2009, Coming Home Again

Yes, I can see why you want to leave Singapore, everyone tells me over and over, it’s not that exciting a place to live in, it’s so boring.

They are missing the point.

To be honest, it took me the better part of a year from when I returned to Singapore to fully appreciate life here. Not because there isn’t anything to do here – someone once said (probably my mother) that life isn’t boring, it’s the person who is – but rather that it took me a while to feel part of a community again. One cannot simply expect to stay away for 7 years and return to find groups of people eager and waiting to take you into their fold again. Once I finally settled in however, I packed my schedule to the brim with activities: climbing, diving, etc. This might be a tiny little island, but there is plenty to do both on and off the island. Case in point: this weekend, I will be climbing, singing karaoke, playing badminton, swimming, playing tennis, kite flying, and having dinner with friends.

No, I’m choosing to leave not because I don’t like life in Singapore. I love life here, and I think that this past year, I have come to see home as here.

~.~.~.~.

Now that the year is drawing to the close, it’s time to do the traditional and look back at some of the most memorable moments:

Best Article/Book
I haven’t been reading as much as I used to. Most of my literature this year consisted of books on wine, and old books from my bookshelves that I re-devoured. Off the top of my head, I can’t quite name one book that made an indelible impression on me.

That said, there are two articles this year that I have read, and re-read, and also forwarded on to friends. The first was a speech given by Karl Paulnack, pianist and director of music division at Boston Conservatory for Boston Conservatory’s freshman class: Things that Matter. The second was Steve Job’s speech to the Stanford 2005 graduating class, entitled Connecting the Docts. I have turned repeatedly to this latter speech in recent days, while trying to come to a decision on the move back to Chicago.

Best Trip
I’ve made quite a number of trips taken this year:
1. Work trip to Jiuzhaigou, China, January
2. Skiing in Innsbruck, Austria, January
3. Work trip to Kunming and Lijiang, China, March
4. Ski trip and visit, Colorado and Chicago, April
5. Diving in Dayang, Malaysia, May
6. Work trip and climbing trip, Tianjin, Dalian, Suzhou, Shanghai, Hong Kong, June
7. Diving in Tioman, Malaysia, August
8. Diving in Redang, Malaysia, September
9. Wine and hike trip to Tasmania, Australia, October
10. Upcoming diving trip to Sipadan, Malaysia

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Of these, I think the most memorable would be the week sojourn through Tasmania. Everything was perfection: the food, scenery, wine, hiking, company. The only lacking bit was time.

Best Wine
I haven’t tasted it yet, and I doubt I will, but 2009 marks the year I bought my first first growth wine, Chateau Lafite. In fact, I bought a case of it, along with half a case of Chateau Margaux, and several cases of second growth wines. These are for investment purposes.

Best Restaurant

I loved my trips to Ember, and Grand Asia has the best sizzling pepper beef ever, but hands down, the best restaurant of the year has to be Alinea, and not just for the hefty price tag. The food was as much of an experience as the service and the presentation. I doubt I will be making a return trip sometime soon, but no matter, that way the magic is preserved.

Best Challenge
Diving, diving, diving! I love it as much for the incredible scape and amazing diversity of life and color underwater as for the companionship of all my zany friends.

Giving Thanks at Thanksgiving

Over a dim sum brunch with the girls the other day, we tossed around ideas of throwing a Thanksgiving party, since both RX and I had moved back home. Finally, RX volunteered her place to host a party. So it was that 19 of us ended together last night, with way too much good food to gorge on.

Our Thanksgiving tradition started back in 2004, when, as starving graduate students/working professionals in the US without immediate families, my aunt warmly invited us to her place in Maryland for the holidays. We usually straggled in late Wednesday evening from different parts of the country: Los Angeles; San Diego; Chicago; Michigan; New York; DC; Philadelphia; and even Houston.

After rousing ourselves from the various rooms and corners throughout the house, we’d convene sleepily in the kitchen, where my aunt would be already bustling around. She would pull out tubs of frozen chicken curry she had specially pre-made for us Singaporeans so deprived of local cuisine, as well as turnip cake, which we would eagerly dice into large cubes and set on the island stove to pan fry with some battered eggs. Thus it was that before 8am on Thanksgiving Day, we would have already started our feasting.

The eating would continue steadily throughout the day. A few hours after breakfast, we would declare lunchtime, and my aunt would whip up a super tasty meal of usually yet another Singaporean fare – laksa or mee siam. The kitchen, and the lovely large island around which we would lounge, was our domain. We rarely wandered far from it, and only then to let our stomachs take a breather from all the food that we couldn’t help but keep on pinching.

