A bottle of Penfolds Grange Shiraz 1953 is priced at $17,000 and on sale at our local liquor outlet

In the first week autumn which starts today, wine districts in Australia get very busy to be ready for wine festivals, which in Australia are many, supplying great wines and fun. Sydney jumped the gun and kicked off last weekend with the hugely popular and biggest wine event, aptly called Sydney Cellar Door, which allowed Sydneysiders to discover the wide range and the depth of winemaking in the state of New South Wales without leaving the city.
Like many Singaporeans, beer, not wine, is the beverage that calls out whether in restaurant or at home, though wine can be drunk with lunch and dinner, beer is often the best accompaniment for a Singaporean meal.Nevertheless, wine drinking in recent times has become popular with the younger and much travelled Singaporeans.

Singapore has traditionally imported its wines from France, Germany and Italy. And since signing free trade with many countries around the world, it has taken even more wines from the less well-known producing countries such as Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Greece and Chile.
Although much have been said about the rules on storing, serving and drinking by many wine connoisseurs, on how to treat wine and when to serve it to their best advantage, it is not set in stone and they can be changed to suit individual tastes.
I once heard someone’s remark “life is too short to drink cheap wine and money is too short to buy them”. It may be true, in a philosophical and economical sense. But the price of wine no longer reflects the quality of the product. For many Singaporeans, it was taken for granted that imported French wines would command the highest prices, but now many vineyards from well known districts in Australia command equally high prices. A bottle of Penfolds Grange Shiraz 1953 is priced at $17,000 and on sale at Dan Murphy our local liquor outlet. It is bottled by Australia's most famous winery, which began life with humble beginnings in the early 1950s and has become the icon it is today.
However, at the lower end of the scale are many palatable wines to be had at a moderate price. Just follow the advice of the wine merchant and anyone wishing to learn more about wine should sample as many as possible whenever there is a wine tasting offer at the store. If a good discount can be obtained on a case of new vintage release, it might turn out to be a sound investment.

Homebrew Chinese Rice Wine aka ang chow, ang chew recipe.

Chinese rice wine is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented glutinous rice and in general has a wide colour variations from an old port or dry Sherry to the clarity of a Japanese sake. But I've had a few requests for a homebrewed Chinese red rice wine recipe, commonly know as 'ang chiew',or ang chow in most Southern Chinese dialects. I do not know whether it is illegal to brew your own wine in Singapore but it is an opened secret among the older folks that this homebrew can be easily purchased from openly known moonshiners and stocked up in the pantry in preparation for the arrival of a child. It has always played a major role in the "confinement diet" of new mother, when it comes to the observation of the month long period of restrictions and food following the birth of a newborn. It is perhaps the oldest alcoholic beverage and hailed from generation to generation among the Chinese Singaporeans, so there's little that can be said with absolute authority to doubt the goodness of this home brew red rice wine. The only thing that always holds true with this home brew with my family is that it is simply delicious with my mother-in law's "ang chow mee sua" (Chinese red wine with chicken and wheat noodle). Many Singaporeans tend to associate ang chew with the vivid red colour they impart to the chicken noodle soup. I am sure that the red colour which is considered lucky to the Chinese, has made angchew mee sua a popular dish for the Chinese Year or birthday celebrations. But in my family, we'll find an excuse to have this delicious dish, anytime.

I don't have a set in stone recipe for my ang chow recipe, but I have to rely on my memory to retrieve the recipe my late mother-in-law left me. Since I was asked for one, I'll give it a shot, in my usual 'can do' fashion with cooking. I have only started this homebrew a week ago and would like to share my first attempt to moonshine this homemade samsu ( illegal brew) with you. Wish
me luck.

Ingredients

1.1kg glutinous rice
2. Two pieces of wine yeast cake (chew pia)
3. 90g red rice yeast "ang kark" (Monascus Purpureus),
4. 500cc. Boiled cool water.






Preparation :

Soak Glutinous rice for at least 8 hours. Drain and then steam the rice over a bamboo steamer lined with a piece of cheese cloth over boiling water for at least 30 minute or until rice is cooked. Spread the rice out on a tray and allow to cool for 3 hours. Blend ang-kark and chew pia together until powdery in a electric grinder.
Set aside a bowl for mixing the glutinous rice with the blended dry ingredients. Mix a generous amount of glutinous rice with some red powder ( blended ingredients ). Continue mixing till all are used up.
Store in a cool dark place for example, in your store room .One week later from the first day, pour the fermented ang chow into the white cloth bag allowing wine to filter through. And let ferment for as long as 2 months. When ready, dish out all the rice wine storing it in another clean bottle.
Tips: The wine yeast and the red rice yeast (monascus purpureus) can be purchased from many Asian grocery stores around Sydney.