It's been very long since I updated this blog due to transition from the college graduate became a white collar worker it really consumed me day and night and it's very tiring hence I had not enough time to relax and very seldom enjoying wine on my own, also because I moved to Indonesia not in Singapore anymore where wine is relatively new and not so well known as a cultural drink like in Singapore.

So I am still collecting wines but wine in Indonesia is not as good quality as the Singaporean imported due to heavy tax and too much custom troubles here. However due to recent years where people in Indonesia especially the riches and the socialites knew and thought that drinking wine is a cool social act so drinking wine is booming. Bali is a well know paradise among the world travelers who want to relax and enjoying holiday but due to the recent "drinking wine" booming culture Bali has became one of the most sought destination to cultivate wine. Mostly Indonesian prefers sweet wine since the habit of the people is always drinking sweet whether it's for tea/coffee, they also have tradition to break fasting with sweet dates, drinking sweet tea, eating sweet dessert before eating real dinner. So winemaker in Bali are in competitive mood making sweet-wine, so far I found out there are 2 winemaker "Amore" and "Sababay" the later is a new one while the former is already in the wine business years ago but their sweet wine tastes sucks (no offense Amore). 

Here I'm going to review Sababay wine "Ludisia" which unfortunately I don't know the variety of the grape since it's not written on the label. Actually it's quite hard making sweet wine in a tropical country like Indonesia, Indonesia only has 2 seasons in a year summer and rainy so the wine that produced will be hard tastes sweet. 

I got this one (500ml) for free when I bought Moscato D'Bali (IDR 353000/US$ 26) and Ludisia (IDR 290.000/US$ 21.4) from Sababay 750 ml wines in Ranch market, quite a bargain here. When I open the bottle the strong smell of the wine is amuses me because other new brand of wine seldom smell this strong others usually soft even white wine not smell this strong. Spice aroma from the wine is for sure, first palate is nice and sour with no hint of strong sweet taste (unlike sweet Italian wine and sauternes) instead taste of peach follow with dark cherry is nice some peppery hint knocks me in surprise. The amber color of the wine is glowing through the wine glass. 

It has long finish at the end with no hint of bitterness also fulfill in the taste of decent wine for dinner with seafood/chicken meat that's what I'm having for dinner now.

Not bad for sweet wine but it's not sweet so it's acceptably ok.

DOMAIN TOPLOU naturally sweet red wine

Bought this wine from Carrefour at suntec city for S$48.4 yes it's a bit expensive but this is the only Greek wine left in town.

The color is the dark ruby color, the smell is like ripe cherry right from the tree. The 1st taste is so intense can feel a blackcurrant in a palate with sweet candy hold on the tongue, not spicy, not bitter, not refreshing but yet very relaxing and long finish at the end. The wine is really tasteful and really good, you can feel very relax with this wine with alcohol volume only 15%, it's a 750 ml per bottle. At the end it's really worth it to buy this wine, 2 of us finished a bottle of wine with only 1 hr and we were not quite drunk yet but this is one of a memorable wine for sure.

Where is the Greek/Greece wine in Singapore?

Greece wines in Singapore are not available anymore? The brands like Samos, Mavrodaphne are no more to be seen. When me and my friend wanted to drink a Greek wine we couldn't find it anymore in Market Place in Paragon and Raffles city, Carrefour at plaza singapura . Even in Carrefour at suntec city and plaza singapura the variety of the sauternes (Bordeaux famous sweet dessert wine) are lesser which only with 2 left. Finally we went to Carrefour at suntec city today and we found "Domain Toplou" (natural sweet red wine of Greece) $ 48.4/bottle. When I was asking the wine cellar store keeper at carrefour suntec city about the availability of Greek wine, she said that no more supply of Greek wine nowadays in carrefour which I hope is not so true (well I found the 'domain toplou' wine anyway).

Why the Greek wines are not available anymore? while from I remember their quality of wines are really good, The samos wine labeled "Grand Cru" which means best rank and the taste of the "Samos Grand Cru" from what I remember was tasteful, sweet, and adorable. I miss of that kind of wine taste.

Trentham Noble Taminga (Australian dessert wine) Tasting

Finally I tried this wine while eating chocolate fondue with my sister. The color is yellowish orange color may be because it's late harvested wine type. The smell is similar like orange peeling with an apricot from the fruit can. When I first sip the wine it reminded me of summer taste later on the taste texture was more into honey and apricot with enough sour taste but at the end I can fell a hint of bitterness.

Very easy-to-drink wine, not too sweet yet not too sour either its just enough and good. However the wine was finishing soon since it came with a small bottle but after all it's quite cheap compare to other dessert wine, and this wine is good to drink at a summer day.

International Wine Affair from Carrefour in Suntec city from 21th-31th May 2009

At least after the waiting carrefour wine affair is starting again, but can see from the pictures that it just a 2nd day but not too many crowd around. Also I found out that they reduce their wine selections this year, well it said that it's for international wines but I couldn't find the Greek wine like the wine affair before and it turned out that no discount for those greek dessert wines so no wonder it don't show in the exhibition. This wine affair is mostly the France wines from many regions but I hardly recognize any sauternes (Bordeaux dessert wine) but instead I saw many of expensive red wines from different regions there.



















