Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Village & Crus Du Beaujolais 2009 Tasting With Franck Duboeuf.
Beaujolais Villages 2009 Flower Range 100% Gamay
Fresh, juicy-ripe red cherry and raspberry notes, very floral with discernible opulent-sweetness to the bouquet amongst an intriguing spiciness and metallic, flinty-graphite nuance.
Universally desired, there is a burgeoning thirst for wine knowledge and enjoyment. There is also a growing appreciation for artisan wines and viticulture using sustainable practices, organic and biodynamic principals.
What is Biodynamics? “In essence its traditional agriculture, it’s how it was done before the chemical-age came along, and wine’s been around a lot longer than the chemicals have.” Michael Seresin – Proprietor of Seresin Estate
In case you are not aware, importing, distributing and retailing wine is a tough business and highly competitive – everywhere. In Asia it is hyper-competitive and in Hong Kong, with its recent zeroing-out of import duties, it is insanely competitive!
Here is a market that is arguably out of control and quite possibly the Island might sink under the weight of wine flooding in to it. When the duties were axed, the vinous floodgates opened with every man and their dog importing wine direct from merchants and vineyards all over the world. Needless to say, the established Hong Kong merchants have taken a hit.
Caroline Frey, winemaker at Chateau La Lagune –A leading Biodynamic Vigneron
Universally desired, there is a burgeoning thirst for wine knowledge and enjoyment. There is also a growing appreciation for artisan wines and viticulture using sustainable practices, organic and biodynamic principals.
Global carbon footprint
The global average carbon footprint per capitais presently 20 tons
The general scientific consensus is that global per capita emission levels must drop to just 1 tonne per person by 2050 to limit global warming to 2 degrees C
Must-Have Wines of the Lunar Year
Georges Duboeuf Chateau des Capitans Julienas 2009 & Georges Duboeuf Morgon Domaine Mont Chavy 2009
I can already sense the disbelief from the wine cognoscenti, Beaujolais? How could Beaujolais eclipse Bordeaux, Burgundy or the Rhone Valley? Surely he can’t be serious!
Well I am, moreover unequivocal in my choice and can genuinely say that these two wines gave me the greatest (French) drinking pleasure of the year, trying them both in a tasting line-up held by Franck Duboeuf, and separately over a meal.
Stephanie Rigourd – Hilton Hotel, Singapore
I was first introduced to Stephanie Rigourd by Jean-Luc Fourrier, Vice President Restaurant Concepts for the Hilton in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, who is based here in Singapore. A veteran of the hotel and hospitality industry with a good eye for talent Fourier impressed upon me that Stephanie had a great feel and aptitude for wine and would go a long way in the industry.
These wines are the standouts of the 2010 lunar drinking year. Why the lunar year? Notwithstanding I reside in Asia, the nucleus of my ideologies revolve around a back to nature approach with wine, food and the environment – sustainable, organic and biodynamic principals that have its roots in ancient feng shui and Chinese gardening that have evolved over the eons yet pivotal today. So not only do I care about the planet, I have gone lunar!
Recommending wine books is not easy. Unless your obsessed with wine its difficult enough to hold most people’s attention on a wine article little lone an entire book devoted to the subject. Wine books do of course come in many forms, some coffee table formatted with evocative pictures. Nothing wrong in that and frankly my personal preference; like cookbooks I like to be able to visual the dish, and there is nothing more evocative than vineyard pictures moreover excellent photography.
Most Auspicious Wine for Chinese New Year 2011 Year of the Rabbit!
The Wandering Palate has gone lunar! Notwithstanding I reside in Asia, the nucleus of my ideologies revolve around a back to nature approach with wine, food and the environment – sustainable, organic and biodynamic principals that revolve around the lunar calendar, its roots in ancient feng shui and Chinese gardening that have evolved over the eons yet pivotal today.
As the Year of the Tiger comes to an end, Chinese New Year is fast approaching and a significant proportion of the world starts searching for the answers to 2011, the Year of the Rabbit. Being a Tiger/Scorpion, I was searching all last year for the answers and whilst there were plenty of highlights it was a challenging year, to say the least.
Lapin au Vin des Central Otago a la Wandering Palate (Rabbit Casserole with Central Otago Pinot Noir)
The Wandering Palates rabbit casserole perfected over a lifetime and inspired by an overabundance of rabbits and wild thyme, moreover excellent pinot noir in Central Otago, New Zealand.
In my formative years down on the farm in Te Awamutu, rabbits were in plague proportions and weekly night time shoots necessary to keep them at bay. The hare’s were so big they used to open the farm gates themselves.
