I'm new here in Manila, having moved back after 22 years of being away, so I've had limited experiences with the wine scene. I've had enough encounters with it, however, to give it an initial assessment of moribund, at least compared to what I had access to in California.
In my first month here, I visited several wine and liquor places in Quezon City, the entertainment hub of the Philippines. Wines were displayed in sweltering heat, in stores with no air-conditioning, unless you count an oscillating fan sadly recirculating the air as A/C. Blame it on the country's status as a developing economy. Or blame it on the lack of a wine-drinking community. Or on the fact that this is a beer-drinking culture schizophrenically married to a very Catholic view of the world. In one of the very first fine-dining establishments I visited with a decent wine list, my server turned out to be a teetotaler, so I couldn't really ask her for a wine recommendation for my ribeye. "Sirrr," she said with that lingering "r" common in these parts, "I don't really drink alcohol."
The way I see it (so far), wine-drinking is the province of the rich, who drink first-growth Bordeaux, and the clueless, who think wines should be kept warm. In this country, where average temperatures seem to be 95 degrees Fahrenhumid, keeping wine at room temperature is deadly. I made that measurement up, of course, but a mere temperature reading doesn't begin to cover the kind of heat one experiences here. On the best days, it's a constant presence you can ignore; on the worst, it stalks you with an unwelcome embrace that squeezes the sweat out of you. Poor wines!
Wine stores generally sell Chilean and Australian wines by the boatload, which makes for a bountiful alternative for those on a tight budget. An exception is a store called Bacchus, a small wine chain one of which is located in the Power Plant Mall in Makati, where I now live. They cover a wide range of prices, from around ₱500 (≈US $11) for Australian and New Zealand quaffers to at least ₱23,000 (≈US $500 or more) for first-growth Bordeaux. They have Italian reds and Alsatian whites, but I tend to like their selection of Rhones--including Cotes du Rhone, Chatueauneuf du Pape and St. Joseph--many of which come from the producer Paul Jaboulet, one of the region's best, and other impressive producers. Some of the prices do fall within my price range and some even have the reputable quality for which I'm willing to pay a little extra. And their temperature control is acceptable for most wines, and superb for their more expensive ones (in a large wine refrigerator).
Another pleasant exception is yet another small chain called Santis. It's a high-end deli that carries cured meats and cheeses from different parts of the world, many of them of European origin. It also has a very good selection of European wines, from quaffable Rhones to German Rieslings to second- or third-growth Bordeaux. I go to the one in Rockwell located on the ground floor of the Joya building.
Bacchus and Santis, both of which are a block or two from where I live, are good enough for most occasions. What I'm looking for, however, is the type of wine store that offers the expertise and selection of a place like Kermit Lynch or North Berkeley Wine, two of the most important importers in California, if not the entire USA. I was so fortunate to live close to these two outposts for many years, where I had my taste of many firsts: my first Vosne-Romanee, my first Bandol (rouge and rose), my first Meursault, etc. Even though they stock the occasional Italian or California wine, their specialty is undoubtedly French wine. These are the kinds of stores that introduce previously neglected appellations or small producers that the wine press picks up and writes about a year or two later. For now, no more of these fresh discoveries for me: wine, interrupted.
It's only recently, perhaps in the past two years, that I've taken an interest in Spanish and Italian wines, so I'm pretty clueless. But there seems to be a lot of Spanish wines to discover in Manila, if Terry's Selection is any indication. I look forward to it even as my mind wanders in search of (imaginary) lost wines.
In my first month here, I visited several wine and liquor places in Quezon City, the entertainment hub of the Philippines. Wines were displayed in sweltering heat, in stores with no air-conditioning, unless you count an oscillating fan sadly recirculating the air as A/C. Blame it on the country's status as a developing economy. Or blame it on the lack of a wine-drinking community. Or on the fact that this is a beer-drinking culture schizophrenically married to a very Catholic view of the world. In one of the very first fine-dining establishments I visited with a decent wine list, my server turned out to be a teetotaler, so I couldn't really ask her for a wine recommendation for my ribeye. "Sirrr," she said with that lingering "r" common in these parts, "I don't really drink alcohol."The way I see it (so far), wine-drinking is the province of the rich, who drink first-growth Bordeaux, and the clueless, who think wines should be kept warm. In this country, where average temperatures seem to be 95 degrees Fahrenhumid, keeping wine at room temperature is deadly. I made that measurement up, of course, but a mere temperature reading doesn't begin to cover the kind of heat one experiences here. On the best days, it's a constant presence you can ignore; on the worst, it stalks you with an unwelcome embrace that squeezes the sweat out of you. Poor wines!
Wine stores generally sell Chilean and Australian wines by the boatload, which makes for a bountiful alternative for those on a tight budget. An exception is a store called Bacchus, a small wine chain one of which is located in the Power Plant Mall in Makati, where I now live. They cover a wide range of prices, from around ₱500 (≈US $11) for Australian and New Zealand quaffers to at least ₱23,000 (≈US $500 or more) for first-growth Bordeaux. They have Italian reds and Alsatian whites, but I tend to like their selection of Rhones--including Cotes du Rhone, Chatueauneuf du Pape and St. Joseph--many of which come from the producer Paul Jaboulet, one of the region's best, and other impressive producers. Some of the prices do fall within my price range and some even have the reputable quality for which I'm willing to pay a little extra. And their temperature control is acceptable for most wines, and superb for their more expensive ones (in a large wine refrigerator).
Another pleasant exception is yet another small chain called Santis. It's a high-end deli that carries cured meats and cheeses from different parts of the world, many of them of European origin. It also has a very good selection of European wines, from quaffable Rhones to German Rieslings to second- or third-growth Bordeaux. I go to the one in Rockwell located on the ground floor of the Joya building.
Bacchus and Santis, both of which are a block or two from where I live, are good enough for most occasions. What I'm looking for, however, is the type of wine store that offers the expertise and selection of a place like Kermit Lynch or North Berkeley Wine, two of the most important importers in California, if not the entire USA. I was so fortunate to live close to these two outposts for many years, where I had my taste of many firsts: my first Vosne-Romanee, my first Bandol (rouge and rose), my first Meursault, etc. Even though they stock the occasional Italian or California wine, their specialty is undoubtedly French wine. These are the kinds of stores that introduce previously neglected appellations or small producers that the wine press picks up and writes about a year or two later. For now, no more of these fresh discoveries for me: wine, interrupted.It's only recently, perhaps in the past two years, that I've taken an interest in Spanish and Italian wines, so I'm pretty clueless. But there seems to be a lot of Spanish wines to discover in Manila, if Terry's Selection is any indication. I look forward to it even as my mind wanders in search of (imaginary) lost wines.
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