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).

Thailand Sparkling Wine

I got 2 bottles of wine from Thailand exhibition in Thai embassy few days ago. Rose sparkling wine (5% of alcohol) and red sparkling wine (6% of alcohol), it came with small bottle. The seller guy couldn't explain to me what grape used to make those 2 wine so I don't know the variety of the grapes. I'm just feeling curious of what can Thailand wine offer?

The answer:
The rose wine is ok and light, the taste is quite sweet but the quality is not up to French level yet also the smell of the wine is not as strong as other wine. While for the red wine, the taste is a bit sweet and just so so, not very impressive, drinking it is not different like drink a coke. So I'm thinking that I wasted my money for this wine, they should sell it for S$2/ bottle instead of S$4. The rose wine is still acceptable but the red wine is not very good. Too bad I didn't take any pic for the rose wine because I finished it 1st. This pic is only the red wine and they also gave me a key chain and a free bottle opener (not bad for $8).

NEDERBURG wine Special Late Harvest 2007

I felt a big curiosity of trying a late harvest wine. Is the taste really as nice as what other blogger were writing? so I bought NEDERBURGH special late harvest 2007 (South-African wine) for only S$ 19.25 because of discount in Cold Storage, the original price is S$26.90 and I checked in Carrefour it's about S$28++. Moreover read that this wine brand is quite popular so I bought it.

Btw the service in wine section in WEST COAST MALL, COLD STORAGE IS TOTALLY AWFUL and instead of serving me the employee of the wine section ( Filipino woman) criticized me of not spelling correct "Greek" word (I've been living here for 5 years, how come that she thinks her English is better than mine?) and then she was playing with her laptop afterward while I have to searched of the whole wine section of my own. Enough about her.

When you see the picture the color of the wine is appealing and unique like it's already been caramelized. Haven't tasted the wine yet, still waiting for the right time to open it.

"not so complete" Info about Wine

My experience drinking wines so far is not so good so hereby I decided if I want to drink wine I have to do a research 1st about which wine is good to drink at and mostly at a relaxing time. While I did the research I found many interesting facts about wine (white, red, rose, champagne).

1. White wine is made from green grapes like sauvignon blanc, riesling, chardonnay, moscato (muscat), tawny, semillon, etc.
2. Red wine is made from red grapes like pinot noir, merlot, cabernet sauvignon, shiraz, pinot grigio, etc.

There are also variety tastes of wine that not into my liking like dry (high acidity of wine), semi-dry (not so high acidity of wine), while Icewine (Iskiilin), dessert and fortified wine are sweet wines that I like to taste. When I was in wine section in supermarket I got confused to see chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, merlot, pinot noir, etc then now I understand that the manufacturer of the wine always put the name of the grape that they used whey the producing the wine because every single variety of the grapes have different tastes. I always wondered why Caucasian find wine is a must-drink as a part of their culture? While for me as South-east Asian think that wine contains alcohol and it's not good to consume a lot of alcohol at the same time. However may be environment changes people as so wine is look as the substitute of water for Caucasians like tea as the substitute of water for Chinese and Japanese people.

The interesting fact is dessert wine is made mostly from riesling (popular in Germany), semillon (popular in France, this grape usually use for "sauternes" a popular bordeaux dessert wine), moscato (popular in Israel and Greece). Bordeaux is a French region that popular because its wine production worldwide, they name the wine mostly using "CHATEU" as the 1st word, the wines from Bordeaux recognized as expensive wines with the superior (the best) quality of wine. Now France, Spain, Italy, Australia, Chili, California, Israeli, Germany, South-Africa, even China and Thailand (newbies in wine business) also competing with each other to make the best wines in the world, I don't know about other countries though.

I was thinking why a rose wine called "rose"? Is it because of the pinky color rose-like or because the taste like rose. Just read about the rose wine from internet I guess is not enough because I have to experience it myself then I will get the answer of questions.

I studied a lot from wikipedia.org this website is really useful, even though sometimes the content needs to be updated.

DEETLEFS ESTATE weisser riesling 2007 Taste (Tasting)

Introduction, I'm currently living in Singapore, still a student in a university, still depending on my parents' money even though I worked before as a part timer, feeling curious about wine because of the unique taste compare to other alcoholic drinks (vodka, tequila, beer, Bacardi, margarita, martini, even singapore sling, etc.).

After my bad experiences drinking wine now I need to be careful to choose a bottle wine. Then for my 1st attempt to buy wine I chose a bottle of white wine from NTUC. DEETLEFS ESTATE weisser riesling 2007 (South-African wine) with only S$18.40 from S$29.90. Choose this one because of riesling grape because riesling is type of quite expensive wine while the offering price was really hard to resist and also I just found 1 bottle only in the wine section so I grabbed the last bottle of weisser riesling.

