A luncheon with a wine connoisseur

A dapper Austrian with a suave demeanor, Andreas Rudd is every bit the hospitable prime executive you expect at Sheraton Imperial .Add to that his passion for wines and you have a man who is both charming and knowledgeable. We met up with him for lunch at the Villa Danielli to benefit from his experience in the hospitality industry as an erstwhile chef, a wine collector and now an expert who grooms sommeliers.

A lover of wines, he waxes effusive when asked about his particular favorite. “Barolo, the wine for the Kings and the King of wines!” he exclaims. He recommends Italian wines for the sensitive Malaysian palate, Barolo in particular; because they are light and crisp as opposed to the heavier French wines, coming from myriad microclimates and soils that also provide many variations in flavor and aroma. “I love my wine”, he says, “and intend to drink all that I collect”, he adds with a twinkle.

He talks at length about his experience at bidding online in order to acquire fine wines and the new program for sommelier training he has initiated at the hotel. For him the opinion on wines is subjective and he feels no need to impose it on others, “Each one of us will smell and taste different things in the same wine, and may or may not like what we experience.” When blind tasting, a taster can only comment on things like clarity, body, blend, alcohol content, taste and aroma. For example, a peach or apricot flavor would indicate a Chardonnay and a chocolate-like tang will spell a Sauvignon, but identifications could be fairly limited. Rarely can a taster identify the vintage of a particular wine from its bouquet alone.

In his experience, the awareness and the know-how about fine wines is now fairly common in Malaysian society; it has trickled in through those who travel extensively, through the internet and other mass media. Wine today has much more social acceptance as an accompaniment at meals than possibly a decade ago. The youth is catching up as well, though younger tastes veer considerably more towards higher sugar content.

When asked about his wine wish list, the loyal Barolo fan declares all the vintages of the brand as his clear favorite, closely followed by Chateau Margaux, Chateau Lafite , the Sauternes and the Australian Grange. All the good years of these wines are what he hopes would grace his table one of these days. A good year, he clarifies, is an year of good grape harvest resulting from sterling weather conditions, and is declared as such by the vineyard and by the government of the particular country.

For beginners at wine, Rudd recommends starting with whites of the new world, New Zealand South Africa and Australia; and then graduating to tasting the reds from the old world, to finally go on to the red vintages from the new world. This would provide a smooth experience from the single wines of Europe to the blended varieties from Australia.

One of the most important factors in enjoying the true attributes of a wine is how it is stored, and specifically at what temperature. He is saddened by the lack of good storage conditions in Malaysian households, where wines are often allowed to stand at room temperatures for prolonged periods. He laughs, “You gift somebody a bottle of fine wine, who opens it two years later after leaving it without chilling to find a vinegary liquid which smells as distasteful as it tastes. Not only does he hate you, but does not love the idea of drinking wines either”.

In most of Europe temperatures are low, as opposed to the tropical climate of our country, and keeping this in mind, wines should be stored in suitably chilled environments, and monitored for age. A wine blooms to maturity a particular number of years after being bottled, and degenerates thereafter, so care should be taken that the wine is drunk at the right age, not very young, nor too old. Even after taking out of a refrigerator, a wine should be rested for a while before being drunk, as the flavors of the wine take time to emerge.

At Sheraton, they realize the importance of temperature, and the rarer wines are packed away in the cellar. The wines on display rest in suitably mellow temperatures and are served in Riedel crystals, which are ideal for bringing out all the characteristics of an excellent wine. For different wines like Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Shiraz and Cabernet, the goblets have different shapes.

All too soon, our discussion on wines winds up, and Rudd remarks, “Every meeting with me ought to be the last meeting of the day!”. We could not agree more, and the excellent white Sauvignon Blanc that kept discreetly filling our glasses was not our only consideration. For me, we came away with a few very useful tips, and an irrefutable piece of wine wisdom “Drink what you like, a bottle of a 2000 dollar wine is not worth it if it does not please your palate.”