The main Thanksgiving dinners would finally begin late afternoon, just as the sun was starting to set. It was a truly American affair – we had groaning tables of pumpkin soup; stuffing; chicken wings; ham; candied yams; mash potatoes; black forest trifle; and of course, a big-ass White House turkey.

Given our fond memories of those past Thanksgivings, we were especially eager to recreate the experience this year.

We outdid ourselves with the food. RX roasted a succulent turkey, a ginormous leg of ham, tossed up a healthful apple vinagrette salad, mashed potatoes doused liberally in olive oil (her misguided notion of trying to be healthy by cutting down on the butter and cream), and two beautiful pumpkin pies. Not to outdone, Amanda found a recipe by Gordon Ramsay on beef Wellington and tried to follow his deceptively simple 2.5 minutes of instructions. She also mixed up a tasty white sangria which we liberally dipped into while waiting for the other guests to arrive. Janice came bearing a new recipe for stuffing muffins and roasted vegetables, along with a bottle of Carmenere that she was eager to try. I settled on the easy but delicious bacon wrapped asparagus and mushrooms, and also brought the bottle of Duckhorn that Sandy had brought me when she visited last year.

The others soon arrived, everyone bearing heavy bags of food. There was otah, mushroom soup, Peking duck, chicken leg, jelly, and five different kinds of dessert, including two types of chocolate cake. SO. MUCH. FOOD. If I had a more expendable belly, I would have wolfed down seconds of everything. As it were, I was already having trouble tasting everything that everyone brought.

DGS: Tasmanian Wine Night

On Friday night, after a few rounds of endlessly debating what to do with the evening, a group of five of us found ourselves in my living room, too lazy to join the crowds milling around downtown. It had been raining the entire day, so the toads in my ponds were happily frolicking in the fresh water, and loudly mating. So it seemed fitting to pop open the bottle of Barking Frog Pinot Noir that Jeff brought for me from Oregon, particularly also because I was curious to see how it matched up with the Tasmanian Pinot Noirs were we going to try at DGS the following night. Well, I loved the glass cork – super fun! Other than that, I must admit being a little disappointed with the wine. To be sure, it was very smooth, with just the thinnest layer of tannins coating my tongue. The color was a nice, light red. But there wasn’t much of a nose, and it tasted a little watery without a kick at the end. Still, it was a nice enough wine to drink and we spent a pleasant evening chatting and laughing about movies.

With the taste of Oregon still fresh in my mind, I was excited to re-try the Tasmanian wines we had lugged back. DGS was a cozy affair – about a dozen people, just enough to squeeze around the dining table. For food, we prepared cheese and chocolate fondue, along with chicken and steak, tons of fruits, bread, and mum-made walnut brownies. Very nice (and affordable) spread, if I say so myself.

We kicked off the evening with the bright and refreshing Riesling from Stefano Lubiana, the Stefano Lubiana Alfresco Riesling 2008. Everyone really enjoyed the slight tinge of sweetness and the fizz on their tongues. Wonderful way to get the taste buds alive.

We opened the Bay of Fires Chardonnay 2008 next. In comparison to the Riesling, this was heavy, but with enough acidity to make it lively and not dumb. Now this is a nicely balanced Chardonnay – just a touch of butter and lemon.

We moved on to the Moorilla Estate Praxis Pinot Noir 2008 from Hobart next, and I was struck by the stark contrast with the Barking Frog. Now this one had a lovely nose – fruity, with some earth, just the way I like my Pinots. It had a thicker body too, more solid, but just as smooth.

Our next wine, the Pipers Brook Tamar 2004, elicited mixed responses. Everyone fervently agreed that it did smell like ketchup, but some, like RX, was not a fan. Where’s the fries, she asked.

We then went back to Stefano Lubiana, for the Stefano Lubiana Merlot 2006. Now, I remember that it wasn’t my favorite wine from the trip; we just felt like we had to buy at least two bottles from that winery, since we were getting Lubiana to help us ship a case of wine back to Singapore. Nonetheless, it was a solid wine, and RX expressed her enthusiasm for it.

At this point, people were starting to flag a little from the hearty food and wine. So I broke out the Delamere Blanc de Blanc 2004, a beautifully made sparkling that had just the right touch of yeast, bubbles, and sweetness. Loved it!

We sat around chatting and laughing for a while more, about all things irreverent, and then I decided to open another bottle, the Frogmore Creek Ruby Pinot Noir Port NV. I loved this port. The Frogmore Creek tasting was our last winery tasting, and I had resolved not to buy any more. However, the port was so delicious I couldn’t help it. So it was a delight to drink it again, and a bonus when RX decided she had had enough and gave me the rest of her glass.

