Author: Nick Pan

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#nickpandrinks Red Wines in Singapore

Follow my adventures on Instagram with #nickpandrinks

Yes, I really like my aromatic full-bodied red wines and I also enjoy many other varietals, but most importantly it’s the time I get to spend with my friends and family around the table, just having a fun relaxing time over good conversation and company.

A typical weekend evening at Thepans

It’s common to see my feed with a record of the bottles we had for the night as I do like to remember what we had. Although I’ve got a Vivino account, nothing beats laying them out, tagging the vineyards and getting their kudos in the comments. ;)

I’ve never been a wine guy before 2015, so how did it all start you might wonder.

It started at a restaurant at Esplanade called Barossa I think around 2014. We were having a steak or wine buffet of sorts. My dear friend Desmond Khoh explained the dynamic chemistry that happens in your mouth when you have a bite of warm juicy beef and a sip of chilled red wine. It was magical and I was hooked. I’m still chasing for that wonderful feeling week after week till this day.

After that day, I started buying wines and was introduced to a few good bottles. They say that every wine lover have a few memorable first bottles that got them hooked and I’ve got 3. They all happen to be your big bold Australian reds.

The Standish Shiraz, Langmeil The Freedom 1843 Shiraz, Rockford Basket Press Shiraz

And yes, sometimes I buy them in cases because they are so so good.

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End of 2018, I hosted a blind tasting night with my wine friends and everyone brought a good bottle (> SGD 80) and we tried them all out slowly with 8 decanters out in force.

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We scored them based on individual preferences, favourite bottle gets 3pts, then 2nd best gets 2pts and 3rd best got 1pt. After tabulating the points, these were the results.

  1. Australian Basket Press Rockford Shiraz 2010
  2. Italian Proprieta Sperino ‘L Franc Bandit Vino da Tavola 2010
  3. California The Prisoner Saldo Zinfadel 2016
  4. French Château Langoa-Barton Saint-Julien (Grand Cru Classé) 2009
  5. Italian Le Salette Pergole Vece Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 2012
  6. French Château Gazin L’Hospitalet de Gazin Pomerol 2005
  7. French E. Guigal Côtes du Rhône Blanc 2014
  8. French Château Plince Pomerol 2013

It was a great epic night. And I found a good use for our SAF army issued socks.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpJ5QBOh_Ce/

Ever since then, we are having more of such sessions. We had a “The Americas” night and “Australian” night, soon we will be doing the “Italian” night before venturing into French.

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The Americas Night of Feb 2020
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9Jm9yKHoP8/
Australian Night of Feb 2020
Our planned Italian Night after it is safe to gather when COVID-19 stabilises

I’m also starting to train my daughter how to appreciate wine and being a teen, she do like the sweet ones. She can now do 5 – 7 serves, not bad. But we only do that during Christmas or Chinese New year big parties.

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Gotta train daughters to know wine and how to control.
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Blessed weekends by the wife.

So the natural question people ask me is which wine is good and where to buy good wine. I’m honestly no expert, just an enthusiast at best, but let me try to answer the best as I can.

Good Wine really depends on what you like. Some like light wines like your Pinot Noir, Merlot and some like full-bodied like your Malbec, Shiraz / Syrah, CDP (Châteauneuf-du-Pape). Some like them sweet, some like them dry. Some like them with food, some like them for fun. So you need to first drink enough different types of wine in order to know what you like. You might want to try reading up as well. I would recommend checking out Wine Folly which is a very easy read and lots of information for reference, you can also check out their website winefolly.com and Instagram account @winefolly. Another nice book I got was Wine it’s not rocket science. Maybe go region by region? My journey so far have been Australian with a mix of South American then lots and lots of Italian then now French, I’ve yet to really dive into Americans, Spanish, Portuguese and South African which I’m also very interested in.

Now, where then do you buy good wine? This is a tricky one as buying a good bottle is a bit like a hunt. You got to find them, check out their ratings and description, buy them to try them, then will you know if you found a good bottle, then find a supplier that can get you the best possible price and in cases of 6 or 12 if you really like them. A good bottle does not mean expensive, good value is also important. I do have friends with exquisite tastes ordering bottles below SGD 30 by cases because they are of good value, while others camp on online stores to wait for sales of bottles that go for SGD 90. I personally shop between SGD 50 – SGD 100 for regular drinking and good deals < SGD 150 and some really legendary bottles with great vintage to keep if they are < $400.

