A toast to great wines
September 15, 2005 | 12:00am
You could check out the Toast 2005 Wine Festival this weekend at Rockwell Tent because you want to meet some of the world’s top winemakers, and ask them technical questions about which Chardonnay goes best with baked tilapia.
Or you could go because you just want to sample over 100 world-renowned wines for a very affordable P250 entrance fee (which includes a free wine glass, cloth bag and raffle ticket).
Either way, it’s got to be a very agreeable way to spend a Friday or Saturday afternoon. Thanks to WineDepot and a host of other sponsors, Rockwell Tent at Power Plant, Makati will be the place to quaff to your heart’s delight, with a variety of wine and food tastings, master classes in the best Australian wines, an auction of premium wines to benefit Chosen Children Foundation Tagaytay, and an opportunity to chat with some of the world’s top winemakers from 28 wineries.
A privileged few of us in the media were given a special pre-tasting of what to expect this weekend at a "liquid luncheon" held at WineDepot, the 500-square-meter "wine super store" on Malugay Street, Makati. What a place to load up on the grape — dozens of aisles, packed with wholesale wines from around the world. But we were there to sample a select group of Australian wines.
With wine consultant Brett Tolhurst and WineDepot partners Hazel Huelves (a commercial model and Binibining Pilipinas runner-up), Grace Miranda (a registered nurse who ran a cigar and wine lounge) and Joanna Gallent (a former flight attendant who now manages WineDepot) laying out the bottles and topping off our glasses, it was hard to refrain from enjoying what they had to offer. (The trusty "spit bucket" — used by experienced tasters to avoid getting smashed — went untouched during our bacchanal, I noticed.) After a while, it became hard to scribble down coherent notes.
Blame it on the popularity of Sideways. That little movie set in California’s upstate wine country seems to have unleashed a lot of interest in wine tasting. Maybe that’s what led to the rather ambitious Toast 2005 Wine Festival, the largest yet held in Manila. Australian winemaker Rob Bowen, whose Houghton White Burgundy is the country’s top seller, will be there, along with Dutschke Wines’ Wayne Dutschke, Kilikanoon’s Kevin Mitchell, Angove’s Tony Ingle and Cape Jaffa’s Derek Hooper, to answer questions, hold clinics and stage a "Shiraz Challenge." The challenge may be how long you can remain upright after two days of gala tastings, food sampling and reverie. In addition, some 28 wineries from around the world will set up booths to promote the best in "New World" and "Old World" wines.
This descriptor puzzled me. According to Tolhurst, "Old World" wines are essentially European, meaning those with specific regions and appellations, and strict guidelines on alcohol content. "New World" wines include upstart wineries — even if they are over a century old, such as California and Australia’s — that are not afraid to mix up their varietals and experiment.
Nowadays, a number of winemakers are "getting out of the laboratories" and meeting, chatting with and talking to customers. It’s part of the new marketing of wine, which has notable health benefits — including antioxidants for the heart and fewer calories than beer. Australia, for instance, has its own cheery wine motto: "Sunshine in a bottle." This refers to the approachability of their wines: these bottles don’t have to sit and age a few years; you can crack one open from last week, and it will be just as smooth and pleasant as an older wine.
French winemakers, Tolhurst explained, prefer you to appreciate the alcohol first, allowing you to taste the astringency of the tannins, then the fruit. Australia’s wines are more "fruit-driven," according to the Australian Brett. Mechanical harvesting Down Under also improves quality control and lowers harvesting costs, he adds.
Enough talk, though. After a pass by the buffet table, we were served our first wine: a Houghton White Burgundy. This is Australia’s current big-seller, an award winner that was full and magical. It complemented the fish the best, of course, as did the Cape Jaffa Chardonnay that followed minutes later.
Notably lacking the slight tartness I had come to expect in Chardonnays, both wines demonstrated what Tolhurst was telling us about Australia’s "lighter" approach to wine.
Next came the Willow Bend Merlot Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon — my personal favorite. This was a full-bodied wine, with a puzzling combination of warmth and depth, and a pleasant bite. Brett explained this had to do with the combination of three varietals: the Merlot, he said, provides the "body" and "softness," the Shiraz supplies a "roundness," while the tannins from the Cabernet Sauvignon "give it some backbone." Tannins, by the way, come from the grape skins and give the wine its health benefits, not to mention its distinct color.
We followed the Willow Bend with a McClaren Vale Shiraz, which was more bracing, more singular in character; and we finished up with a Kilikanoon Cabernet Sauvignon, which also kicked ass.
At this point, the half-empty glasses began to clutter our table, and a number of us, clearly influenced by Sideways, began reaching for adjectives to describe the wine. I resisted calling the Chardonnay "quaffable," but others began pitching words like "woody" and "sincere" while gazing at their upraised glasses. I wasn’t about to go that route. For me, a confessed wine novice, "good" or "bad" were about as descriptive as I cared to get.
But Brett was quick to point out that wine appreciation isn’t just for connoisseurs. Everybody can enjoy the many wines being offered at Toast. That’s part of the fun of this event. Everyone has their own taste — but the master classes in wine being offered for P750 are probably a good way to acquire enough basic knowledge to get through a dinner toast with something more to say than "Mmm."
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