GRANGE BUT TRUE
Definitely high on the list of ‘the hundred wines to drink before you die’, Australia’s iconic Penfolds Grange remains one of the world’s most sought-after and long-lived wines.

It might not be pleasant to hear but, for the longest time, the only Australian wine worth drinking (particularly among the snobby coterie of claret connoisseurs) was Grange Hermitage, now known shortly and sweetly as Penfolds Grange. Even collectors made no bones about which label they looked for when it came to blue chip buying. And while, equally certainly, the world has come a long way from the Grange monopoly, there’s no denying the iconic and legendary status it still enjoys as one of the country’s, and the world’s, most exceptional fine wines.

“It’s our flagship and will always be the wine that attracts the most amount of attention,” says Jamie Sach, who holds the enviable position of being ambassador for the entire family of Penfolds’ wines. We’d met recently at Favola, the new-ish Italian restaurant at Le Meridien hotel, where we counted ourselves among the lucky few who could drink Grange on that rainsodden, traffic-choked Tuesday evening. “It’s not for nothing that the eminent critic Hugh Johnson called Grange the First Growth of the Southern Hemisphere,” he adds, with a big smile.

IT’S UNCOMPLICATED
A strong undercurrent of neo-Japanese cuisine at Hotel Maya’s Still Waters Restaurant is presented with accompanying side-servings of slick, cosmopolitan vibes. Mark Lean takes a taste test.

Photos Four Points by Sheraton Kuching

As the plane approaches the runway of the Kuching International Airport in Sarawak, those looking out the window will notice – under an overhang of clouds – a ribbon of water snaking through dense green jungles, conjuring images of a dream-like world filled with mystical legends, exotic wildlife and lost tribes.

While much of that remains on this westerly tip of Borneo, the world’s sixth largest island, the story of the new millennium is the rise of Sarawak out of the provincial backwaters and embracing a unique developmental model which chooses to retain its Borneo heritage but, at the same time, working on infrastructure of international standards. Case in point: The Four Points by Sheraton Kuching.

MUSICAL MARVEL
A constellation of musicians, helmed by Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, gathered in Singapore to put on a show of consummate artistry.

The mark of truly great artists lies in their innate ability to transport the audience to a world of creation, a world where the majesty of the art holds everyone in thrall. This happened recently at the Singapore Botanic Gardens, where the inspirational Andrea Bocelli, supported by flautist Andrea Griminelli, Slovenian soprano Sabina Cvilak and popular Australian singer Delta Goodrem, took thousands into their brilliant worlds at the YTL Concert of Celebration.

The enraptured crowd thoroughly appreciated the show, which is a series of world-class concerts organised in celebration of YTL’s major milestones and achievements. A twenty-fold over-subscription in the balloting for tickets showed the keenness of the island population in wanting to experience the live singing of Bocelli, and, on the evening of the event, more than 12,000 people were gathered at the gardens’ Swan Lake right up to the adjacent Palm Valley Lawns. Also in attendance were the President of the Republic of Singapore, HE SR Nathan and his wife, Urmila Nandey, Temasek Holdings CEO Ho Ching and Mah Bow Tan, Minister for National Development.