How then do you do research on wines? I use the Vivino app to check ratings and details of the bottles. Just keep in mind that reviews and ratings are subjective, however the number of ratings do give you a sense of how popular or widely available the wine is. To maintain a > 4.0 rating over 200 ratings I think should be quite a good bottle. Also I use wine-searcher.com to find which merchants sell a specific wine I’m looking for. Do you know there are more than 140 over wine merchants in Singapore!! Another great resource is jancisrobinson.com (paid resource) which a dear friend Robby swears by as well. You can also join Facebook Groups like Wine Loves in Singapore to get to know more people and many of them always share lots of promos.

Anyway, here are a few places I do buy wine from:

If you buy wine from somewhere else, do let me know where and what good stuff you’ve found.

Anyway, I really would love to connect with more wine lovers in Singapore online and hence created this new Facebook Group called “Little Red Drop“. A strictly non commercial group to discuss about wine and make friends in Singapore who love wine . It is NOT about sales, promos or anything commercial.

Little Red Drop Facebook Group Est. 2020

Also did a bit of an experiment just recently to try an automatically pipe wine email newsletters and promos I get tp be published in a purpose build Facebook Page which I’m calling “Singapore Wine Mailing Lists” what a boring name I know, but its for a specific function and not a place to make friends.

Singapore Wine Mailing List Facebook Page

Anyway, as of right now I think I’ve went kinda crazy with buying good wines to keep after realising how much good bottles of great vintage (eg. 2016 French) appreciates, so better buy now and keep so can enjoy in the future.

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I hope this post helps you along in your wine adventures and if you got any questions or would love to chat about wine or just get to know more people who are into wine, join us over at the Little Red Drop on Facebook.

Cheers.

Updated: 8 May 2020

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Electric Dreams and the Arrival of Vans from the Future

Photo: Arrival

These electric vans by Arrival are just too pretty and I can’t wait for the future of Electric Vans and Cars to be mainstream here in Singapore.

We all know burning fossil fuels is killing our planet and its affecting our global climate so much that its no longer funny. 2019 poised to be a really hot year in Singapore and February was already one of the hottest in 90 years. Reports have also shown that maximum temperatures in Singapore’s cool months rising faster than warmer months.

On 15 March, kids from more than 112 countries skipped school in protest of climate change and all they hope for is action by adults who are going to leave this only planet we have behind for them. If you don’t know how serious this, please spend sometime to hear Jeremy Rifkin talk about the The Third Industrial Revolution: A Radical New Sharing Economy on Vice. I’ve seen it 3 times over and it has fundamentally changed my world view.

To motivate myself towards a more sustainable future especially in terms of transportation, here are a few more beautiful pictures of Electric Vans by Arrival which will be adopted by the the Royal Mail in UK and UPS in London and Paris.

Photo: Arrival
Photo: Arrival
Photo: UPS

Too beautiful right? And knowing that they have zero emissions makes them even more beautiful.

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OED. an Update to OCD.

Photo by Samuel Zeller on Unsplash

“Oh man, you’re such an OCD…” such phrases are common and it’s usually with a grin and sometimes a little chuckle especially to those who have to align every single stationary on their desk or that magazine on the coffee table at the café.

But I think the phrase is wrongly used and it’s time to update it. OCD is a mental disorder, nothing laugh about.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder in which people have recurring, unwanted thoughts, ideas or sensations (obsessions) that make them feel driven to do something repetitively (compulsions). These include unwanted thoughts or images of harming loved ones, persistent doubts that one has not locked doors or switched off electrical appliances, and intrusive thoughts of being contaminated, etc. OCD can significantly interfere with a person’s daily activities and social interactions.

In a recent mental health study (SMHS 2016) shows that one in 28 people suffer from OCD and more than three-quarters don’t seek any professional help. It’s a serious thing and I don’t think we should use the term loosely and it’s surely not a laughing matter.

I’ve for the longest time held to the belief that “if you are not at least a little OCD, then you don’t care enough” so I fully embrace my OCD in the professional sense. However every time after saying it, I feel it’s not absolutely accurate as what I’m trying to say is not actually a disorder or bad and instead it should be encouraged.

It’s inaccurate. It needs an update. Wrong use of OCD needs to be changed to OED.

