Highs and Merlots

In the four years I spent in Australia, I never once touched a drop of Foster’s, otherwise known in the rest of the world as "Oztryan for beeyah." No barbie-loving, footy-playing Australian actually drinks Foster’s, neither do they listen to Ben Lee, have memorized "A Sunburnt Country" by heart or carry didges in their back pockets. They do, however, watch Neighbours and are Kylie-mad. They also drink truckloads of wine, along with copious amounts of all other members of the fermented family. Let me tell you how much Australians love their alcohol. Orientation Week for university consisted primarily of getting-to-know-each-other via the sloshy route of the Pub Crawl (called bar hopping in more restrained nations), and, literally, anything is an excuse for a piss-up. Disappointing grades? Let’s grab a beer. Passable grades? Time to celebrate! Studying for an engineering exam the next day? Oh, we definitely gotta skull to that.

Moving out of the dorm and into my own apartment was also an escape from those nasty bulk-buy boxes-o-wine which frequented dorm parties and left revelers with terrible hangovers. Now, I was free to explore the wide varieties of bottled grape that the country produced so abundantly! I soon became quite intimate with the under-$7 reds. I am still no expert and can’t tell my fruity florals from my oaky tannins to save a life, but one thing I have unlearned doing wine-time in Australia is the old rule of white for fish and red for meat. Personally, I have developed a partiality to Merlot, a comfortable yet interesting red to be enjoyed with anything from adobo to zucchini; it also goes down well with the 6 o’ clock news all the way through late-nite Buffy. But that’s just Merlot self-opinion.

So, when I heard that the Australian brand Jacob’s Creek was launching a six-pack here, I dragged my partner-in-wine with me to the press lunch for a little tipple down memory lane. The lunch was a kind of mix-and-match sampling of taste-bud teasers, a wine-tasting event at Absinth with the absence of high-brow snobbery I’ve come to associate with Aussie good humor and its battler-spirit. No pretentious snorting sippers, and not a spittoon in sight! Bryan Fry, Jacob’s Creek viticulturist (one who turns vine into wine) and Asia Pacific regional manager, explained the company’s philosophy: "Enjoying wine is mostly a matter of personal taste, and we encourage people to sensitize themselves to what they like – matching the taste and texture of food with the equivalent wine that enhances the meal."

A few tips for enjoying wine: For sparkling whites, wet your glass before pouring to get maximum bubble effect; chill reds to slightly below room temperature to bring out its full flavor; and really, stop and smell the cut grass and roses. The aroma, or bouquet of the wine, has everything to do with how it tastes and how it will be received with the food. On the menu, Bryan matched the six different wines with various dishes Filipinos might be fond of eating. The non-vintage Chardonnay Pinot Noir Sparkling went stag, served on its own as an aperitif. The dry and fruit-driven Riesling 2001 was paired with the Absinth Bistro Salad; the oak-influenced Chardonnay 2001 flirted with the stuffed herb eggplant chicken, while the lemon-grassy Semillon Chardonnay 2002 took pasta marinara for a spin on the dance floor. The very berry Shiraz Cabernet 2001 wooed the Asian beef vermicelli, and, lastly, the smooth-talking Merlot worked its rose petal charm on the shredded pork adobo with kesong puti on crostini.

Of course, these matches were not sealed with a marriage contract. The wines were free to co-mingle with its neighboring foods, and people will have their own vino-food fetishes. In a show of hands (after guests were well on their way), favorites turned out to be wide ranging. At my end of the table, where the twentysomethings kept asking for refills, the Merlot was a crowd darling, while the mature thirtysomethings went for the bolder flavors of the Shiraz Cabernet. Those above-40 sparkled with the bubbles of Chardonnay whites. Fry himself was a Merlot man and seemed to have single-handedly slurped down an entire bottle.

The past decade has seen an incredible rise in worldwide consumption of Australian wine, as it is being hailed for its richness, accessibility and innovativeness. Aussie winemakers aren’t afraid to mix a variety of grapes, casks and soils to produce dynamic new tastes (e.g. the Shiraz-Cab affairs and Semillon-Chard liaisons) – alcohol alchemy not many stodgy European vineyard purists would dare perform. And, hence, the perception of Aussie wine as clean, crisp, easy-to-drink and relaxed – the "big Australian taste," like the big blue of Bondi Beach, which really does boast the best bodies. Their wines are the quenching quaffs that will no doubt please the Pinoy palate and will have you going "Oi, oi, oi, pare" in no time.