Fun times, great wines. I didn’t check, but I do hope that everyone went away with similarly favorable impressions of Tasmanian wines.

Quiet Weekend

Tone of the weekend was chill – no sweating under the hot sun, no feeding of mosquitoes = no climbing. I had deliberately set aside the entire Sunday to stay in to read, and think about stuff. Honestly, I wasn’t all that productive. All I have to show for it are some pages of reading (not nearly enough; not by half, bleah), and several more stages cleared for Bejweled on the iphone. It’s been ages though, since I’ve given myself that kind of time out to catch up on sleep and just nua.

Not to say that I cooped myself up the entire weekend. Friday night, a bunch of us gathered at Ruoxi’s, ostensibly to exchange photos and videos from our Redang dive trip. Instead, we just tucked into mounds of delicious food – nasi lemak, curry chicken, otah etc. And then, bellies full, we spontaneously decided to sing some karaoke. What a trip – in the next two hours, we revisited all the popular songs from way back. Anyone walking by our tiny little room could have instantly pegged our age group. I’d quite forgotten how delightlfully cheesy the Grasshopper MTVs were.

Somewhat spontaneously again on Saturday evening, another bunch of us gathered at Palex’s, to admire his enormous LCD TV and humungous collection of movies. Because it was the DGS group, we brought along some wine, including a bottle of Meadowbank Henry James Pinot Noir from Tasmania (absolutely delicious, and impossibly smooth!). Peirui and I, the two girls in the group of five, overruled the boys’ preference to watch Surrogates. So we saw The Ugly Truth instead, and we thought that the boys secretly preferred that choice as well, judging from their awws, and so sweet at various points in the movie. Fun and relaxing evening though; should have gatherings like that more often!

Chifun: Celebratory Dinner at Xiyan

Again lifting from Ruoxi’s page over at Chifun – her review of Xiyan when the DGS crowd and Jeff went a couple weeks ago now. Like she mentioned, the wine was sadly unremarkable. I should have brought my wines from Tasmania – but at $30 a corkage, a little hard to digest. Nonetheless, well fed and lubricated (four bottles), we were a noisy bunch. Hopefully, we weren’t too loud for the two love birds at the table next to us (and their scary bouquet of balloons):

This was my second trip to Xiyan, a boutique Chinese restaurant helmed by HK celebrity chef Jacky Yu. Started in Hong Kong, it popularized the private dining concept, making humble regional dishes high-brow yet still comforting at the same time. Both times I ate there at the behest of PS, who after our first wine tasting dinner thought so favorably of the restaurant that she would gather 12 of us this time to fill up an entire table, amongst them Jeff who was visiting and many of the wine-sipping folk from DGS. Ironically, the wines we picked were at best undistinguished and even worse corked (though the waitress changed immediately with apologies), but the conversation was definitely interesting and got more raucous as the night went on.

We went through a gut-busting 12 courses that evening. If I were to ever visit Xiyan again, I would prefer not to repeat that, for 12 courses were just too much food to bear, even with a few champion eaters in the house (ww, i’m looking at you).

Momo-tomato

I would be more selective, and save the bulk of my stomach for their specialties which I could and would order over and over again, for each of the three star dishes did not disappoint. An appetizer of gorgeously sweet and ripe momotaro tomatoes slick with liquid sesame and wasabi cream was gone in no time whilst we settled down and sipped our first bottle of wine.

Salivating Chicken

While the name of salivating chicken course was inelegant, there was definitely no false advertising since we were definitely salivating over the punchy flavors of the fermented bean paste and chili oil that forms a sludgy sea around a whole poached chicken. The dish is further supplemented by ingenious addition of century eggs to provide added earthier flavors and konnyaku noodle threads to mop up the addictive sauce in place of rice.

Fish with Pomelo Salad

The last no-fail signature dish is a whole fried seabass perched on a thai style pomelo salad. The flesh is just cooked through even though the shrimp-paste coated skin and fins were fried to such crispiness that we in fact treated them like chips. The pomelo salad’s sweet and tart flavors added flavor to the otherwise unseasoned fish, the pearly pulp contrasting with the silken quality of the fish.

Carnivores can eat really well at Xiyan, for while the other meat dishes were not as satisfying as the three signatures, each dish was quite tasty on their own.

grilled thai pork cheek with thai style dressing

There’s a plate of grilled por served with a fish-sauce and lime juice based dip resembling Vientamese nuoc nam. The thinly sliced pork is sweet like char siew with a nice char, the level of tastiness elevated with the tiny dice of fresh lime, which when popped into the mouth with the pork and a swish of sauce provided additional pops of tang and savoriness.

