) - Pretty cult and unknown? Not an exceptionally well-known year, balanced figs, floral, some spice, very balanced. opened 7am, decanted 11am. WOTN
Tignanello 1993 - My first Tignanello, very elegant Sangiovese. *LIKE
Chateau La Nerthe CDP 1998 - Beginning to indentify CDP more now, good stuff
Rene Rostaing Cote-Rotie 2001, 'pretty Rhone', a bit too much plum aftertaste for me, coming off the tannins of the Syrah grapes I guess
Philippe et Vincent Lecheneaut Nuits-Saint-George Premier Cru - Les Pruliers 2004 - Good
Robert Weil Kiedrich Grafenberg Auslese 2006 - honey, balance came in a little late
Joh Jos Prum Wehlener Sonnenur Auslese 1990 - good stuff, wished for more acidity though.
Dom Perignon 2002 - disappointing, 2000 drinking in 2010/2011 is much better than this 2002. Though DP themselves advocate that all DP can be drunk old and new, this is clearly way too young. Opened for 3-4hrs and it was still very tight.

Yummy roast duck/pork/ Alaskan crab was good, though a bit 'oil' and the steam crab + egg whites was fantastic though the salt level could be tuned down a notch.

My WOTN, mid palette and finish reminds me of Faiveley Mazi Chambertin 2004 which I adore.

A lovely Lychee Martini cake from Pine Garden in Ang Mo Kio for the birthday boy