An Afternoon Enjoying Unique Wines And Stories At VinExpo Singapore

Last week, I was lucky enough to get a pass for Vinexpo, an event for wine makers from around the world to come to Singapore to showcase their best tipple for media, distributors and competitors. Needless to say, it was an elegantly buzzy afternoon out at Marina Bay Sands. Just before I met a friend to traipse through the aisles of wine wonder, we received a tip from a mutual compadre and wine lover to start at the Chilean pavilion in the hopes of trying a unique pour fermented with sake yeast. And so we did. 

Vina Marty produces this said beautiful bottled creation. The nice gentleman featured poured us glasses of Sauvignon Blanc birthed from sake yeast, and explained this yeast handles well at colder temperatures with a decidedly lower interaction with alcohol. These conditions allows the vineyard to keep the wines fermenting for longer, allowing richer flavours to permeate out of the pressed juices (called must). The light gold result we tasted was quite amazing, a more full-bodied wine that tickled the palate longer with a more robust deliciousness. What clever oenologists! As a result of the acquiring the yeast and eventually churning such lovely wines, Vina Marty's Gouette D'Argent Sauvignon Blanc sells well in Japan. Read about Pascal Marty's esteemed career that spanned work for Baron Philippe de Rothschild S.A and Opus One in California. Vina Marty's Instagram.

This is Pam Turner, co-owner of Ambar Estate wines. I approached her because I had not heard of wines coming out of seemingly wintry Portland USA - we're so used to bottles from Napa Valley and other spots in warmer California. Pam is a hoot, one of those calm, collected persons you meet who tells stories well with a hint of panache. She elaborated on how the climate and soil in the Dundee Hills suited certain varietals, and the vineyard's organic approach to viticulture earned them a reputation for high quality, sustainable output. And my oh my, she poured a wine that redefines expectations of what a Chardonnay can aspire to be. The 2022 Lustral Chardonnay is unreal. Small batch with a Decanter score 97, this white had a clarity paired with a rare lovely depth of flavour that defied expectations. I think I went "Good God, this is stunning." and my wine aficionado friend concurred. What's also wonderful is that the Ambar Estate offers tours of their vineyard. Pam showed us pictures of their glass-walled tasting and dining rooms that surround a magnificent Japanese-inspired landscape and overlook the verdant grape crops. Oh, Pam's hubby used to work for Softbank and she had spent lots of time in Japan soaking in the vibe and culture. Hence, the gorgeous zen-esque aesthetic of welcome area. If you're ever in Portland, you know where to go. 

Ambar Estate - image from ambarestate.com

Also "Ambar" sounded Indian so I asked Pam why the name. She replied she was a fan of Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings and wanted a name from the epic story as a homage to its greatness. Ambar in the Elvish tongue means the fate of an individual or of worlds, or civilised world (it can get complicated in the LOTR universe). Ambar Estate's Instagram

This is Liu Hui from Palacios Vinos De Finca (Palacios Estate Wines) and she introduced us to white Rioja wine! Rioja is a region slightly northeast of Madrid, between the capital and Pamplona, and south of the Basque region. I'm familiar with Rioja reds, with bottles aplenty at the local supermarket and airport duty free but finding a white Rioja was like meeting an albino tiger. The whites are exclusively packaged under the Nivarius label. The bottle we tried was made with Tempranillo Blanco grapes, with others created from unique-to-terrior Maturana,Viura and Garnacha varieties. Pleasantly fruity, this Nivarius would make for an easy accompaniment to a delicately flavoured cuisines. Palacios Vinos De Finca's Instagram.

We skipped and hopped a skootch down the aisle and met with Margherita Forno who gladly introduced us to the Il Falchetto vintages from the Piedmont region in northwest Italy. The wines comes from six vineyards that are part of an area that is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. With a history of wine production since the 1940s, the brand also prides itself on not using any herbicides or insecticides to underscore their sustainable approach to winemaking. Margherita started us off with a white wine made with a lesser known grape, Arneis. The fruit is said to be unique to the Langhe region of Piedmont, and produces a pale beige tipple with subtle notes of pear. 

We moved on to the full-bodied reds made with the Barbera grape, a variety less familiar to us here in Singapore, with mostly Barolos, Chiantis and Siangoveses splashed about at our favourite Italian osterias. We tried a delicious, ruby red Pian Scorrone Barbera D'Asti to start, and immediately my reaction was that this wine would pair well with spicy food. I asked the Ms Forno what "D'Asti" meant and quite simply, it refers the wine is from the Asti district of Piedmont. (That just means all the Moscatos you've been imbibing aren't legit Piedmontese, haha) Our next taste test was a level up on the Barbera ladder and aptly labelled as "Superiore". The Lurei Barbera D'Asti was a bold, full-bodied envelope of wonderfully mellowed flavour. Incredible. To top off the Il Falchetto experience, Margherita perhaps left her family's next best secret to the last - the Ciombo Moscato D'Asti. It was another "Good God, what is this gift?" epiphany. There are Moscatos and then there's this amazing rapture of subtle sweetness with a lingering longan finish. What a fabulous lesson to Azzuri wine! Il Falchetto's Instagram

While taking our virgin VinExpo sips at Vina Marty, we had asked our host what unique wines he had tried at this gathering of vintners. He pointed out a South African winery that let the same batch of Sauv Blanc ferment in different places, and one of these places was the sea! (Jaw drop and pass me a glass!). We needed some help to locate Fryer's Cove's station but once i spotted the barnacle encrusted bottle on display we knew we hit clink clink. 

Fryer's Cove is a tiny verdant jewel in the middle of the mostly dry west coast of South Africa, 300 kilometers north of Cape Town. Located in the small town of Doringbaai that's famous for packing and exporting crayfish, this winery is the culmination of dream spawned in 1985, plagued by drought and sea-borne factors, resolved through co-operation with landowner neighbours, and winning a rare 5-star accolade from South Africa's Wine Magazine for its Sauvignon Blanc in 2005. What's cool and also our reason for savouring this wine is that vineyard is practically next to the Atlantic Ocean. Smothered by salty air in a unique terroir, the produce had to be special. We were not disappointed - the regular Sauvignon Blanc was a  crisp, grassy, mildly herby concoction, slightly balsamic even. Not a popular nod but it would most definitely pair well with mirin-marinated white fish or buttery crayfish. Next we had the same vintage that was tossed about at sea. The nice gentleman representing Fryer's Cove - I think he is Paul - explained that the different temperature profile and constant vibration from sea currents indeed produced a less than identical twin. This was less sharp, more mellow and evolved in its flavour, with a nose and tongue that would garner more mainstream appreciation. And we were lucky enough to try this bounty from the sea as they only brought along a few such bottles and did not sell them online, only at the winery some 9600 kilometers away. Fryer's Cove adopted the very apt tagline "Forged of the Earth, Tempered By The Sea" and we can appreciate perfectly. Fryer's Cove's Instagram 

The sun was still in the sky when my friend and I departed all abuzz. It was a lovely educational afternoon meeting people from all over the world who are instantly now my best friends because they let me try much wine. Thank you. May the respective Gods of Wine, Winemaking and Drunkenness be kind to your crops and provide for bountiful and predictable harvests. 

Till next year if luck and liver allow, 🥂