An Evening of Chardonnay and Pinot

It’s said that the wine industry is slowly globalising.  Though even the largest wine brands aren’t yet on a par with the likes of Coca Cola or Starbucks in terms of ubiquity, I’m now never surprised to see even relatively small, obscure labels being sipped in some of the planet’s most unlikely nooks and crannies.  But what about globalising wine personalities?  In my travels I’ve managed to shake hands with Robert Joseph no less than four times – in four different countries and three different continents.  I dare say he has more bizarre tales of the culturally unexpected to tell than Sir Ranulph Fiennes.  The man gets around.  Still, I can understand the global appeal of Joseph’s broad experience of wines and wine markets that he always imparts and, best of all, a sense of humour with an edge that I find highly entertaining.  He knows how to work an audience of wine lovers just about anywhere.

Fresh off the plane after a 13+ hour flight from the UK, Robert Joseph didn’t fail to pitch his informative wit perfectly as a co-host at the second annual Les Fruits De La Vigne wine dinner at the exclusive Tower Club on the 64th floor of the Republic Plaza building in Singapore.  His co-hostess for the evening was the dazzling international wine marketing consultant and photojournalist, Ms Anna Pakula, who added a touch of glamour and a visual feast with her vineyard photography video display at the event.

Les Fruits De La Vigne is the brainchild of wine entrepreneur Soo Hoo Khoon Peng, founder of Hermitage, a shop and fine wine merchant business based in Singapore.  The event is aimed at giving locals the opportunity to be immersed in the experience of wine tasting and to be educated by world-recognised wine authorities.  I’m happy to report that it over-delivered on both of these goals.

The theme of this year’s event was, “The Mystery of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir”.  Given this theme the calibre of wines offered could have gone either way, with so many of these “wine dinners” offering a tedious mix of boring brands or producers that no one’s ever heard of (with good reason).  On this occasion the choice of wines was certainly headed in the right direction.  Throughout the evening twelve wines were served, most were amongst the top names in Chardonnay and Pinot Noir producers from around the world and a few of the wines were truly special.

The first two Chardonnay / Pinots were Champagnes served with canapés at a reception in the Tower Club’s grand entrance hall.  The Champagne Devaux, Cuvee Ultra ‘D’ Devaux NV was an adequate aperitif to get your taste buds primed.  Bollinger Grand Annee 1999 was more of a mouthful, with its broad, rich, oxidative style providing a taste for better things to come.  After sufficient milling time and a few brief introductions of the hosts and organisers, we were ushered into the main hall for the real wining and dining.

First up was a somewhat disappointing Chardonnay from Tuscany, Capannelle Chardonnay 2006.  All I could smell and taste was oak with the fruit lacking in sufficient intensity and concentration to ever hope to marry into all that cedar.  But this blip was swiftly redeemed by a pair of very classy Burgundies from two excellent recent vintages:  Etienne Sauzet Puligny Montrachet Les Referts 2002 and Bonneau de Martray Corton Charlemagne 1996.  Both were sublime.  Considering they are each produced by the Burgundian equivalent minor nobility and that the former is a village wine while the latter a grand cru and therefore pitting them against my knowledge of their peers, well, I gave them exactly the same score.  The Bonneau de Martray was more evolved and complex but the Sauzet Puligny had better balance and structure.  Call me a Philistine but personally, I enjoyed the Sauzet more.

That was it for the whites.  If I had my druthers I would have like to have seen a good Californian Chardonnay in there (perhaps instead of the Tuscan wine), but what are you gonna do?  Besides, I’m a real Pinot nut so I wasn’t about to argue that there were more Pinots than Chardonnays.

The seven still reds were sourced from amongst the prime Pinot hotspots around the globe:  Otago, New Zealand; Yarra Valley, Australia; Gippsland, Australia; Burgundy’s Cote de Nuits and Oregon, USA.

