Singapore has evolved over the years from a “Tiger ” country to a more defined or refined culture of drinking wines.Wine,hot weather and Singapore,the equation doesn’t add up or does it,let’s find out.
The presence of wine next to the teabags and baked beans made it accessible to millions of consumers who were previously entirely unfamiliar with it. Even today, it is probably through the supermarket that many of us purchase our first few bottles of wine. And many of us continue to use supermarkets as our main source, attracted by low prices, special offers, and familiar labels. For this reason wine remains any important part of any supermarket business.
Walk in to any supermarket here,you will see a well clad “Aunty”,nestling small plastic cups,trying to push a garbled name of wine at you,look carefully and you will find an opened bottle of Chardonnay ,Merlot or Shiraz,floating in a bucket of ice,begging to be left alone on the shelf asking the “well informed consumer “to make the right choice.
Many a times I have fallen a victim to this teeny weeny plastic cup and upon downing a cup or two ,one squirms to the taste of a wine which tastes more like vinegar than the exotic beauty it was meant to be.Prod the so called connoisseur of wines who will throw exotic names at you,she will tell you that the wine was opened yesterday and small cups have been dished out since God knows how many days.
The next question that comes to your mind is,why are some wines sitting straight up braving the massive change of temperatures while there are some privileged ones,stacked the way they should be in a room where the temperature is monitored and a VVIP status given to them.The friendly “Aunty” has the answer,”they are the expensive ones”,want to try?Aren’t all wines meant to be given the same treatment?
The clouds in your head start clearing and you realize that there is a rather poor understanding of this newly discovered nectar here and in the majority of the cases,you are sent on a wild goose chase.You are constantly bombarded by expensive,confusing names that even the French or Australians wouldn’t have heard of.The moral of the story is that use your common sense and basic instinct to pick up your favorite bubbly.
Most malls have a “sale ” of wines in the open area in the middle of the supermarket,where the wines are exposed to a variety of extreme weather conditions,my advice is don’t head there.Mostly old stock or the expensive ones are cleared in the garb of a sale and customers who want a quick shot or two while going about their business usually hang out there.
The glorious Xpat community fuels the sale of expensive wines here,so if you are a regular wine drinker like me ,look for the cheaper wines in the range of $10 to $ 19,since they fly off the shelves faster and are not punished by the inhumane conditions.Look for Italian,South African,Chilean wines since they are strangely”fresher”,not that I am biased but even though we are closer to Australia,most of them are “off “unless you are lucky enough .
Try moving around various supermarkets instead of sticking to the nearby haunt,my favorite being Kallang Shopping mall and Wine Connection next to the Cold Storage,they generally stock a reasonably good selection of wines,the Cold Storage at Parkway Parade is also where you might expect some good surprises.
Keep a keen eye on the price fluctuations,a bottle costing $15 in one place would cost $25 ,even though the brand or year of the wine would be the same.
Use your common sense and don’t get enamored by any so called “special offers”,your sixth sense will guide you all the way and when you are sprawled on your sofa in the evening ,with your favorite wine that turned out right,you will pat yourself on the back,Cheers!