Drunken prawns in Shanghainese marinade

A big plate of cold prawns, steamed then steeped into a wine marinade was highly addictive. We tore into the flavorful prawns, sucking at the shell and head, our tongues growing numb from the lethal szechuan peppercorns that are invariably thrown into the marinade. A basin filled with beef was another good dish, texturally perfect with the efforts of slow braising evident in the moist chunks of meat and slippery soft tendons. Flavorwise it boasted the spicy and heavy profile similar to the chicken, and the spicing of the prawn, unfortunately leading a flavor fatigue. Perhaps a different treatment, a sweeter soy-based sauce ala cantonese stewed beef would fare better.

Tofu in golden yolk sauce

Vegetarians however are somewhat out of luck at Xiyan, most of the vegetable focused dish clunkers. The best in the mix was a dish of cubed silken tofu in a yellow-tinged sauce, the color derived from undoubtedly more than a healthy number of salted-egg yolk, the broth taking on a chowder-like consistency. Simple, but very original. Then there were the medley of very blah dishes, the DIY lettuce wrap with stir fried vegetables with dried oysters reminded me of a skinless popiah, the stir fried spinach there for the sole fact of providing vitamin a and c into our diet, and the intermezzo of simply pickled green mangoes, while a welcome palate cleanser after a series of heavy dishes, could hardly qualify as a dish. Perhaps some more thought could be applied towards creating more inventive food for herbivores.

rice dumplings

Our epic dinner ended with a bowl of multi-colored rice dumplings in sweet ginger soup, the filling not your typical peanut or black sesame but an intriguing mix of ingredients not usually linked with tang yuan. Its both sweet and savory, largely tasty and most definitely quirky, not unlike the personality of Xiyan the restaurant. Try guessing what’s inside. And no, I’m not telling!

Chi Fun: Delightful evening at Ember

Totally lifting this off Ruoxi’s page over at Chi Fun – her review of our evening at Ember when Jeff was in town. Totally delicious meal; and still memorable, even though it was my third trip there.

PS has been raving about ember for a while, so on her third trip to this restaurant, I made it a point to tag along, with Dawn as a late substitute for WW.

It is just as well that Dawn’s there because I’ve been meaning to treat her to foie gras for her birthday, and Ember has not one, or two, but 4 different versions on their menu, all pan seared as per my preferences too. The two versions we ended up ordering were devoured in no time, the high quality liver, creamy without any grainy-ness of mediocre foie melting soft, the organ’s unctuousness tempered by the stewed apples and chutnied and spiced pears.

oyster poppers

Of course, one shouldn’t, even if one could, make a meal solely out of foie gras, so we also ordered oyster poppers for an aquatic source of cholesterol, fat oysters lighted battered and tempura-ed, their juices squirting outwards as we bit into them. A series of sauces accompany the oysters but I prefer them naked, with a hint of lemon. The standout appetizer turned out not to be the foie gras, but a spicy pasta dish littered with sakura ebi shrimp, its taste an uncanny proxy for hae bee hiam, many times more refined.

Chilean Seabass

PS is a consummate saleswoman, convincing both PR and Dawn to order her favorite main course, the chilean sea bass. Environmentalists would probably throw a fit on the inclusion of this endangered by overfishing species on Ember’s menu. But we are weak, and choose not to confront the moral dilemma but instead just fully enjoy the fish, its pristine white flesh that simply melts in the mouth (a rather unusual sensation when talking about fish), the creamy bacon infused mushroom ragout providing an added savory dimension to the dish. Bacon appears again tucked amongst a bed of lentils on which my slab of duck confit laid. The duck was cooked a point, a crisped but grease-less exterior that gives with the slightest pressure of the knife to reveal flavorful, juicy meat. A little salty, but very correct, very french.

Rack of lamb

As yummy as my dish was, it suffered after a while from monotony, after which I turned my attentions to P’s lamb chops. P almost always orders lamb when he has the opportunity to, thus it is with good authority that he declares it to be very delicious, particularly when that view was validated by our entire dinner party. What makes it special was the south east asian spices that encrusted the generous portion of pink lamb, imparting a thai inspired flavor and would be what I consider fusion done well. And I just kept swiping the sides off his plate whenever P was not looking, enamored with the caramelized eggplant (only my favorite vegetable) and the more traditional potato gratin, a delicious and sinful side even though it did not necessarily add anything to the dish on a whole.

