Out & About : Wine Tasting with Mr Pedro Pereira by Boozeat

There is a quote that goes like this, “The finer things in life are acquired tastes.” This is something I believe in, simply because of how true it is. A simple survey to your friends, friend will show why. You can ask a handful of people if they liked oysters, and I can assure you that not all will say “YES!”. Things like caviar, foie gras, oysters, wine … are just some examples of finer things which usually requires an acquired taste. For me, I absolutely love oysters and I’m still learning to appreciate wine. So, when I was recently invited by Boozeat (http://www.boozeat.com/) for the event; Wine Tasting with Mr Pedro Pereira, I was happy to perhaps be able to learn more about wines.

The wine tasting session was guided by expert wine connoisseur, Mr Pedro Pereira, the Group Area Manager of SoGrape (Asia Pacific). SoGrape Vinhos is Portugal's most prominent wine company established in 1942. The company proudly owns over 830 hectares of vineyards in the all key Portuguese wine regions. During the session, we had the chance to try 7 premium wines from SoGrape, which are the Marble Leaf Sauvignon Blanc, Marble Leaf Pinot Gris , Chateau Los Boldos Chardonnay , Mateus Rose Original , Chateau Los Boldos Cabernet Sauvignon , Chateau Los Boldos Merlot and Chateau Los Boldos Carmenere. Since I managed to try them all, let me try to briefly explain what I tasted for each of the wines.

We started off with the milder fruity white wines, like the Marble Leaf Pinot Gris. This wine is golden yellow in colour, with a fruity based aroma of the passion fruit, grapefruit, gooseberry as well, as hints of green pepper, thyme, nettle and currant leaves. Taste wise, the wine have a rich taste of fruity notes, decorated with herbs. It was a very elegant wine, which I really liked and fancied, given its fruity tones.

For the Marble Leaf Sauvignon Blanc, which is also a white wine in the shade of pale straw, with green highlights. It is very fragnant, with an character of aroma of stone fruit, lime zest and capsicum too. The taste of the wine is extremely appealing and attractive, which would leave you craving for more. Next is the Chateau Los Boldos Chardonnay which bright pale yello with green reflections. It carries scents of tropical fruits, apricots and pears. I like this because it was more of a lighter fruit based wine, giving you a fresh taste with an elegant finish. One of my favourite would have to be the Mateus Rose Original, which is a light, fresh and young sparkling wine. As this is a rose wine, so it has a very appealing, bright coral pinkish orangey hue. I found the wine to be a well-balanced brillant wine, complemented by a soft, slightly fizzy finish.

Then we had the reds, that are stronger in taste as compared to the whites. Personally, I have a preferance towards to the lighter wines hence, needless to say I enjoyed drinking the previous few wines more than the last few ones. The red wines are from the range of Chateau Los Boldos, where we tried the Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine is an intense ruby red, with an aroma of red fruits (such as raspberries, strawberries, cherries) and a hint of spices. The Merlot is bright ruby red and smelt like a combination of sour cherries, blackberries, black pepper and hints of vanilla. As for the Carmenere, I found it very fruity and well-structured with aromas of black and red fruits, with hints of black pepper and chocolate.

This wine tasting, was indeed a very interesting experience for me given that I have never quite fancied wines. It is an acquired taste, one that I probably will learn over the years to come by sampling various different wines and understanding the complex structures of taste and bodies that each wines has. Besides the wine, there were deliciously fresh live oysters from United States which were shucked at the event itself. If you asked me where the tastiest, freshest oysters I have tasted at, they are actually from Boozeat’s events.

If you liked this concept of wine tasting or any events similar to this, be sure to follow their Facebook page here >> https://www.facebook.com/boozeat/ where they will have updates on future events. There would be an upcoming one in March which is the White Valentine’s Day Champagne Dinner at Vineria, BSC on the 14 March 2017. For more information about the event click here >> https://www.boozeat.com/product/white-valentines-day-champagne-dinner-vineria-bsc-14-march-2017/. 

Till next time,
xoxo