Memberships always appear like good deals. The NTUC Fairprice wine club - $20 a year gets you 8% off wine at any Fairprice supermarket and invitations to wine tastings and pairing dinners. And I have Fairprice Finest within walking distance from home and work.
But supermarkets stock only wines from the giant corporates. Jacob's Creek, Wolf Blass, Penfolds, Banrock Station, Hardys, Lindemans, Wyndham Estate - safe and boring wines.
I tried it anyway. No surprise - the wine club is poor value for buying everyday bottles. Put another way, paying $20 for 8% discount means discounts start only after $250. With so many alternatives, how many of us want to be tied to one place? The same brands are stocked at Duty-Free, while Wine Connection offers cheap Chileans and Australians too.
Doesn't help that the wine tastings are almost as expensive for members as non-members.
Not everything is bad though:
- The bottles are in good condition - they were stored / transported with care, unlike Denise / Straits Wine
- Some of the branches, particularly the Finest versions, have wine sections large enough to include smaller vineyards
- As the dominant supermarket chain here, Fairprice can offer deep, loss-leading discounts
To make myself feel like I made better use of my card (ugh, another classic pitfall of memberships), I bought half a dozen bottles today.
One of the gems I returned to buy is the Ashbrook Estate Cabernet Merlot 2008 ($26 SGD after discounts). There are claims that Margaret River is similar in climate to Bordeaux, and this claret is the classic blend of Cabernet Sauvignon - Merlot - Cabernet Franc - Petit Verdot. Being able to buy a ready-to-drink 2008 vintage off the shelf is a joy. Most being sold are 2012s - way too young to be drunk. And I'm way too lazy to stash away.
This bottle is worth cellaring, but there's already plenty of bouquet to smell, layers of berries to taste and structure structure that lingers for just long enough.
It makes me think of hosting a wine and cheese party soon.
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L for Loire Valley, M for Muscadet
A surprise of the "L" themed wine party Li Jen and I hosted near Valentine's Day was that the first two bottles were both Muscadet (a French white wine).
The first bottle, "Lobster & Shrimp" from the Barton & Guestier Pairing Collection, continue reading...
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Suggested reading: Not Brown Brothers Moscato - Then What?