Well actually it doesn't allow to take a picture inside which I just found out after the guard told me if i want to take a picture I can do that outside, but the heck he didn't tell me the reason why and I didn't feeling upset either so I stopped taking pictures, after all this wine affair is not really attracting to me.

Mostly the wines shown are common labels like Wolf Bass, Long flat from Australia, Montana from New Zealand, Moscato d'asti from italy, also other wine label from Spain, Africa, Germany, America, etc.

Not much price different for the wine from the price before discount in this wine affair. Btw I also tried 'MONTANA" ice wine and it tasted sour and a bit bitter it just not my taste, I thought Ice wine is supposed to be sweet but this ice wine tasted awful for me instead.

The last day of this affair is until 31st of may, so no need to rush to go there because there will be no huge crowd (may be it's different story on weekend) I suppose.

Trentham Noble Taminga (Australian dessert wine) on Sale in Market place until 27th May 2009 (UPDATE)

When I went to Market place in Raffles place today I found out that Trentham Noble Taminga (Australian Dessert wine) is on sale from S$30.5 becomes S$16.95. Hurry and grab the wine. The bottle is 375ml.

I wonder why wine cellar in Market Place, Raffles Place is better compare to the one in Paragon. They also have a very special cool room for the dessert wines and special expensive wines like ice wines and champagne. Note also that the dessert Greek wine has few types there like Samos Grand cru S$44, Casa Nectar (really sweet wine I suppose) S$46, Casa Anthemis S$ 48.85 (the color is like a rose wine, not sure about the taste though). Samos is a city in Greek.
I Also Found "Moscato D'Asti" at S$31++, it is a famous dessert wine from Italy.

What is good about these wines is it come with 750ml bottle unlike the small 375 ml the usual dessert wine bottle.

There are another 2 types of red dessert Greek wine there, "Domain Toplou" and " Tsantali" (the wine type is mavrodaphne) the price range is about S$36++ for Tsantali and S$48.6 for Domain Toplou, relatively cheaper compare to Samos wine. Mavrodaphne is a red wine variety used to make dessert fortified wine. MarketPlace is a good store to look for dessert wines in supermarket in Singapore.

I saw a very expensive Sauternes wine price about S$115++, different with Carrefour which the sauternes wines are relatively affordable.

Also found MALESAN BORDEAUX medium sweet wine for S$28.95. Well the wines in Market place are almost similar with cold storage it just that they have more ranges of wine.

LIST OF DESSERT WINE AVAILABLE IN SINGAPORE

Gosh I really enjoy dessert wine, the sweet taste and the easy-to-drink label is perfect for me. I will write about dessert wine special for dessert wine lover in Singapore, even though the dessert wines in here are limited and expensive but it's still better than none. Have to thank winedragon.blogspot.com and wineofthepeople.lifejournal.com for their effort reviewing wines so I could find out more about dessert wines.

In Cold storage :

1. "Brown Brothers" special late harvested orange muscat and flora austral, 375 ml. S$21.7
2. "Trentham Noble Taminga", 375 ml.
   
3. "Riverbreeze" soft sweet wine
4. "Firstchoice" medium muscat sweet. S$22
5. "Chateau manos 2002 cadillac". S$30
6. "Monkey Bar" dessert wine.
7. Canadian ice wines with a price about S$125
   

In Ntuc Fairprice:

1. "Brown brothers" special late harvested orange muscat and flora austral, 375 ml.
2. "Black tower rivaner"
3. "Montana", new zealand wine. late harvest selection. S$28.7
4. "Moscato d'asti" it's confirm as the dessert wine from Italy. The price is about$36.
   
5. "Riverbreeze" soft sweet wine.
6. "Vidal" Canadian ice wine, S$75.
   

In Carrefour:

1. Sauternes wines (I think in Carrefour they have about 3/4 ranges of varieties), just look into carrefour's wine cellar.
2. "Samous Vin Doux" Greek Wine. High quality of wine. S$45 and "Samos Grand Cru", S$44. (I wonder if both wines are actually same just carrefour's employees put it in different places)
   
3. "Chateau haut-galouchet bordeaux molleaux". S$22
4. "Vidal" Canadian Ice wine S$75.
5. New Zealand ice wine S$30.
   

In Market place:

1. 1 sauternes wine that I forgot the name in market place in Paragon. The price is above than S$50.
2. "Samos Grand Cru", S$44. Greek wine.
   
3. "Moscato Lemnos", Greek wine. 500 ml.
4. "Brown brothers" special late harvested orange muscat and flora austral, 375 ml.
5. "Monkey Bar" dessert wine.

Note: Sauternes is a white dessert wine originally from French, Bordeaux. To confirm whether it's a dessert wine or not please do check the label behind the bottle. (not guarantee for any price changes).