The most anticipated party of the year, and there are many, has to be The Frenchmen Climax party-held annually at the Caymanas Golf Club on New Year’s Day. Young and old, residents and visitors to our shores start to roll into the well- laid-out, elegantly designed venue at 4:00 pm sharp in order to soak in the full musical and culinary experience that this party has become known to deliver.

More opting for wine

For many years I have been a volunteer at the wine bar, whoever the sponsoring wine purveyor might be (I consider myself to be an equal opportunity wine enthusiast), mainly to get the pulse of this section of the wine-drinking public. What’s for sure, is that there are many more people choosing wine as their drink of choice than ever before. I have never seen the wine bar so crowded.

Best wine list

This year, wine support was provided by import/distributor Select Brands and they offered patrons what has got to be the biggest wine list of any party in Jamaica. Twenty-two wines were on offer at the Select Brands Wine Bar from eight wine-producing regions in Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa and the USA. The 10 red wines were Alamos Malbec, Catena Malbec, Banrock Station Shiraz, Robert Mondavi Private Selection Pinot Noir, Moncaro Cabernet-Sangiovese, Firriato Chiaramonte – Nero D’Avola, Marchesi di Barolo Barbera D’Alba, Chapoutier Cotes du Rhone, Lamothe Parrot Sweet Red and a Hardys Merlot. The 10 white/rosé wines were Hardys Pink Moscato, Banrock Station Moscato, Pasqua Pinot Grigio Rose, Fiordaliso Pinot Grigio, Ruffino Orvieto, Moncaro Trebbiano Chardonnay, Santa Rita Chardonnay, Fat Bastard Chardonnay, Monkey Bay Sauvignon Blanc and Bains Way Chenin Blanc. We poured two sparkling wines, the Sperone Moscato Rosé from Italy and Jean Dorsène Sparkling Wine from France rounded out the offering. Heck, the wine list at this party was better than what most restaurants in Jamaica are offering.

Further Observations…

Most of the patrons were asking for wines by varietal. In years gone by the request was for simply a “red” or a “white”. This year people came asking for Moscato … lots and lots of Moscato. There were many requests for sparkling wines; they actually asked for Champagne, however, I gave up after several attempts to explain that we had a sparkler from France (a Crémant) – most shrugged their shoulders and they happily enjoyed the Jean Dorsène Sparkling Wine for the rest of the night. Other popular requests were for Pinot Grigio, Merlot and Malbec.

Most want sweet wines – Did I mention the many requests for Moscato?

Patrons were willing to experiment – A few patrons surprised me with very specific description of the wine they liked and were willing to try something new. After rattling through the list of red wines, one person raised his eyebrows when I mentioned Nero D’Avola, selected that as the wine for the night and wanted to hide a bottle to ensure it did not run out. I introduced a number of people to one of my favourites from Italy, the simple white wine – Orvieto, they loved it.

The wine consumption market is changing and I am not sure that many of the stakeholders, especially restaurateurs, in the business realise this.

To your Success in 2015!

Christopher Reckord – Entrepreneur & Wine Enthusiast. Send your questions and comments to creckord@gmail.com. Instagram: @chrisreckord Twitter: @Reckord