Compared to the fireworks encountered for the mains, dessert was comparably tame though uniformly executed. The apple tartin and banana tart both possessed buttery and crisp shells, and the lavender ice cream that accompanied the banana tart successfully imparted a restrained note of lavender without tasting like potpourri. It’s possibly the only version of lavender flavored food that I’ve ever tried and actually liked. Last dessert of the night was the ubiquitous molten chocolate cake with a candle for dawn to blow out for her day.

All that, along with a bottle of Cab Sauvignon named “No Regrets” (and not memorable) set us each about $75 poorer, our dinner partially subsidised by a Citibank discount. Not a bad price for a solid meal, and like PS– shall be returning to Ember soon.

Tasmanian Wines: A Tasting Review

The following is a review of the wines we sampled in Tasmania. Some of the notes were written right after we stepped out of the winery; some after listening to our various (mildly tipsy) voice notes. We were not as diligent as we could have been, so in most cases, the notes center on wines we were most taken with, and do not cover each and every single wine that we tasted – around 100.

Moorilla (Hobart)
Jeff: I remember we liked the wines including the Pinots, but came away with the impression that the wines were a little pricey. They definitely are targeting the more upscale market with their erotic art labels. They also have a brewery.

From 2009 Sep-Oct Tasmania

Kelvedon Estate (Freycinet Vineyards)
Jeff: We went with the recommendation of our hostess at The Banc, a cosy (read, less then 10 tables) restaurant in Swansea, when she recommended the Kelvedon without hesitation. It had a beautiful nose. Very good, so much so that we bought another bottle to bring back to share.

Milton (Freycinet)
Didn’t think too much of the wines there. The pinots were a little disappointing ESP after the amazing kelvedon Pinot we had with dinner at the banc. The one wine I liked from Milton was the gerwurtz.

Jeff: This was definitely the biggest letdown of the trip, luckily it came at the start of our wine tasting tour so we forgot we even came here pretty quickly. I think their pinots were pretty forgettable, and whites were ok, but nothing that was too standout, except maybe the Gewurtz had a good nose ( If I forget which wine I liked from the winery the next day, then it probably wasn’t that good ). The lady behind the counter wasn’t too engaging and she was too busy putting scotch tape around the mouths of the stoppers.

Springvale (Freycinet)
Liked the two styles of Pinot from springvale. Bought both. The gerwurtz was not bad as well.

Springvale is reached after a long drive down a dirt track off the highway. You pull up in front of a ‘farm shack’ that houses their tasting room. (edit: Actually according to the website, the cellar door used to be a stable built by convicts in 1842!) There is something about the rustic style of the tasting room that I really like. Springvale is small and family owned, but they seem like they are open to expanding. They had someone who tried to export in the US but without success. One problem with export for them is their small production and their ability to consistently produce the quantity of wines because of the fickle nature of Tasmania’s climate.

I liked their two styles from Pinot. The cheaper, more fruit forward “Melrose” Pinot is the one that they are targeting to sell in Hong Kong. That one is made with second tier grapes blended with Pinot Meunier. Their main estate Pinot is made with the top grapes.

Later on in the trip, we opened a bottle of the Springvale Freycinet Coast Tasmania Pinot Noir 2007 we bought to go with our home cooked dinner of Italian sausage pasta. The wine was amazing, simply amazing. Very very good. Very approachable; soft. Can’t really feel the tannins; doesn’t really coat your tongue. Just goes down really well, very friendly, pairs very well with pasta and spicy sausage. Wine rounds out the pasta. Delicious wine.

Jeff: Very good, very soft, well balanced, good body, soft tannins, strawberries. Very smoooth.

Freycinet Vineyard (Freycinet)
Jeff loved the cab merlot from freycinet but since we already bought two other bottles we didn’t get that. Very few cab Sauvignon around here; they are mostly blended with cab franc or merlot. Suppose that is a cool climate thing. We had a super briny and bright Riesling. Little too tart on it’s own but so beautiful with oysters. Just rounds off perfectly. They also had another riesling that was blended with a german grape: that was just a touch sweeter; good to drink on its own. We also bought the fruit forward Pinot just cos it doesn’t have to be aged as long.

I really liked their two styles of pinot. Both styles were still less fruit forward than the other pinots we’ve tasted. The Louis Pinot is $24 and is a very good pinot at a very good price point. I thought the riesling was ok, but we bought it because it was a little extra tart but we thought that would go well with oysters (edit: it did!).

I also liked their cab merlot. It was really well balanced, full bodied and spicy, with a good strong finish.

