TALES OF THE VINE

The Semillon grape is my favorite wine grape to taste on the vine. Fat, golden yellow in color, juicy and mellow, they are almost addictive and it is so easy to just keep popping them in your mouth as you walk down the vine row of a vineyard.

Semillon grapes are grown all over the world yet are one of those oddities you never really notice. Typically blended away to Sauvignon blanc or Chardonnay, Semillon never wins any Best Grape awards but always seems to garner Best Supporting grape.

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What is the correct way of serving cigarettes in a restaurant?

Given the ghoulish health warning photographs affixed to cigarette packs by the Thailand government, which prominently feature rotting teeth, corpses and photographs of autopsies, I am not sure it is possible to present cigarettes with any measure of sophistication.

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Are you someone who buys a wine for its taste or to gain face? In other words do you buy wines you like regardless of what others think of them or do you instead find yourself influenced to purchase wines because of what others say?

Most of us would probably say we are individualists belonging to the former category, but I wonder.

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In the past, ros? was the Rodney Dangerfield of wines; it never got any respect. As recently as a year ago I could not even give away ros? wine. But this year the tables have changed and ros? is the hottest wine style globally; people cannot seem get enough of the pink stuff and it is especially popular here in Phuket. Even the famous Twinpalms Hotel has acknowledge Phuket’s pink obsession with their recent anniversary pink theme party featuring a slew of ros? wines to celebrate the occasion.

There are several reasons to explain why ros? wine’s sudden soaring popularity has happened only now. First and foremost is price. Ros? wine is cheap in comparison to the rising prices of other wines and people seem to be more cautious with their cash in the present economic environment than in the past few years.

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Wine has been around a long time in Asia but sometimes we are still confused about which wines to enjoy with Asian Food. Luckily, here in Thailand the art of balancing sweet, salty, sour and bitter flavor sensations in wine and richly flavored Thai cuisine is as effortless as wine itself.

There are only five flavors we human beings can perceive; salty, sweet, sour, bitter and savory. That’s it; there are only five tastes and it does not matter if the food is Thai, Russian Italian or Greek ? the rules for matching wine and food are the same whether the food is from east or west.

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Those of you from Australia and New Zealand are familiar with the concept of bringing one’s own wine to a restaurant, as the practice originated there. Elsewhere, ?rules’ about bringing one’s own wine vary considerably according to local custom and the policy of the restaurant.

Since most wine is enjoyed with food a guest bringing their own wine is a fairly commonplace event in the life of a restaurateur and most are willing to accommodate their guests. But before we go any further let’s first consider why someone might want to bring wine to a restaurant at all. Read more »

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When I was a boy, the married couple from England who lived down the street from us often quarreled when they drank too much; which seemed to be about every night. Their shouting matches were something of an embarrassment to the neighborhood and I remember their being held up as an example by my parents of the shame one can bring upon their family’s name by abusing alcohol.

Human beings seem to possess an innate craving for intoxication. Nevertheless, in many Latin cultures like the one that shaped my family’s perspective, alcohol is considered a food more than it is a drug, and wine is in particular is regarded as both art and a common facet of civilization. In other cultures, public displays of intoxication that would be viewed as shocking elsewhere are an unremarkable part of everyday life, and the relationship of people toward alcohol in these cultures seems to vacillate between the disproportionate and subsequent feelings of remorse.

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Q. What do the terms Extra Brut and Extra Dry mean on a champagne bottle?

A. The word Brut is means crude, which is to say dry or put another way, not sweet. Actually this word is a misnomer because the EU permits Brut Champagne to contain as much as 15 grams per liter of sugar from the dosage (sweetening sugars added at time of bottling) in order to balance Champagne’s very high acidity.

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Contemporary and suited for the modern motto of drinking less but better, with its Melon, citrus and musky herbaceous qualities no other white wine is so uncompromisingly identifiable or right for the times as Sauvignon blanc. Crisp, lively, refreshing and distinctive, the wine tastes positively slimming.

Panned by the critics for its inability to age, I nevertheless adore Sauvignon blanc for its lively youthfulness and uncanny ability to pair with a wide array of cuisine. Ordinarily produced without the influence of oak, a good Sauvignon blanc is truly the character of the grape speaking through the medium of the soil and climate reflecting the character and culture of the people and place where it is produced.

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Gold shops, they are everywhere in Asia and Zinfandel lovers owe a debt of gratitude to Asia’s insatiable lust for gold because were it not for the discovery of gold in California the world of Zinfandel we know today might not exist.

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