Obsessive Excellence Desire (OED) is an attitude, virtue and outlook in life in which people have constant, unavoidable observations, irritations (obsessive) that make them feel things that aren’t done well needs, can and should be improved (excellence). This pursuit of intentional care and desire of betterment is done with the desire to improve. OED is not crippling and inefficient, but productive, effective and significantly improves the output quality of everything a person does on a regular basis.

So next time someone tells you “Oh man that’s OED…”, reply “Thanks Babe…”.

ps: yes, i’ve given a fair bit of thought on the acronym to make sure it rolls of the tongue easily.

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I can’t call you “Bro”

Photo by Isabella Jusková on Unsplash

I need to get this out as I have an issue with saying the word “Bro”.

I don’t use the phrase “Bro” when addressing guys, especially to those whom I’m super close to. I just simply can’t bring myself to say it. I can say “I love you” to them (sparingly), but I just can’t call them bro. I simply can’t. I don’t even call my real brothers “bro”.

Somehow, “I love you” is not difficult to say because in my mind it’s how I should treat everyone. Showing love to another is like going above and beyond to help others. To support them, to outpour, to give. But “bro” comes along with so much more texture, meaning and mutual expectations in my mind.

To me, “Bro” is way too intimate. It’s a phrase that agrees to fully expose yourself to one another. To have no secrets. To share all unfiltered thoughts, not judge, to be there for the other with no strings attached. To take on long term responsibilities and become even more than family. I don’t think I can. It’s too big a step for me.

So for those who do call me “Bro”, don’t worry, I know you don’t overthink like me, but I just want you to know that I can’t call you “Bro” back.

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Put everything you are into everything you do

Katelyn Ohashi is my current favourite Gymnast
Yoojung Lee is my current favourite Dancer
If I Ain’t Got You cover by Scary Pockets featuring Kenton Chen is my current favourite Cover
Remy Kouakou Kouame is my current favourite Lindy Hop Dancer

Oh my oh my… :) we LIVE for things like that. The fun… the FUN so evident that it shows in faces. The smiles, the joy, the laughter lol… all real, all 100% lit, all bringing us to our happy places synonymous with celebration and orgasms.

We all desire to feel this high, this adrenaline, this unspeakable place that we want to always be in. No judgement, no boundaries, no stress, no nothing that we don’t like and every every everything that we love. With the people that we like doing the things that we love!!!

How? How do we sustainability be in this state when the expectation and reality gap is so real. There is work to do, there are expectations to be met, there are responsibilities, there are challenges, there is REAL LIFE. WORK LIFE! BILLS!

At my age, I’ve managed to come across quite a lot of people from many nationalities, ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. My conclusion is that we more or less all want the same thing. We want to love what we do with the majority of our time.

  • Some think being rich is the way to get there, so they pour their lives into their career and do what it takes to amass wealth for themselves.
  • Some think doing what they love is a personal indulgence, hence only pursue their passion in their free time or delay their desires to when they retire.
  • Some think their professional self and their personal self needs to be two seperate personas. A constant work life balance. The need to constantly balance the demands of the office and the home, the pay master and the self.

BOY OH BOY. Do I have news for you!

Best summarised by a mantra within our office “Put everything you are into everything you do”. Let me break it down.

“Put everything you are…”

Know who you are. What you like, your passions, your desires, your effortless self. The most comfortable version of yourself loving to do the things you like to do. The song you sing in the shower, the silly faces you do in the mirror, the lame jokes you tell your loved ones, the little funky celebration dance step in your home. WHEN are YOU most YOU? Now hold that thought… that YOU… NOW BRING IT!

“…into everything you do”

We all have the same amount of hours in a day and we all have many things to do. Work, Learn, Contribute, Family, Exercise, Eat, drink good Wine, Rest, Pray, Play, Party, Kiss and Make out and more… Is work the most important? Is family the most important?

That’s where I think most of us get tripped up. We separate our lives into these mutually exclusive bubbles and we try to balance work and life. We have these separate personas, with separate efforts, with different degree of who we truly are, we then try to play this tiring balancing game and we hate life.

Put everything you are into everything you do

Here is the good news buddy! There is only one YOU. There is only one NOW. There is only one HERE. So BRING that ONE YOU to the NOW, to the HERE! Put ALLLLLLL that YOUness of YOU into EVERY EVERY EVERY NOW HERE THING you do.

If you think like that, you will be like that and you will be you always always love every single second of life.