The grapest story ever told
Wine Story is soon turning 10, and owner Romy Sia is taking this moment — while opening his new branch, Wine Story Uptown, at One Uptown Residences, with a media lunch prepared by Gaita Fores — to reflect on how he got so interested in the endless narrative of wine in the first place. Turns out it was a book.
“During my annual trip to Anaheim, California for Healthy Options back in 2009, I saw this book at Barnes & Noble in Newport Beach. The title — Billionaire’s Vinegar — intrigued me.” It was a true tale of a bottle’s journey: a 1787 Chateau Lafite Rothschild, supposedly owned by Thomas Jefferson, which eventually sold at auction for a record $156,000 in 1985.
Sia was hooked. It was like his Da Vinci Code (or maybe Da Vino Code?): “The book reads like a fast-paced mystery thriller; I finished it in just two days. More than just a bottle of alcoholic beverage, from that I discovered that each wine has a story.”
So he opened Wine Story in Shangri-La Mall, Ortigas, in 2010.
After nearly a decade of educating the Filipino market on the finer wines of the world — specifically, the BBC (Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne) regions — Sia wanted to transform his new store into something special: a “Bordeaux Theme Park.”
He’s not kidding. The subdued, cool tones of the welcome area recall a French chateau, marked by cellar-like arches, a vineyard area with actual Paris vines and grapes (“planted,” though actually preserved); then there’s a huge video wall showing vineyard scenes from Bordeaux. “We sent a video crew to Provence just last month, during the harvest” to take the footage. “So while you’re enjoying the meal, you get to see how they harvest the grapes, make the wine.” Obviously, no detail is too small. In addition, Wine Story Uptown also serves a light menu of cheeses, charcuterie, vegetables, dips and other dishes to enjoy with your wine in the dining area. But lest we forget, the real attraction of Wine Story lies behind its speakeasy-like back passageway. Inside, enter the cavern of your dreams: there are racks of Margaux (2014, we hear, was such a good year that it’s quaffable already), a side room devoted to New World wines (mostly American), a back dining room that also doubles as the Wine Story Classroom — where you can take wine classes with the store’s WSET (Wine & Spirit Education Trust)-certified Wine Angels, knowledgeable about every bottle you see on rack. There’s a Private Cellar where Wine Story members can store up to a case of their selected wines in what seem like safety deposit boxes, chilled to a perfect 14-18°C at all times, to retrieve and uncork whenever the desire strikes you. (Not everyone has such a state-of-the-art wine storage facility at home, after all.)
Then, to make hearts skip a beat, there’s the Billionaire’s Wine room: “Most of the wines we sell, they can be everyday wines,” Sia tells us over lunch. “Then there are some that are higher up, they’re ‘every-other-day’ wines. And then, there are the ‘this is your lucky day’ wines.”
He must be referring to the large-format bottles (up to 18 liters) of Chateau Haut-Brion, Angelus Premier Grand Cru, and Pessac-Leognan from the Graves region of Bordeaux. Rare wines all, luxe and expensive, for sure; but it’s the 2014 Pétrus that fetches the highest bidders. “We just sold a bottle of Pétrus for P1.3 million,” Sia tells our table. Since Pétrus only puts out about 1,000 cases per year, Wine Story is very lucky to lay their hands on a case. Chateau Pétrus is very strict, though: only one bottle per customer. “This used to be Erap’s favorite — before he had to downgrade,” Sia notes.
Our lunch was specially prepared by Gaita Fores, a mix of earthy Italian mixed with Filipino touches, paired with lovely Wine Story bottles. We opened with butter tartlets with baked artichoke, Gaeta olives and Camembert, paired with a Thienot Brut Blanc de Blancs; we then had a smoked kesong puti flan with micro greens and edible flowers (awesome), followed by a bouillabaisse of Bohol white marlin, Bulacan river prawn, Capiz scallop and Negros blue crab (“gifts from the Philippine seas”); both were paired with a 2015 Ferran Blanc with hints of ripe lemons, pineapples and gentle spices.
The main was a duck breast “Alla Mangue” (mango) instead of the traditional l’orange; next to it was a plate of fresh Negros cinnamon bark, which we were encouraged to take a whiff of while eating; this was plump and juicy, paired with a red Fleur De Bouard 2014. We had Filipino and French cheeses after that, and ended with frozen sabayon with lava Philippine chocolate, paired with a fragrant, fruity 2013 Petit Guirard from Sia’s cellar.
The quippable Sia was in his element that day, sharing jokes and tips, praising his Wine Angels (“These guys are so good at drinking my wine!”), and taking us through the new cellar.
Wine Story has always had a different look from other rack-’em-up wine retail shops. “I wanted to copy the more the luxury brands, like Chanel, Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton, the way they just displayed their products like jewels,” he says.
It’s clear that initial spark — a nonfiction account of a single, prized bottle of wine — has led to a lot of acquired knowledge.
Sia knows which Bordeaux years were best (he can even tell you if the year of your birth was a “good” vintage, if you’re willing to divulge your age), and he’s happy that Bordeaux has updated its chateaus with better stainless steel vats, temperature controls, and “better hygiene,” resulting in a string of bodacious bounties. He even notes that climate change, for all its faults, has resulted in better growing conditions for Bordeaux, one of the biggest growing regions in the world with over 8,500 producers. “With climate change, Europe has gotten dryer, less rain, temperatures have gone higher, so they’re almost like Napa. They can make wine consistently good because the summers are hotter.”
Wine Story prides itself on perfect storage conditions. One other simple tip: always store wine lying flat, because the cork must remain wet; otherwise, it expands and contracts, leading to oxidation, “which turns the wine to vinegar.” Another tip: buy a great wine to celebrate a major milestone — the birth of your child, your wedding, etc. — but save it to open on a special anniversary marking it, 10 or 20 years later. “And then call me! I will come and join you!”
Sia notes that fine wines taste the best and the sweetest — when somebody else is paying for it. And, indeed, we definitely found this invite pretty sweet.
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Wine Story Uptown is at One Uptown Residences, 9th Ave cor. 36th Street, BGC.