From 2009 Sep-Oct Tasmania

Pipers Brook (Tamar Valley)
Giant vineyard compared to the others. More than 20 ha. Tried a whole range of wines. Loved the Riesling – bright with stone fruit and more floral than the Freycinet one. Me like. The pinots were lovely as well. The Ninth Island Pinot Noir was not aged in oak; you can smell the strawberries and some spice. The Pipers Brook was more complex – same nose of strawberries but the oak gave it a more earthy kick. Very nice! Almost tempted to get that but then we tried their blended wines, the 2005 Ninth Island Tamar and the 2004 Pipers Brook. Amazing noses!!!!!!! The latter especially. Ketchup!!!!!! Would go great with fries. Mmm.

Jeff: I really liked their Riesling, made me change my mind on Rieslings in Tasmania. Good nose and good finish. The SB was nice and light. Ninth Island was unoaked, fruit forward, light color but still good body. Pipers Brook Pinot was more complex, oaked, spicy and would pair well with meat. We also loved the blends. The 9th Island Tamar had nice big berry flavors, a light body, and good to taste alone or with appetizers. The Pipers Brook Tamar had softer tannins and a big ketchup nose. We really liked the Pinots and the Tamars, but were more taken with the Tamars so bought the two Tamars.

From 2009 Sep-Oct Tasmania

Jansz (Tamar Valley)
Jansz makes only sparkling. We tasted four of their wines, and even though we were quite impressed, didn’t go away with any. Perhaps sparkling just doesn’t speak to us as strongly?

Non-vintage Pinot Noir and Chardonnay – fresh apple juice.

Rose: faint blush, not as unique on the nose. No oak on the non vintages.

2004 Jansz vintage – can smell the oak on this one. Nose like like orange peel pound cakes. Actually like the chocolate orange truffle we had.

Jeff: The non vintage was very light and nice, I liked it. Vineyard was big, grand and glitzy. I remembered we liked the Vintage the best.

From 2009 Sep-Oct Tasmania

Daryample (Tamar Valley)
Small vineyard. Used to be family owned, but in 2007, the Sundstrup family sold to the Yalumba Group, which also owns Jansz. 2007 wines and beyond use glass corks. tried five wines – the SB 2008 was nice and bright with stone fruit. Wasn’t too big a fan of the Chardonnay. It wa ok but not exciting. Well they are reducing their crops of chardonnays and concentrating on the SB which we think are better anyway. Tried the 2005, 2006, and 2008 pinots. The first was very fruit forward and super light finish. The 2006 was a little more subdued on the nose with more spice than fruit but fuller bodied with longer finish. The 2008 had a completely different nose!!! I liked it. We left with the latter two.

Jeff: The SB was well balanced, very good nose ( stone fruit? ), and very good finished. 2005 Pinot had a very fruity nose. 2006 had a much fuller body and a better finish. The nose was more subdued but you get more of the spice. 2008 definitely tasted younger, could age a little more but drinkable now.

They are planning to cut down on Chardonnay production, and concentrate on Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noirs. They’re also the only winery in Tasmania that uses glass cork stoppers.

The cellar door was also a pretty stark shack, pretty bare in the interior except for the wine, which is all that matters. We were greeted by this hearty fella sitting on a wooden stool behind the counter; we could have mistaken him for some shopkeeper in a small town except he was selling some very good wine. He was a cool chill guy, cheery, nice guy. It was practically a private tasting because we were the only ones there and he gave us tips on things to do and see along the route.

From 2009 Sep-Oct Tasmania

Delamere (Tamar Valley)
Currently 6.5 ha. The owner just bought a whole ton of cuttings. Planning to expand to 20 ha. Owns 150 ha of land. He has worked in the industry for 9 years including Oregon. Thought their blanc de Blancs was better than the one at Jansz. The Pinot was good but not the best we have had so far. The rose was interesting – floral with a slightly bitter edge. Dined on the property, in the sun with the resident dog and chickens.

Jeff: Shane Holloway is the the owner/winemaker here. He struck us as a little rough on the edges, hippy, laid back west coast dude. He’s been the winemaker for 9-10 years, and has worked in Oregon as well. He wants to concentrate on just chardonnay and pinot noir. Bought property 2 years ago. They have a lot of land to expand, only planted a small part of the property. Have new cuttings that they are going to plant. They market a lot through sommeliers and have them come to taste their wines and add to their wine lists. Send some to the UK and Harvard group of students. We had a good experience here because he let us lunch on the lawn with his dog and chickens.

The blanc de blanc was pretty good. Rose was not bad. The chard was ok.The Pinot was ok, not the strongest. But he said the newer plantings should be higher quality vines, the wines from those vines should be better.