I tasted the wine today after chilled it in the fridge. For me the taste is:

First when I smell it, it gave me a strong smell of the richness of grape with alcoholic content (The alcohol volume is just 13%), and when I sipped it, it was fruity, not to high in acidity, a bit sweet (Note: that a bit means not very sweet like sugar) but yet it's crisp and refreshing. The wine was slowly pour down to my throat and the alcohol taste was light and slow and no bitter taste at the end.

Overall this wine is acceptable. For a beginner like me who don't really drink wine often I would like to try to combine the wine with some food. I drank this wine with sushi and the combination was perfect. The sushi was a lot and the wine helped me to make the sushi tasted better so I can finished everything.However this wine is not very good if leave it too long in an open air because the taste changed become high in acidity and not too refreshing anymore, so once open the bottle try to finish it quickly with the meal.

I'm still an amateur in this field so please do not compare me with other experienced connoisseurs blogger.

A MOBILE LOVE STORY 2nd SYNOPSIS / STORY (cast. Han Xue, Wallace Huo, Yvonne Lim, Christopher Lee, etc)

The following episodes kind of boring. When Lili joined Lin Zhi long's company (GALAXY) she tried very hard to win his heart even being very nice to his parents, it shown that she wanted to find happiness of her own instead of always struggeling with her sister illness. Sophei left Lili because she knew that she had been a burden to her, Lili tried to search for her but faith brought Sophie to meet Beibei. Bei bei recognized her as Yunfei ex girl friend and wanted to contact Yun Fei but Sophie wouldn't let her do that so Bei Bei took her to her home and learned about her bad condition. Sophei asked Bei bei to promise not to tell Yun Fei about her making her feeling guilty toward Yun Fei and changed her attitude toward him, which made him suspicious that she was hiding something and insisted her to tell the truth. Bei bei shut her mouth, making him angry. The day when Sophie was having bad headache Bei bei asked Yun Fei to come to her place but didn't explain her reason but Sophei listened to Bei bei converstaion with Yunfei on the phone called Lili panickly asking for help then she stormed off from Bei bei's house but fell off the stair made her coma.

Lili found out everything and thought than Bei bei brought harm to her sis and felt angrier than before. Bei bei couldn't bring herself tell Yun Fei everything because the truth was she is afraid of losing him and feeling guilty to him at the same time. Lin Zhi Long supported Bei bei without asking anything caused Yunfei jealous of him and questioned Bei bei about what she was hiding from him and could not come clean with him. Bei bei still quite. Bei bei broke up with Yun fei, couldn't bring herself to face him more and runaway to her home town followed by Lin Zhi long.

Yunfei came to beibei's home town kept asking her to solve their problems and return being together with him. Lin Zhi long found out everything happened about Sophie's condition and that she was Lili's sister, he persuaded bei bei to come clean with yunfei later she wanted to do it. However Lili told Yunfei 1st that she was Sophie's sister and fabricating lies that all this time Bei bei knew about Sophie but hid her in her home afraid of losing him to her and caused the accident that made Sophie coma. Yunfei believed it so when at least Bei bei told him the truth that she knew where Sophie now it was too late, he just too angry to her because of her being lied to him this whole time and yelled at her and said that there was no way they can be together from now on. Yunfei Took her time to care for Sophie.

Lili paid a swindler to make Yunfei's company went bancrupt and Yunfei's partner being framed so he would be ditched by his rich girl friend to stop her give him fund for his company, Yunfei's partner was Chen Weilun succeed being tricked by the swindler and lost all the company fund. Later on Chen Wei lun able to reconciled with his girl friend because of Bei bei's help and able to save the company from his girl friend family's money.

When Sophie woke up from her coma she explained to Lili that she was the one who chose to live Yun Fei not otherwise made her felt guilty and said sorry to Beibei. Even though Lili realized her mistakes but she already tried to killed the swindler whom blackmailed her, she also used the company's fund to paid the swindler, so she (I think) ended up in jail. Beibei chose to live Yunfei and let him taking care Sophie for her remaining days. bei bei made a promise if the sms that she sent to a random no. could get back to her again within 2 years then she will come back to Yun Fei but if not then they are not destined to be together. Yunfei just can sent her off from the train station.

Sophie and Yunfei got married, she died when they were hugging each other just after they're vowed to become husband and wive. 2 years later, Bei bei and Yun fei met again in the train station and were waiting together for the sms because that was the last day of their promise. Lin Zhi Long received the sms and even though at 1st he was hesitated but he still sent the sms to Bei bei but her mobile phone was fell and demaged so bei bei and yun fei didn't know that the sms did return to her. Hence Yunfei decided to go to America while Bei bei choose to meet Lin Zhilong ( may be she choose him, it didn't explain clearly here). THE END.

