An anno in vino

Porco’s Latin is not his strong suit but here, in any event, is his year in wine:

January – cleaning out a restaurant called Southern Beauty in Shanghai of its entire stock of Henschke Mount Edelstone 2001 (RP95) plus half of their stock of 2002 as well.

February – Hubert Lignier Morey St. Denis 2001 for a special occasion. Porco now believes that Parker should not be trusted when it comes to Burgundy and you should add 4 points to every rated for the appellation.

March - first tasting of our budget wine of the year.

April – is the cruellest month. A disappointing Barbi Brunello di Montalcino 1997, then a touch of Seoul before embarking on a horizontal.

May – we opened the first of the 2000 Bordeaux.

June – Palais de Grand Crus with tasting notes.

July – we go American in Bangkok, first shows of the Shafer Merlot 2004 (RP 88 but WS 92!) and the Opus One 2002 (RP 89).

August - a week in Napa, Porco’s wine of the year (it’s the Belle Seours and you have to scroll down to the bottom of the linked page) and soft opening at Denise where there was a first show of the Kaesler Old Vines Shiraz 2005.

September – Porco conducts a wine tasting in Hong Kong and we unearthed a bottle of Cullen Diana Madeleine 2001.

October – a Jacquesson and a Domaine Dujac at Iggy’s.

November – dinner with Michael Twelftree and then the mini extravaganza at Porco’s birthday booze up where it was 20-40-90. 20 bottles, 40th birthday and everything above 90 points.

December – the grand shipment arrives from Bordeaux (with Porco’s Chateau Rouget 1999 and La Dominique 2000) and a slightly disappointing time in Margaret River.

Musical Pig

So Porco went along to a jazz concert earlier this evening and it seems to the pig that the difference between rock, classical and jazz is this – rock is linear (so good rock music gets you from A to B in the quickest time like a catapult), classical music leads you around corners (taking you places you have never been, reavealing things you have never seen) while jazz is about ever decreasing circles (and the variations within those circles). Go figure.

Porco in Perth

Yes, the piggsley one just returned from Margaret River and yes, it was for work. Seriously. Nice beach, private plane and we even found some time for wine tasting . Funny that. Shame about the cricket.

Local Talent (2)

Bankers, bankers everywhere. This afternoon, Porco had to deal with a commercial banker. Last night, he had dinner with a central banker turned private banker and everyday, he deals with investment bankers.

So how good are Singaporeans who are bankers? Probably not as good as the ones in London, Tokyo, New York or Hong Kong (in that order) but better than the ones in KL, Jakarta, Bangkok or Hanoi (not necessarily in that order).

So what does that tell us? Not a great deal. Are Singaporeans getting better? Perhaps, all the American and European know how flooding in the last ten or twenty years has certainly helped but financial crises, political instability and plain credit risk has set the region (and therefore this country’s financial sector) back by more than ten years.

Too much cash and not too many places for it to go has also made for an easy almost lazy lack of sophistication. Anyone can make money in the good times, good people make money even in hard times.