Updated: 01st July 2002
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VINO E OLIO SINGAPORE

26th & 27th June 2002
Singapore Marriott Hotel

organised by

Veronafiere (of VinItaly)

Italian Trade Commission, Singapore

The first day was set aside for Food & Beverage professionals & the second day was open to interested members of the public.

There were THREE components in this exhibition.

wines for the tutored tasting session

1) An Introduction to VinItaly & Italian Wines, was led by the Chairman of VenonaFiere, who introduced one of the largest Wine Exhibitions in the World - VinItaly. Mr. Edwin Soon, then proceeded with a brief overview of the 20 distinct wine regions of Italy. The session ended with a tasting of SIX selected wines of the exhibitors at this event.

LUGANA 1999 (DO Lombardy) was made from a typical Italian white wine grape, the Trebbiano. The nose was fresh & clean with notes of fresh lime juice. On the palate, minerally notes were evident coupled with some tart acidity & a hint of almonds, which Italians tend to appreciate in their white wines. An unspectacular wine that will accompany simply prepared fresh seafood dishes.

MOSCATO d'ASTI (Piemonte) is an attractively fragrant & slightly petillant wine made from the Muscat grape. The fizziness is obtained by fermenting the must in a sealed tank at about 1.5 atmospheres. This category of wine received DOC status, recently, resulting in a hike in prices making a similar wine, Musto d'Uva, a better value. Both wines are made to accompany cakes & biscuits during teatime or after meals.

BARBERA d'ASTI 1999 (Piemonte) is generally the lighter weight cousin of Barbera d'Alba. Our sample was from Ca' del Mastro. The wine was round, well balanced & ready to drink. A good everyday wine not meant for cellaring.

LA GUARDIA de Monteferrato Rosso 1996 (Piemonte) is a blend of light, cherry flavoured Barbera with Cabernet Sauvignon to provide the weight & backbone. The resultant wine is heavier than the straight Barbera d'Asti, while providing some additional cassis flavour from the Cabernet. Again, a well-made wine but without much impact.

CARPENE MALVOLTI Prosecco de Conegliano is a Champangne-style wine that offered light fresh flavours, a little demi-sec, offering fruit flavours rather than yeasty characteristics of Champangne.

I suspect the VALDO della VALDOBBIADENE was made in the Charmant method, showing large bubbles rather than persistent fine mousse of true Champagne. Again, in the fresh, fruity, easy drinking style without any hint of yeast.

some of the F & B professionals sampling the wines

These wines provided an attractive introduction to some lesser known Italian wines, which would be more useful to a consumer audience rather than key F & B professionals.

2) On the other hand, the Olive Oil Tasting session offered a rare opportunity to learn about olive oil from two Italian experts. The head of UNAPROL (the national union of Associations of Producers of Olives) gave some insights into the various clones of olives used in the production of olive oil and how to identify any particular batch of olive oil from an UNAPROL code on the label.

the olive oil expert at work

The second expert was one of the official olive oil tasters that help determine the characteristics & quality of various olive oils sent in for grading to UNAPROL. 

the four styles of olive oils

We then proceeded to sample FOUR olive oils with different characteristics. The first oil was light in body & flavour. The second exhibited herbaceous flavours with a slightly heavier body. I felt I enjoyed this style best probably drizzled over salads. The third was second best for me with good weight & density with a certain creaminess that should do better with more substantial food. The last was organically grown, styled similarly to the third. It was beyond me whether olives certified organic was any different from olives grown with good respect for the natural environment.

3) Ongoing during the two formal sessions, was an exhibition of wines & olive oils for those who did not attend the formal sessions. This show was dominated by DAPIS Pte Ltd (a local wine distributor), who showed off their Italian portfolio from about FIVE different producers. Besides DAPIS, there were two Spumanti producers, a Barbera d'Asti specialist & UNAPROL's commercial arm showing off their commercial range of olive oils.

 Mr. Giovanni Dezzani, the Barbera d'Asti specialist, with Mr. George Wong

I look forward to a more substantial showing at future showings by the Italian Trade Commission.

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