Btw it's Singaporean ending, in chinese version even though yunfei and bei bei thought that the sms didn't reach her back but Yun fei stopped her from leaving him and they ended up being a couple again.

What I feel so upset is ch 8 (singaporean channel) just shown singaporean version of Bei bei came to Lin zhi long at the cafe and may be ended up being together with him, not shown the chinese version either. Darn ch 8 becoz I followed this series for 10 weeks long already and yet the ending is sucks and disappointing.

A MOBILE LOVE STORY SYNOPSIS / STORY (cast. Han Xue, Wallace Huo, Yvonne Lim, Christopher Lee, etc)

A MOBILE LOVE STORY is a Singapore-China production drama for tv mobile. Wallace Huo acted as lu yun fei, Han xue as Mu bei bei, Christopher lee as Lin zhi long, other casts unfortunately I forget their real names.

The story began like a typical Chinese real-life modern story and the setting was in Shanghai. Lu Yunfei just came back from America, he was indeed a talented young man in advertising company, he set up advertising company with his best friend. He proposed and engaged with his girl friend Sophie (su fei), but Sophie found out days before their wedding that she had incurable brain cancer hence she left yunfei on their wedding day without saying a word left Yunfei with big curiousity and in despair tried to find her, she was insisted not to be found by him.
Mu bei bei was a poor tourist guide by accident met lin lizhong a son of a wealthy singaporean bussinesman, Zhi long fall for her straigthness and pride, those two were becoming friends. One year passed, Zhi long kept pursue beibei to accept his love and latter received it without loving him while yunfei still live on a past. Lili, beibei's best friend introduced her to Fei production company (lu yunfei's company) later she became Yunfei's assistant and those two always had different opinions until they were both could become a good team work made Lili became jealous of Beibei's succesful, because Lili was in love with yunfei while yunfei always with beibei all the time. Zhi long could feel that Beibei had a feeling for yunfei hence he gave her up made him did drunk-driving ended up in a hospital, beibei felt guilty and continued dating him while in that time yunfei confessed that he loved beibei but later didn't accept it. However zhilong realized that beibei unhappy being together with him, so he let her go to be with Yunfei.

Lili found out that her long-lost sister was Sophie and dying of brain cancer, she did everything in order to give her sister better mecal treatment in expense she was fired from Fei production company because mistreating the contract to other company. Even though she begged lu yunfei not to fire her but yunfei still fired her made him feeling hatred toward him. Lili's house was on fired because of Sophie's clumsiness, her life was on a mess since sophie came to her life but still tried to hang on because she cared for her sister and not able to abandon her. Friendship between beibei and lili turned sour since beibei dating yunfei, because of desperate situation lili approach beibei to help her to get money for her sister's medical treatment. No matter how bad lili treated her in the past like threw her out from her house at night, Beibei willing to helped her even borrowed money from her ex-bf zhi long.

Lili found out that Sophie was yunfei's fiancee and assumed that yunfei left her because of her illness, sophie who was sick didn't able to recall anything about him and yunfei at that time just occasionally she will remember yunfei. Lili seek revenge for her sister includin join lin lizhong's company to take clients from fei production company, she even moved closer to zhilong (hope she didn't use this nice guy to take revenge)... Ep 14 ended here because I watched it from ch 8 so have to wait next week for the update of ep 15 & 16.

Lili's character is very strong and blindly stupid, how dare he accused yunfei leaving sophie because of her illness while she knew that when she was pretending as sophie by sending sms to yunfei to meet her on the bridge, yunfei was rushing to go there. However, yunfei's character at first already gave a bad impression on her, without listening her reason directly fired lili from the company even though the mistake could be amended but Lili also had a strong pride and didn't want to tell anyone about her problem living her in lurch. While Beibei naively stupid chose to be with yunfei who were still in love with his ex-fiance (yunfei said that now he loves her only but it's all bulls**, the way he tried to fiind her even after a year still make known his true feeling) instead of nice, calm, and steady lin zhilong.
How I wish this drama could be ended soon, the good episodes just starting from ep.10 before that was just too slow (what a waste of time and money of production). Even though I know this drama has 2 versions of ending i still hope that lili ending could be a happy ending with lin zhi long because she sacraficed too much for sophie unlike Beibei who's very quiet even though she is a much better person than Lili who after Beibei helped still insisted on destroying her happiness (she's a bitch but I also feel sorry for her).

I gave the synopsis here because I rarely seen a brief synopsis about this drama.

new blog

THIS is my new blog my other blog is at alivenotdead.com with same name lia00027. Hope I can blogging occasionally if not well let see....