Italian wines find FRESH FANS

LOVERS of wine in Thailand are usually found casting yearning gazes toward Bordeaux or Burgundy in France and sniffing the air for the scent of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz, Pinot Noir or Chardonnay. Delight-|fully, though, the gravity shifted |a little earlier this month and |more than 40 Italian wine-|makers ended up in Bangkok with their finest bottles ready for sampling.
“Great Wines of Italy” lured the francophile faithful astray with its wonderful selection of wines made with Nebbiolo, Sangiovese, Sagrantino, Barbera, Grignolino and other grapes unknown to local tipplers. It certainly proved that the Italians have more to talk about than Ducati, Isabella Rossellini and Marco Polo.
“Thais love Italian wines, but they’ve never had the opportunity to taste a huge range of these totally outstanding wines in one place,” said James Suckling, the former editor of Wine Spectator magazine who orchestrated this first-of-its-kind event for Asia, held in the Grand Hyatt Erawan’s Grand Ballroom.
Part of “James Suckling’s Great Wines of the World Series”, “Great Wines of Italy” arrived following success in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
The 40 winemakers from 58 top vineyards from Sicily to Tuscany, Piedmont and Veneto had on offer more 120 wines that Suckling has awarded at least 90 points on a scale of 100. And at least one of them, 2006 Valdicava Brunello Di Montalcino Madonna Del Piano Riserva, did indeed earn a perfect score of 100.
French wine tends to get all the credit while Australian, New Zealander, Peruvian and Argentinean wines scramble for attention, but Italy is the world’s largest producer by volume. And the quality is such that the experts and connoisseurs cannot afford to ignore its produce.
In the space of an evening, Bangkok’s savvy wine enthusiasts got to taste an elegant Sangiovese in the form of 2010 Bibi Graetz Testamatta Toscana IGT, a Nebbiolo (pride of Piedmont) in 2010 Damilano Barolo Cannubi – and 100 others.
“We’ve brought the Italians to Bangkok,” Suckling declared. “In fact, you couldn’t even find a tasting like this in Milan, Florence or Rome!”
Thailand’s wine culture is maturing, says Suckling, who lives in Hong Kong, and the market here looks even more promising than that of mainland China.
“Thailand is one of the most excited premium-wine markets in Asia. It’s not widely known, but Thailand has more than double the number of consumers of fine wine than China,” he said. “According the wine merchants, there are more than 900,000 Thais who pay more than US$20 [Bt650] a bottle, compared to 400,000 Chinese.”
Foreign tourists staying at the hotels and resorts account for |much of the money spent on wine here, while most Thai still tend to rank wine third behind beer and whisky when it comes to alcoholic drinks. For many, the experts say, “whisky and soda” is just a farm simpler and more appealing concept than a beverage involving “character”, “nose”, “palate” and “tannins”.
More Thais, though, should heed the words of Suckling as he lovingly opens a bottle of wine. “Wine is like music: You can enjoy it without knowledge!”