From 2009 Sep-Oct Tasmania

Bay of Fires (Tamar Valley)
Five wineries in and my palate is getting tired. About hundred thousand cases max. Liked their Riesling. – well balanced with a good nose. Like their Chardonnay too. Lightly toasted fun nose! Light body. The 2008 Pinot noir was pretty good. Long finish nice spicy and fruity nose but the body was a little on the light side. Tannins were very soft.

Jeff: Mostly white wines. Only red is Pinot Noir. Pretty big winery with 100K max production. They source their wines from all over Tasmania (unlike the smaller wineries) and some of the other vineyards labels use the winery facilities at Bay of Fires. They had a couple of sparkling but liked their sparkling pinot noir / chardonnay. Riesling was very good. Good nose, crisp, well balanced, not too light and watery. The SB had good nose but weak body, very light color almost like water. The Pinot Noir – very light body and color. Good noise, good long drawn out finish but the body was weak and soft. Might be better with age, or not. Lacking in complexity. TPS liked it. Chardonnay was a bit oaky, more oaky than previous chards I’ve tasted in Tassie.

From 2009 Sep-Oct Tasmania

Grey Sands (Tamar Valley)
This winery owned by couple who also have day jobs. Tasting by appointment. We had a private tasting on a patio overlooking the slopes of the vineyard. Amazing view. They don’t make their wines but send it over to the Bay of Fires to make. Everything is pretty much done by hand.

Greysands Romanesque Glengarry Tasmania 2005 – Jeff: Blend of 3 grapes – Touriga, cab franc, cab sauv. Very interesting nose is due to the Touriga grape. sweet bbq smell.

From 2009 Sep-Oct Tasmania

Stefano Lubiana (Hobart)
Jeff: Tasting room is also in their winery building, a big wooden barnyard building. Monique, wife of the winemaker, poured the wines for us. She was really nice and helpful and we had her ship the wines for us to Singapore. Their Alfresco Riesling was very refreshing and light, had a good floral nose. Their other whites – chards, sauv blanc were ok. Given the two styles of chardonnay, I couldn’t really taste too much of a difference. Their oaked version was really oaked very much and wasn’t that complex. Their Pinots were also a bit weak, because I don’t remember them being spectacular, and we were a bit disappointed because the winery had gotten good reviews for their Pinot. But I remember the Merlot being very well rounded and rich and full bodied and being surprised by the quality of it.

Meadowbank Estate (Hobart)
Jeff: Stefano Lubiana recommended we go visit Meadowbank. The vineyard is pretty big (40 hectares) and they have a big fancy tasting room cum restaurant with great views but pricey food. For such a big vineyard we were surprised that they didn’t make their own wines but sent their fruit over to Frogmore Creek next door. They had some pretty good wines. We liked their chardonnay, and preferred their unoaked ‘Meadowbank’ version. Their Pinot, especially their ‘Henry James’ Pinot was very good, very rich and full bodied wine. It was our most expensive bottle too at 49.50. I also liked their regular Riesling. The FGR Riesling was too sweet. They also sell a lot of their grapes to Bay of Fires for sparkling production.

From 2009 Sep-Oct Tasmania

Frogmore Creek (Hobart)
Jeff: They are also very big, and they have several labels under their control. In addition to Frogmore Creek, they also have the 42 Degrees South Label, the Wellington Label and the Rosalyn Estate Label. They have around 40 hectares (don’t remember if this includes their recent Rosalyn Estate acquisition). They also do a lot of winemaking for other vineyards as a contract winemaker including Meadowbank and Puddleduck. They had a lot of really good wine. I liked their Riesling better than Meadowbank’s. They also had a very good Gewurtz with a really big lychee nose. We liked it a lot. I also liked all three styles of their Pinot. They are all different but good in their own way, smooth, some with more tannins than the other but we decided to buy the Frogmore Creek 2007 Pinot. That Pinot had a little more tannins and a long finish. Their ruby pinot noir port was also very good, less sweet than your normal port. Their cab merlot blend was also excellent.

From 2009 Sep-Oct Tasmania

Down Under in Tasmania

I will probably get heartburn when we do up a final tally of the trip. Australia is not a cheap country to live in, nor is it to visit. I reckon the standard of living is even higher than that of Chicago.

It was a phenomenal trip nonetheless, and totally worth it.

Wine:
We left with two cases of wine – although we had pared down the number of wineries from our original admittedly ambitious list (we went to 13 in the end, plus stayed at another vineyard), we bought on average a couple bottles from each. The winieries here typically make two distinct styles of Pinot Noir: a more fruit forward, fresh and vibrant one, with a perfume-like nose of rose scented water and cherries; and a more complex, aged style that calls up spices (pepperberry bush, a Tasmanian plant) and oak trees. Look to the next post for a lengthier summary of the wines.

