Chris Milliken, co-founder of Pengwine, does not mince words.
“As much as the rise of smartphones and other digital platforms give us easy access to information, at the end of the day, reading about a particular bottle of wine is definitely not the same as holding the glass and actually tasting it,” he declares.
“That is why I feel the biggest gap [in consumer’s knowledge of wine] would be the lack of hands-on exposure or infrequent consumption of wine that leads to little or no knowledge about wine.”
Chris knows what he’s talking about. He was trained as a chef at the Pennsylvania Institute of Culinary Arts (now the Art Institute of Pittsburgh). From working with food, he was exposed to different ingredients and cuisines, developing his palate and sense of smell.
Yet, he decided that his true passion was in wine. He trained in Melbourne as a sommelier, then learned to make wine from the ground-up in the Yarra Valley. During this time, he worked 12 hours days in the cellars at Domaine Chandon, honing his craft.
In 2004, Chris and business partner Max Eyzaguirre started PengWine.
A Penguin is Born
Eschewing the proud proclamations of Chateaus, Villas and Casas that dominate the wine industry, Chris and Max chose to name their wines after the penguins that make their home along the Chilean coast- as a tribute to the adventures of winemaking.
Pengwine started with a humble 2,500 cases in their first run. Today, it produces 8000 cases a year, and exports it around the world, including Singapore and the rest of Southeast Asia. Yet there is room to keep going, yet.
Chris speaks about Pengwine’s greatest challenge as a wine company:
“As the wine industry is a micro niche area, being able to export and trying to reach out to as many regions as possible is a great challenge. On the other hand, we have faced this challenge head on and have now managed to reach various parts of the United States. And since we are based in Singapore, we have made an impact in Asia, especially markets including Singapore, Jakarta and China. We are continuing to expand our presence in APAC right now.”
The Bounty of the Earth
The PengWine vineyard unfolds like a blossom in the expanses of the Maipo Valley, an important wine-producing region in Chile. There, popular old world wine varietals are grown, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.
Of particular note are the ancient Carménère grapes, long thought lost as French vineyards successively lost crops to the Phylloxera aphid and gradually abandoned it entirely.
Fortunately for posterity, in 1994, the herbal-flavoured grape was rediscovered in Chile, having been mistaken for Merlot. The South American nation has since become the world’s main source of Carménère wines.
Despite its suitability for growing wine grapes, Chile suffers from its relative isolation. Bordered by the Atacama Desert, the Pacific and the Andes Mountains, it seems like an odd choice for a winemaker looking to export his wares. Yet, despite this, the wines industry of Chile has boomed. This is due, in no small part, to its spectacular terroir.
Location, Location, Location
The concept of Terroir is a familiar one to wine aficionados. It is a location’s unique combination of the soil, weather and climates, which has great effects on flavour of wine produced there. That is part of the reason why wines from some vineyards taste better than even their neighbours’, even if the same winemaking techniques are used. This also gives rise to the myth that old world wines are better than those of the new world – purely due to superior terroir.
Chris is quick to debunk that notion:
“Terroir is indeed important but it is not only the old names or old world regions that are privy to the best terroir. Chile has such rich terroir that the carrots and corn are larger than my forearms and the kiwis are larger than my fist!”
That, of course, is a large part of Chile’s success in producing great wines- at very reasonable prices. It’s not all about location, however.
Chris elucidates:
“My greatest challenge [as a winemaker] would probably be breaking down stereotypes and pre-conceived notions of wine from different countries. There’s so much more to just the country of origin, people simply need to try them to believe.”
Nothing but the Truth
Authenticity, too, has become an issue in the wine industry, and consumers should buy wine from credible and established wine shops and wine companies.
Chris explains:
There are a couple of unethical practices that I have heard that are practised and this leads to a push for better labelling. Consumers should be wary of un-mentioned additives for flavour enhancement. Some producers practise adding wood dust or wood chips into the wine for it to soak up the oak flavour to simulate the aroma of wine aged in oak barrels. Much of these wine never sees the inside of a real oak barrel.
Chris is as authentic as his wine. He recently published a book entitled “‘White or Red, It’s All in Your Head”, wherein he offers practical advice on winemaking, buying and drinking- and exposes common misconceptions and malpractices in the wine industry.
It’s not just the wine producers who succumb to temptation. however. Counterfeiting and misrepresentation by crooks have become a serious problem for legitimate winemakers. It is said that there were more bottles of Chateau Lafite Rothschilde sold in China than were ever produced! The consumers, too, suffer. It is bad enough to be cheated of hard-earned coin, but imagine drinking fake wine filled with toxic additives!
To tackle this problem, PengWine has introduced the PengWine Ambassador Program. Under the program, each PengWine bottle is now individually numbered and has a unique code. Consumers can scan the barcode of a Pengwine bottle with a smartphone app called AuthenticateIt, verify its authenticity and get tasting notes and other product information. Sommeliers can become “Ambassadors”, using the app to access additional information and exclusive benefits like wine workshops.
Chris intimates some future plans for the program. “We aim to encourage other wine brands to adapt the same technology….Coming up next, we have further enhancements being built on this app to create a closer (trade and consumer) community.”
Not Bland at all
Chilean wines often sport a single grape varietal on the label, but the art of blending different grape varietals into expressions of wine has been practised in France for centuries; most Bordeaux wines are indeed blends. However, the flavour of your favourite Grand Cru comes from more than the sum of its parts, and is achieved by balancing and contrasting the components against each other in the right proportions
Chris draws upon his culinary experience when describing the process. “There are many factors influencing wine production so the choice of grapes and the percentage of each grape varietal in a blend also make all the difference – just like how different chefs produce different results even when they are presenting the same dish to the diner.”
With the secret to success being in the blend, winemakers are unsurprisingly coy when it comes to sharing information about them. Pengwine, however is transparent. Information on all 8 different blends of Pengwines, down to the proportions of the wines and time of the grape harvest, is available on their website.
The Wine Itself…
We had the good fortune to try some of these wines, at Chris’s invitation.
The overall quality of the entire range is high, especially given the very reasonable asking price.
I was particularly impressed with the King. The herbal notes were a refreshing counterpoint to the berry flavours, and somewhat uncommon to our palates. I’d suggest the Rockhopper for the best value for money; it offers good breadth and depth for under $50.
…And How to Drink it.
How best to enjoy the wines? I’d suggest pairing them with food, so that they can act as foils to each others’ texture and flavour. With increasing drinker sophistication, local interest in wine pairings has increased. As a resident of Singapore himself, Chris enjoys pairing local fare with wine.
“I personally enjoy how Carménère and Malbec compliment so many local dishes,” he says. “They can both handle a bit of spice and they have the right finish too. I do like a good Riesling from the old world with really spicy Thai or Indian dishes.”
We can’t help but agree. We foresee drinking a lot of this Chilean wonder with our favourite local delights in the near future.
If you’re interested in getting some Pengwine, it’s available in leading restaurants such as Pollen, Wooloomooloo Steakhouse and Salt grill & Sky bar. Alternatively, you can click here to order online.
