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| Mr. malcolm Tham, Programme Director
Wine for Asia 2009 |
About 350 exhibitors are expected to take part in the show, about the same number as the last year, with the area sold being the same too, according to Malcolm Tham, Programme Director for the show. There is a big presence from Australia this year-surprisingly they had taken a back seat due to the recession but have decided to take part at the tail end with a big presence, adds Malcolm.
Another new entrant would be California with a big participation from the member producers of the California Wine Institute. Other participants like Sopexa, Italy, France and Germany etc will be there as usual.
One of the Highlights will be a vertical tasting of the iconic Penfold Grange with their winemaker, Jamie Sachs. Also attractive would be a Pinot Noir Forum moderated by the local wine expert and writer Poh’ Thyong, in which Burgundy and the new styles of Pinot Noir will be discussed and tasted with the Burgundy expert Jean-Pierre Renard. This two -hour seminar will have wines from the US, New Zealand and Australia too.
‘Wine safari has been planned to take the visitors through the memory lane of Singapore and the changing lifestyle of the city. There are about 4 million people in Singapore with an average per capita consumption of 1 liter. It is still an attractive hub for South Eastern nations like Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam etc. Though there are duties imposed on wine imports, the duty free bonded warehouses make it an attractive center for many of the wine exporting nations,’ said Tham who has been able to get the wines duty free for the Show as well, for the first time.
Wine for Asia also organizes a Sommelier competition the finals for which will be held at the Show. There is a Wine Style Asia Awards- a wine competition for which Arora had been invited to be the President of one of the Jury Panels- the other two were chaired by Kym Milne MW from Australia and John Chua who is also the chairman of the Jury. The other judges included Lisa Perrotti Brown MW, who reports on Asia for Robert Parker, and Roderick Wong, President of the Sommelier Association of Malaysia. The visitors will also get to taste the award winning wines at the Show.
For further information, one can contact Tham directly at malcolmtham@winesforasia.com
Subhash Arora |