Category Archives: ~ Wine, tuak & champy ~

Sake sampling

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Sake. Hmmm.

Anyway, had a session with some top stuff recently, with a Peking Duck dinner at Imperial Hotel, Subang.

Proceedings kicked off with some sparkling yuzu (Kozaemon, ABV 5%). Never had it before – grapefruit juice with sake in it. It’s like that kat chai shin mui shit – very sweet-sour, with a strong tang.

Refreshing

The girls loved it.

Next of the four drinks was the Junmai Daiginjo (16%). The daiginjo term means this one’s a top cat, premium stuff. It smelt of fruit – overripe banana to be exact.

$350 a pop retail

It tastes sweetish, but maintains the sake blandness. It’s even got a lychee-like tinge. Nice.

The Peking Duck made it’s entrance about then. Great stuff i gotta say.

Dead duck

Next on d list was the Junmai Miya…. (ABV 15.5%). This one smelt of fruity rice, and tastes less sweet. We had it with siew yoke.

I preferred this one if am consuming a lot. Goes down easier. However, the  others liked the Junmai Daiginjo.

This one’s $180

If the sake has the word junmai on it, that means it’s only made purely from rice. Otherwise, it also has distilled alcohol in it.

After dinner, shit got serious. A mega bottle of yuzu appeared.

More juice?

Tastes a lot like a lemon concentrate drink, to me anyway.

What we learnt is that these sakes are from old, boutique breweries (they dont call them wineries). However 90% of the sake in Malaysia are from four to five commercial breweries.

My ride met a buddy

Overall the Japanese drink and the Chinese food went together pretty effortlessly. It shd be reasonably easy for these guys to market the sake to some of the more established Chinese restaurants. In the meantime, contact (03) 7846-8282 if u want their sakes (7 types in total).

Banzaiii!

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Not your regular wines

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Been to quite a few wine dinners n tastings over d years. The most recent one was different. There were only four wines, and they were pretty much out in the left-field, as far as taste is concerned.

Waiting..

Sip session was at a joint called Las Delicias in Citta Mall, Subang, and organized by SixCents. (It’s a site to pick up free vouchers for F&B outlets.)

The squad

A sommelier, Bernd Eisermann, lead us through the tasting, starting with the whites of course.

‘Sup Johnny

Johnny Q (12.5%, $150) from the Quarisa winery in Southeastern Australia is a chardonnay, with some viognier grape in da mix, a strong varietal i havent tried before. I found a very floral bouquet. And then thought… it smells better than it tastes. I got a lot of acidity. Long finish. My friend liked it tho. Weirdo.

Sommelier dude

The next white was an Austrian, Gut Holzer (13%, $150). The grape – gruner veltliner.

Who??

It’s Austria’s own grape variety, and it’s known to be a food-drinking wine, with little making it out of Austria alive.

Survivor

I got a nose of chardonnay-ish floral. On the sip, i found in-your-face honey notes, but immediately, dryness. Weird. And then a long, almost-bitter finish.

Didnt know what to make of it. So had two more glasses.

The third vino was a red, Yves Cuilleron’s (France) Gamay (13%, $180).

Vin-de-pays (aka country wine)

The gamay grape is from the Beaujolais region. I found the wine dry, a lil fruity, and  a lil bland.

Then we had a malbec, not from Argentina as is the norm, but France, Combel la Serre (12.5%, $180).

Another Frenchie

This guy gave me a whiff of fruit, esp raspberry. It tasted balanced and easy-to-drink, but too bland for me.

I dunno, maybe my palette was on leave dat nite. Or the wines probably need some gettin used to. The second or third glass tends to be better. But the first sip? Not good.

Tasting crew

Everybody seemed to react differently to all four wines. I basically didnt enjoy them all, but others did, finding different nuances from me. Am not sure if others felt the bitterness of the gruner veltliner grape, which wine drinkers are calling the gru vee grape. Haha.

The enjoyment for me was definitely trying different styles of wines from different producers.

 

Brain damage: 6/10

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Spirits of the Harvest!

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It’s Oooooohaa time, coz there’s an event this Saturday organized by Sarawakians in KL. It’s a tuak appreciation one. How damn cool.

I absolutely love drinking with Sarawakians. They know how to party. And are the best hosts I’ve ever met anywhere in the world.

I also spent four years of my pre-drinking life in Kuching.

Ngajat baby, ngajat!

I’m a judge in the Tuak of The Year competition. Haha! I have no idea how many entries there are, maybe dozens. So long as its not mixed with langkau like my 2009 music festival vacation in Sarawak, i should be fine.

A dude i met upriver

But then i’ve been well-trained many times in the deep depths of Borneo, esp during my travel-writing years. Had to ngirop servings of tuak as i walk through longhouses, one shot at each family’s door. Cool thing is they all taste different.

Tuak is a really nice drink by any standards. Personally i prefer the sweet variety, as well as ginger tuak, and of course, the aged ones. Goes down smooth n easy. The extra dry ones? A lil hard to drink.

Anyway, no need to go to Sarawak to try the various blends and vintages, coz it’s come here!

Kicks-off at 6.30pm at a joint called Seduction on P Ramlee, KL, behind the dodgy Beach Club. Go on time if u wanna have samples. No entry fee, unless you wanna enter the tuak of the year shit. Submissions are still possible until the event, right until 7pm on Saturday.

Gosh. I’m screwed.

There’s a blowpipe challenge in da mix. I shd try dat coz i got skills. Maybe less skills when sengeted.

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A lil’ taste

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Hit a wine tasting last week. Its been awhile. The last time, i was a panelist!

This one was organized by Adventure & Leisure (A&L), a company that deals in all sorts of cool outdoor gear, like the Igloo coolers featured here, as well as wines and ports.

Adventure & booze: My two favourite things.

Wine 'em, dine 'em, sixty-nine 'em

Went down in Italiannies @ The Gardens, KL. My camera was missing for a week (don’t ask), so pix here are from a borrowed a camera dat dont really shoot at night. (Actually, not much diff with my camera then!) To top it off, i was late. A disorganized day.

Dealer

Seven wines, seven courses. All Italian. $90 net.

My fave was a rosé – Zenato Bardolino DOC, served right at the start (with bruschetta man, one of my goddam numero uno appetizers!). Good drink to kick-off – Easy to drink, not very dry, enough body, and a light finish. Had to have more than one.

Nice spot

Of the food, notable ones were the first course – Prawns & zucchini balls with capers, basil & sun-dried tomato cream. Also the Lamb cutlets, served with butternut squash, roasted cherry tomato & beans, in a rosemary, thyme and mint sauce. Quite a hit. This one came with a red obviously, the Notte di Gallileo Reserva.

Course number 5 - Baked chicken chillin on Milanese risotto, which is drier than normal

Various other Italian wines were featured – 2 whites, 3 reds, and a sparkling red, Merzemino. This was served at the end, as opposed to the regular procedure of opening the evening with a bubbly. Thats coz this one’s sweet, so it became a dessert wine, which came with a Tiramisu, Panna Cotta (i swear this sounds like a vulgar Tamil word or sumtin) and a Rum Baba, which is some pudding made with rum. Surprisingly, not my thing.

Prices range between $65 – $93, although on the nite, they were priced $55 – $75. Very reasonable.

A&L director LC Leong does sessions like this quite regularly. Look forward to the next one, and this time i’ll be more prepared! And will detail more.

The right way to end the night

Brain damage: 7/10

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