Wine Maker - John Davis; Pepper Tree Wines

' Pepper Tree ' wines is in Singapore. My first encounter with Pepper Tree Wines was during Wine for Asia 2007, together with me in the tasting round was the owner of 'Pepper Tree' himself; John Davis & some of the local distributor.

Today, the owner himself is in town & I have the great honour to meet up with him at my place. Togeher with him is Alick & Hesley from Delfi Singapore. The Singapore agent for Pepper Tree Wines.

Is an remarkable outstanding wines, both red and whites. Their prices might be along the $30 bands but is definately worth trying.

We were discussing about the drought situation in Australia and how some wineries has to pay additional taxes to the govt for tapping water from the river for vineyard irrigation. Indeed is really straining in terms of overheads. Remarkably to take note of, is that, the size of the grape is as small as that of a pea.

It may give you a more robust character but definately the yield is much less. Let's see how things you turn out for them this harvest. Given the fact that the harvest is getting earlier and earlier.

Army life

The time of the year has come for me to serve my due to the Nation or fondly known by our neighbours as "Little Red Dot". Is 3 months from my hatch day in July and there is qualifying period to come for this IPT then to opt in for RT(Remedial Trg).

And here I am to keep myself fit by attending IPT(IPPT Preparatory Trg). hey it save alot of time! I rather come for 8 sessions of training then a 20 sessions training.

Whereby, I will turn up at designated army camp for a 8 session of physical training. Today is the first day of training, was with my navy buddy John at a eastern side camp. All was fine except for a very long winded young man..other then that, we have to jog on roads rather on tracks. The reason?, the tracks is used for National Day Parade rehearsal...

Tired, and burning out soon from work and training..why all these training, since we are talking about 3rd generation soldiers..why can't we press buttons and let technology do the rest.

I am keeping mum, is my 7th ICT year, 3 years and I will R.O.D.(Run out date) and hope they don't place me in SCDF. . . :x

Signing off... Tired Tired Tired!

How many grape Varietals are there?

What's your guess? 1000s? 100s? 10s?

The correct answer is 1000s of them. Most varietals are used for dessert grapes, raisins or are rarely grown. Only a handful of about 30s are of International relevance.



Ever wonder the species name of the grapes that is used for wine making?

The species name used for making wine is known as ' Vitis vinifera ' and it is just one of the many species under the Vine family. Others for example are, Vitis amurensis, Vitis cariboa, Vitis labrusca, Vitis riparia and Vitis berlandieri. Ultimately we only need to remember the wine that we are drinking comes from the species ' Vitis vinifera '.

Reds	Whites
Cabernet Franc Cabernet Sauvignon Carménère Garnache Grenache Malbec Merlot Nebbiolo Pinot Noir Sangiovese Syrah / Shiraz Tempranillo Zinfandel	Chardonnay Chenin Blanc Colombard Gewurztraminer (Traminer) Frontignac (Muscat) Macabeo Marsanne Pinot Gris (Pinot Grigo) Riesling Roussanne Sauvignon Blanc Semillon Viognier

The above are just some of the more commonly known grapes. Each and very varietal has it own characteristic and most need specified climate to allow it to grow to it’s fullest potential, this leads to why certain varietal is best grown in certain country, eg. Malbec is to Argentina, Carménère is to Chile.

Wine prices going North

A report in the local papers, The Straits Time, reported on 25th march '08. That the cost of Australia Wines is expected to go up.

This is not something new though but long expected by many in the industry, during my visit in Apr 2007, Australia has been facing drought for a long time. In the 25 march report states, ' The cost of 1megaliter of water in Australia cost $AUD300 has increased to $AUD1000 per megaliter, that is more then 3 times in increment.


The cost of water is one issue, the other issue is the of currency exchange rate, at one time $SGD1.35 will get you $AUD$1.oo. Good thing is that it has come down to $SGD1.25 to $AUD1.00.


Many has thought that wine is a very lucrative business which in fact is not true.

See below on the breakdown:

Take for example an bottle of yellowtail; the selling price is at $19.50 during promotion. At $19.50, $7.65 goes to duties(provided alcohol content is below 13.5%, duties will be higher if alcohol content is above 13.5%).
With that you are left with $11.85, don't forget about the cost of land freight from vineyard to port and the sea freight that follows..

Upon reach the shore of destination, other hidden cost like, eg. Trucking cost to warehouse and warehousing cost. Oh.. don't forget we need to pay a $SGD40.00 for permit, the permit is a piece of paper that indicates what are the wines you are retrieving out from the warehouse.

Alternatively, if you find Australian costly, you may want to venture out to try Chilean wine, wines are good and price competitive then their Australian counterpart.

This increment is inevitable, I believed the Australians are reluctant to increase the prices but due to the cost of production and the yield, has given them no other alternative.

I am, also quite reluctant to increase the price too. My opinion is, Australia is not the only wine producing country, unlike crude oil, the prices are fixed. In wine, if you feel the prices is not right, venture out, be adventurous! there are up and coming wine producing countries like; Chile, Argentina, South Africa..they are worth giving a try.

Pinot Noir Grapes from Rochford Estate




Sales Manager, Rochford: Rob O'Connell and myself (2007)




Wine from Rochford Estate

Vino~!

Sense of Boredom

Boredom seems to be setting in on me lately, I don't have such feeling before, something seems to be missing.

I used to go out with friends to have our teh-tarik session till he was busy with someone, and other mate of my is facing some life-crisis lately and he has been asking me to chill out with him, someone to accompany him for drinking, which I have turn down all of it. ( I did promised him that I will join him at least for one, so i better make good my promise!) What are friends for right?

I guess another factor could be a buddy of my that we get along very well with is away for an internship, miss those chats and times we had together.

I think I need to do some adjustment and refocus of life issues, some many things in hand for me to handle, but at least on the Church front i can lower my pace maybe till August, where I will be busy again for Ministry work.

Didn't really have a good sleep, slept past midnight, waking up at 5.30am for Easter Sunrise Service and it was back to Church for Easter Combined Service.

Something with regards to my cousin-sister cropped up and she has pressed the panic button, so got to go to her rescue. orh...and need to wake up to do recoding from History Channel at 3am.


*Blurred*

Quotes

'Living a Life of Endless Hope'

or

'A Life of Hopeless End'