Festive season wine savings

 When you stay in touch with smaller wine importer-distributors, the chances are good that you will find some of the best values in hard-to-find wines. For the last 18 years, Bangkok Fine Wine has been Thailand’s most intrepid seeker and supplier of value for money wines from Australia. They proved their mettle again last week with their annual pre-holiday wine bash at Aldo’s Bistro, where those in the know got to sample 17 wines and replenish cellars for holiday parties at bargain prices. 

This year’s partygoers enjoyed an expanded selection of wines, as proprietors Jonathan and Patcharee Glonek have extended their coverage to include New Zealand. Two hallmark Kiwi wines, a sauvignon blanc and a pinot noir from Warangkana Peak winery in the famed Marlborough region, attracted rapt attention from the majority of some 150 attendees. Countering Warangkana’s well-crafted delicate pinot was Best’s Great Western more assertive pinot, clearly showing the effects the hotter growing conditions of Victoria have on the grape.

A mainstay of Bangkok Fine Wine has been the cooperative winery operation organised by Parry Richardson in McLaren Vale, South Australia. In 1999, he and several other small family estates pooled efforts and began selling wines for export under the Brokenhills label. Their dry white colombard-chardonnay blend and dry red from shiraz and cabernet, are served as house pours in many Bangkok restaurants. Brokenhills also produces a modestly priced sparkler under the label Charles Steiner, which will figure prominently at numerous holiday festivities. A prodigiously complex ’08 Gilligan shiraz from Leigh Gilligan, a director at the Brokenhills group, also attracted a robust following.

Leading the Glonek’s parade of Australian labels are the famed Sandalford wines from Western Australia. The entry level Element label featuring chardonnay and shiraz-cabernet are generous values at about Bt600 each with prices toward the heavens for multiple award winning cabernets and others. Owned by the Prendiville family and operated by Grant Brinklow, a regular visitor to Thailand, Sandalford fits ideally as Bangkok Fine Wines premier label while underscoring the Glonek’s success in acquiring wines fit for the Thai palate. 

For more information, call Bangkok Fine Wine at (02) 392 0735-7.