The Auswine Forum

Going to a new restaurant on Friday for anniversary dinner with the Mrs. Not entirely sure what we will eat but likely a mixture of food. We prefer red wine and less fruity, more mineral/earthy. Alternatively I'll bring my own on a corkage fee of SGD 50 per bottle - pre double decanted at home (just reading that "don't you hate it when" thread...).

Curious what you would pick on this wine menu? Ideally something to suit a mixed variety of food. Thoughts welcome

http://www.esquina.com.sg/menu/Wine-List.pdf

Also, I hope this thread could be used as an ongoing one if anyone needs advice like I do!

Others will have more insight than me, but given that remit I'd be more focused on whites, sherry & fizz than reds... but then that was part of the remit! Might be best to stick to the Chef's choices reds, rather than the main list.

Those red wines are generally going to be heavily on the 'fruity' side with plenty of oak in many of them. I'd be trying a few by the glass, but my real pick would be to BYO something that has some significance for you both. An anniversary year, a good memory, a favourite label that kind of thing. Enjoy!

At first I was surprised by the corkage fee, $50 Singapore being virtually the same in Canadian and Australian dollars, but when I took a look at the wine list I was shocked at the prices, especially for wines that are commercial and often cheap.

The Dada red wines are less than $15 here in Canada, cheaper elsewhere, while Trumpeter is a similarly priced Argentinian big brand - and they want $95 per bottle? I'm also shocked that they want $60 for a half bottle of Tio Pepe. Perhaps there is some value in the more expensive wines but somehow I doubt it. At these prices better to drink a bottle of Champagne at home, have a nice oriental dinner with beer and return home and pop a nice bottle of Amarone or Port.

Cheers ...................... Mahmoud.

TiggerK wrote:Those red wines are generally going to be heavily on the 'fruity' side with plenty of oak in many of them. I'd be trying a few by the glass, but my real pick would be to BYO something that has some significance for you both. An anniversary year, a good memory, a favourite label that kind of thing. Enjoy!

Yes am thinking of going by the glass... seems to be how I normally go at tapas style

Mahmoud Ali wrote:At first I was surprised by the corkage fee, $50 Singapore being virtually the same in Canadian and Australian dollars, but when I took a look at the wine list I was shocked at the prices, especially for wines that are commercial and often cheap.

The Dada red wines are less than $15 here in Canada, cheaper elsewhere, while Trumpeter is a similarly priced Argentinian big brand - and they want $95 per bottle? I'm also shocked that they want $60 for a half bottle of Tio Pepe. Perhaps there is some value in the more expensive wines but somehow I doubt it. At these prices better to drink a bottle of Champagne at home, have a nice oriental dinner with beer and return home and pop a nice bottle of Amarone or Port.

Cheers ...................... Mahmoud.

Yes BYO here is rarely free (though does exist) and quite often $25-$50 zone which I often don't mind. On this earth bottles, I think they believe people won't know Nor lookup the cost (and I believe it's why more and more restaurants don't show wine lists online or at least prices to prevent this). Even at $50 I'm probably better off bringing something from home I Guess.

Singapore wine is always expensive due to tax... The minimum price for a bottle in the supermarket is about S$30 for Jacobs Creek equivalent .... so you do a 2.5x mark up on that and you can see why minimum wine costs are $60-100/bottle typically even for average stuff.

Your best bet for "affordable" drinking is Wine Connections. They are the relative good value option, otherwise its pot luck. The place not to get wine is Fullerton Bay hotel ... I think a colleague once bought me a GLASS of Cloudy Bay savvy B for $25++ ... luckily on expenses! (++ = +services and VAT or ~17%).

The other tip is that you can buy quite good aged Aussie stuff sold from failed investment schemes for reasonable prices. I forget the name of the company I used to buy from, there was a couple, but for S$60ish per bottle I picked up things like 1999 Elderton Command, D'arenberg single vineyard Shiraz/Grenache (which sell at CD for $100AU), Irvine Grand Merlot, etc, etc. You take the storage risk of course, but for only 2x a Jacobs Creek its worth the risk!

[quote= Yes BYO here is rarely free (though does exist) and quite often $25-$50 zone which I often don't mind. On this earth bottles, I think they believe people won't know Nor lookup the cost (and I believe it's why more and more restaurants don't show wine lists online or at least prices to prevent this). Even at $50 I'm probably better off bringing something from home I Guess.[/quote]

I am escaping the Canberra winter for a week in early August for a Singapore holiday with three friends so have been researching byo options. The duty free limit was raised to 2 litres of wine in 2010 provided you don’t bring in spirits so this is a welcome advance over the previous 1 litre, although it is curious that Singapore Customs doesn’t seem to recognise that wine usually comes in 750 ml bottles (ie 2.25 litres would be more sensible).

I pretty quickly came to the conclusion that food prices in any decent Singapore restaurant are not cheap and many add insult to wallet injury with outrageous wine markups for what can be uninspiring choices. I concluded that paying up to $SG50 plus service and VAT (++) is probably a preferred option if you want to drink good wine. However, there are some decent sounding venues that allow byo with no corkage on some nights (usually early in the week) or all week.

I found some useful comments and a list on a blog entry by Julian Teoh, a local who is a fan of Alsace wine:

http://julianteoh.blogspot.com.au/2013/ ... apore.html

After looking at their websites and other food reviews, I singled out as possibilities Burlamacco, Gattopardo and Otto Ristorante, all of with decent sounding Italian menus and which allow free corkage some nights according to the blog entry. In addition, if you want Cantonese food, Asia Grand and Jade Palace Seafood get positive reviews and allow free corkage at any time according to the blog entry. If anyone has been to these, please post (or PM me) with comments.

Singapore - I think I recall, at least at retail:
- "cheap" wine is expensive; and
- "expensive" wine is cheap.

That wine list is not great - I'd stick to sparkling water and have something nice at home.