The two Otago Pinots were typically big, concentrated…well, I don’t want to use the term fruit bombs but they were fruit bombs in comparison to the other Pinots that night.  Though New Zealand is still fairly new to the Pinot game (wine game for that matter) the density and fruit concentration of Otago Pinots compared to the relatively lighter more perfumed Pinots I’ve tasted from Martinborough and Marlborough to the north has quickly become something of a regional characteristic.  This denser expression of the grape is not to my personal taste but I can certainly appreciate the ripe purity of Otago’s Pinots and examples that are well balanced in terms of weight / acidity / tannins such as the John Forrest 2004 we had that night can be a real treat.  The Felton Road Block 3 2006 was only slightly less well balanced, a tad too big and beefy for my liking, with a faint herbal / minty character masking the otherwise attractive ripe Pinot fruit.

From Otago we moved north, but only slightly, to Victoria, Australia.  Gippsland and the Yarra Valley are in close proximity of one another, within a few hours drive in fact, but as in Burgundy that short distance can make all the difference.  In my experience Yering Station’s Pinot Reserve can be a bit hit or miss, being more susceptible to the vagaries of vintage variation than other Australian vineyards and grapes.  We were served the 2003 vintage on this occasion, a very warm vintage marked by drought, and the results were not as impressive as some of the other vintages that I’ve tasted of this wine.  Bass Phillips’ Pinot Noir Premium 2001 was a better example of Australia’s potential for producing world-class Pinot.  I would say the wine was just about at its peak and needs to be drunk-up, but was showing some seriously interesting evolved fruit complexity.

Then we get to the big boys - a pair of Grand Cru Burgs from two top producers.  I released a little groan when I saw the vintage of the first wine:  2004.  I’ve tried to like this vintage in terms of red Burgundy, after all it’s a relative bargain compared to the vintages that surround it and there’s a fair bit of it knocking about.  And I’d say I’ve tasted quite a number of ’04 Burgs both in barrel and in bottle.  In my book the vintage’s wines are lean, mean and green and, I shudder to say, the ordinarily epic Domaine Dujac Clos St Denis we drank that night was not entirely immune to 2004’s shortcomings.  However, next up we’re blessed with what has to be the Burgundian red wine vintage jewel of the 1990s:  1999.  The wine?  Domaine Ponsot Chapelle Chambertin 1999, a wine was so close to perfection that along with the savoured remnants of my first serving I swallowed my measly crust of pride and begged a second taste off a reluctantly obliging server.

After the Ponsot it was a slightly unfair that my enthusiasm for a hitherto anticipated taste of Willamette Valley’s Domaine Serene Evenstad Reserve was curbed.  On top of the tough act to follow, we were served the 1996, not a stellar year in that neck of the woods.  I’m certain the wine had seen better days as there were remnants of greatness in its lingering tatters of structure and complexity, but it was a few years past its best.

I can’t do this event review justice without mentioning the food.  The menu was composed by one of Singapore’s top chefs, Emmanuel Stroobant of the local Saint Pierre restaurant and whose specialty is French cuisine “with a hint of Japanese influence”.  At dinner we were served seven courses specifically designed to match with the order of the wines.  The fusion of ingredients, flavours, cultures and wines worked brilliantly.  My favourite combos were a “Pillow of Wagyu Beef Carpaccio and Foie Gras Terrine” with the John Forrest Pinot and a “Karubuta Pork Belly Roasted for 36 Hours” with the Bass Phillip Pinot.

Les Fruits De La Vigne 2008 was an excellent evening of wine appreciation and entertainment.  The venue was glamorous, the hosts were fun and approachable and the food superb, all adding up to a memorable night even for the relative wine novice.  The choice of wines provided something extra special for wine aficionados to savour.  At SG$380 per head (~ US$250), I thought the evening was very good value and a therefore allowed a wonderful opportunity for a spot of affordable, light-hearted decadence in spite of all the current doom and gloom of global financial meltdown.

For information about next year’s Les Fruits De La Vigne, contact Hermitage or event co-ordinators at Red & White International.