Events
NCEEA Wine Appreciation Workshop with a French twist
There is a first time for everything and this is the first time that Phylloxera Enterprise is conducting a wine appreciation workshop in a restaurant. And definitely not the last!
Beboz restaurant, being the “new kid on the block” in Robertson Walk, warmly welcomed our proposal in hosting a workshop with the Nanyang Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni (NCEEA) on their premises.
The participants were mostly NTU Alumni (from the various faculties) and working professionals previously from other institutions. The diversity of the crowd, like the subject of wine itself, made the session all the more interesting and enjoyable! However different they may be, they attended the workshop with one thing in common, on the top of their “wish list” for the workshop, they hope to become competent and socially comfortable with wines.
The enthusiastic and tremendous support for the workshop prompted Phylloxera Enterprise to “upgrade” the originally proposed Cabernet Sauvignon to a 1998 Bordeaux at our own cost! An excuse to taste a good wine, we heard you say? Surely not, but with an intent. As Yean Kai has found, there are many people holding on to an uncertain ideal of French wines that they do not understand. With the specially created opportunity at hand, he had the participants taste (blind-tasted – identities of the wine not made known) the Australian Shiraz and the Bordeaux side by side. The purpose is very simple – to let the participants taste and decide what they actually like and to appreciate the differences of each style of wine instead of conveniently following a “long-held” market perception.
It was certainly a fun and eventful night!! Cheers.
The following labels were tasted during the workshop:
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Morton Estate White Label Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2004
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Frankland Estate Isolation Ridge Chardonnay 2002
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Irvine Springhill Merlot 2001
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Pirramimma Stock's Hill Shiraz 2002
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La Demoiselle de Sociando-Mallet 1998