Steve Mollman
August 21, 2006 12:00 AM EDT
As anyone who has drunk seriously with Japanese, Indian, South Korean or Taiwanese executives can aver, whisky doesn’t merely enjoy a healthy market across large swathes of Asia — it boasts armies of well-informed connoisseurs. Head south, however, and aficionados are thinner on the ground. The Islamic countries of Malaysia and Indonesia are hardly big-drinking nations (and when they do imbibe, the preferred drinks tend to be brandy and beer, respectively). Singapore, where average per capita alcohol consumption barely notches three liters a year, is not that much different — and yet it recently became home to a branch of La Maison du Whisky, an award-winning whisky stockist headquartered in Paris.
The new offshoot, tel: (65) 6733 0059, hopes to educate the Southeast Asian market — as well as provide succor to thirsty visitors and the area’s sprinkling of whisky fans — with its splendid selection of 700 premium blends and malts, housed in the new Pier complex at Robertson Quay. Selections range from simple blends (you can pick up a bottle of Murphy’s, the lightly malted Irish whisky, for $44) to fabled rarities (like a 55-year-old Benromach, priced at $4,600). Apart from labels from the established whisky-producing countries — Scotland, Ireland, the U.S. and Canada — unusual bottlings from relative newcomers like Japan, Australia and India also line the shelves. And if you can’t distinguish your Islay malts from your Speysides, no matter. La Maison du Whisky also offers courses on whisky appreciation and hosts whisky dinners. “Once your nose says yes, then you can taste it,” says manager Marlene Leon. That taste, whisky producers are hoping, will inspire more Southeast Asians to reach for their wallets.
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