From 2009 Sep-Oct Tasmania

From 2009 Sep-Oct Tasmania

Accommodation:
We lucked out on the apartments and the one bed & breakfast that we found. They were all cute, spacious, and had different styles and charms.

Our first night, we stayed in newly remodelled apartment trailers with large living rooms and patios that overlooked the beach – beautiful sunrise. The second night, we stayed in a stone cottage with interior wood paneling and a kitchen in which we whipped up a breakfast of omlettes and fresh cherry tomatoes. This cottage, in Bicheno, also overlooked the coast.

From 2009 Sep-Oct Tasmania

From 2009 Sep-Oct Tasmania

Our first evening in Launceston, we stayed at a bed and breakfast. Although it was a little aways from the city center, the views were also gorgeous. The house was situated on top of a hill and from the living room you could look down into the valley and at the Tamar River. Beautifully apointed room, with small welcoming touches like a fresh jug of milk in our fridge for coffee and tea, and a decanter of tawny port with chocolate to enjoy in the evening. In the morning, we were also treated to a sumptuous made to order breakfast. Along with fresh juices, latte/cuppacino, toast, I had a beautifully done up saffron infused omlette with smoked salmon and hash, while Jeff got asparagus wrapped prosciutto with poahed eggs and hash. Such a treat!

From 2009 Sep-Oct Tasmania

From 2009 Sep-Oct Tasmania

Our second evening in Launceston, after a fulfilling day of tasting, we pulled up into Rosevears Vineyards to find our own apartment overlooking the grapevines and the river. Gorgeously done up in a contemporary style, with track lights, floor to ceiling windows. Just had to wake up for the sunrise again to snap some photos.

From 2009 Sep-Oct Tasmania

Our wooden cabin in Cradle Mountain was a delight too. Although it got really chilly in the night after the fire in our wood stove died out, we loved that it was set back in the woods and had a lovely smell of pepperberry wood. It was such a fun surprise to be cooking in the kitchen and looking out to see a pademelon (looks like a small kangaroo) curled up right outside. Too bad we did not catch a glimpse of what the other guests affectionately referred to as Rufus, the giant posum that loved to visit the hut.

From 2009 Sep-Oct Tasmania

Scenery:
Tasmania, for such a large island state, is very sparsely poplulated. We spent most of our evenings in tiny towns with population not more than a thousand – Swansea had 580; Bicheno 700. Even Launceston had just 71,000 people. After so many days in the countryside, it was a bit of a shock to return to Hobart, a town of 200,000. All these other random Asians and kids decked up in goth milling about. But then again, it is a small city – probably 20 blocks by 10 blocks?

From 2009 Sep-Oct Tasmania

From 2009 Sep-Oct Tasmania

We wished we had more time to do the scenery justice. As it is, it was lovely to drive down the highways of Tasmania (one lane affairs typically, like in Scotland), past the bucolic countryside and lazy cows and sheep grazing in the flourescent green grass of spring. We managed a five hour hike in Freycinet National Park, covering the famed Wineglass Bay and Hazards Beach circuit. Too bad the water was a little too chilly to splash around in, although that did not stop a quad of teenagers frolicking in the sea.

From 2009 Sep-Oct Tasmania

In Cradle Mountain, we hiked the Dove Lake Circuit, which, as the name implies, circled Dove Lake, with the imposing Cradle Mountain as a backdrop. We also did two short forest hikes and revelled in the deep greenery and moss. One of the walks was aptly named the Enchanted Forest Trail. We covered that at first light, when the grasses and shrubs were still encased in delicate sheens of ice that sparkled and glittered in the soft morning rays, and took exuberant delight in snapping dozens of pictures of the pademelons calmly grazing not two feet from the trail.

From 2009 Sep-Oct Tasmania

From 2009 Sep-Oct Tasmania

From 2009 Sep-Oct Tasmania

Food:
For the most part, fresh and delicious. We still dream about the calzones we picked up from Bread the first day we arrive in Hobart, as well as the super fresh beef and salad roll we picked up from the Ugly Duck Out in Swansea. But eating out in Tasmania is hard on the pockets. We made breakfast a couple of days and cooked dinner one evening but the food bill will be not much fun to look at.

From 2009 Sep-Oct Tasmania

In summary, a great and fun trip. We had a total blast and are putting Tasmania near the top of our list for a return visit. Still more wineries to taste and so much more hiking to do!

Gone drinking

Will be back on the 5th. Gone to Tasmania. Wine and hiking awaits!

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