Uncorked festival to spotlight Australian wine in Singapore
From Barossa Grenache to Tasmanian Pinot Noir, Uncorked: Modern Australia brings 47 producers to Singapore to challenge what ends up on the wine list.
Clink Clink, the wine concierge arm of The Lo and Behold Group, is bringing in 47 Australian producers to Singapore this month for Uncorked: Modern Australia.
Running over the weekend of 22 to 24 May for consumers and trade alike, the three-day event is the second edition of Uncorked, following the success of last year’s inaugural Uncorked: Champagne, which generated strong industry and consumer response to prompt a second instalment.
This year, the attention shifts to modern Australia, referring to a new generation of producers working with greater restraint, prioritising freshness, site expression and varieties beyond Shiraz and Chardonnay that defined the country’s export identity. It is a story, Matthew Lamb, general manager, Clink Clink, argues, that remains poorly told, not just in Singapore, but in international markets at large.
“The Australian wine narrative has been dominated by large volume-driven producers, generally telling a single-page, monotone story,” says Lamb. “The wines and producers showcased (at Uncorked) here are the antithesis of that.”
Jam-packed schedule
The producers hail from across the country, from Margaret River to Tasmania. Held over the weekend, the program is structured to give the wines maximum exposure across contrasting formats, including a welcome party at Burnt Ends, pairing Australian wines with the restaurant’s signature wood-fired dishes, followed by a Grand Walkabout on Saturday and a Sunday lunch at Claudine restaurant, where producers dig into back vintages over a long lunch.
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A Grand Walkabout tasting at Cygnet, QT Hotel is the main draw, where over 200 wines will be on show. Each winery is represented in person by a winemaker or senior staff member; a point Lamb considers non-negotiable to the festival’s purpose.
These new-age producers remain unknown to consumers and underrepresented on Singapore and international wine lists. “It’s hard for sommeliers to put something together when they’ve never been shown the wines before. A large goal of the festival is to showcase a sliver of this ‘other side’ of what is being made beyond the ‘sunshine in a glass’ and big and burly wines of yesteryears,” he says.
From Margaret River to the Barossa Valley
Among the producers Lamb is most eager to showcase is Alkina from the Barossa Valley, whose Grenache he regards as emblematic of the shift away from the region’s Shiraz-dominant identity.” I believe that for warmer climates in South Australia, Grenache should be the championed variety, and the wines Alkina are producing lend credence to that claim, “he says.
From Margaret River, single-vineyard estate Windows Estate challenges the Gingin-clone orthodoxy that has long defined the region’s Chardonnay character, while from Tasmania’s Huon Valley, Sailor Seeks Horse has spent over a decade building what Lamb considers some of the country’s finest cool-climate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, in quantities, he concedes, that remain “incredibly scarce.”
Lamb is bringing in 1500 bottles in total across the three days. Sunday’s Cellar session at Claudine restaurant leans heavily on back vintages, vintage magnums on pour, stretching back fifteen years. At the Grand Walkabout, several producers will be pouring wines yet to be released even in Australia. Among them are Granjoux’s 2024 Chardonnay, Serrat’s 2025 range and Alkina’s new Fractures Grenache.
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