The Case For Wine

Variety is the spice of life when it comes to vinous tipple, says Wong Yin-How of Vintry Wine Bar & Restaurants.

We are too safe when it comes to wine. Instead of expanding our horizons, we always stick with the same few. For reds, we’ll go for Shiraz, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon; for whites, we fall back on the Riesling, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.

As an avid wine lover, I find it a great pity because there are more than 2,000 grape varietals including the Austrian Blaufrankisch or the Albariño from Spain. To be fair, it’s not entirely the drinker’s fault. With restaurants selling by the bottle or even the glass, we don’t really get a chance to be adventurous and sample a wide variety of vino.

After all, a person can only drink so many glasses with each meal. In Tuscany, I was excited to find a wine-dispensing machine called the Enomatic. Similar to a beer kegerator, it keeps bottles “on tap” and fresh for weeks after opening, serving up tasting portions of half to two ounces.

I’ve installed four in Vintry, so at any one time, a person can sample up to 32 different types – spanning grape varietals, regions and vineyards – before committing to a full bottle or glass. If we were more adventurous and got to know the other varieties out there, the wine market's growth could be so much more phenomenal.

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