Having some wine in a food court

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ALICIA A. HERRERA

Choose a reasonably priced glass at World Cellar inside Gateway’s upscale World Kitchen

WHILE we’ve written before about how much fun we’d had at Araneta City’s World Kitchens, which opened last year, a new addition to the “fancy food court” makes the trip to Cubao a bit more exciting.

Enter World Cellar, which opened in January this year, where diners can choose from about 400 available wines, either by the glass or by the bottle.

Food columnist and consultant for World Cellar CJ Juntereal told BusinessWorld at a pairing lunch on April 24 about how World Cellar went about selecting these 400 wines, more than there are days in a year. Aside from a division in price tiers (more on that later), she said, “We wanted a representation of all wine regions. All grapes; as many grapes as we could do.

“The wines are a mixture of large established wineries and smaller boutique wineries,” she said. We saw some wines from established Old World estates, from Spain and France, but then she pointed out, for example, the presence of bottles by female winemakers. There are also wines from Japan and Israel. “These are the new wine regions,” she said of those countries.

“It’s just a range of interesting wines: safe choices, and choices that you can discover,” she said of the cellar’s offerings.

WINE PAIRING OVER LUNCH
Part of the joy of dining at World Kitchens is the large amount of food choices (https://tinyurl.com/yb6cah48). Since it is still part of World Kitchens even though it is physically separated from it, we ordered dishes freely from the establishments outside the (climate-controlled at 18°C to 20°C) cellar to pair with the wines.

The wines we had for lunch were chosen by their in-house sommelier, Benedict Tan. Just in his 20s, he has a Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) level 3 certificate in wines. After hearing our choices for lunch (which mostly veered Asian), he picked out a Clos de Centenaires Art 2020, and a Les Pensees de Pallus Chinon 2019. He said that the wine choices he made were centered on right levels of acidity and a certain level of minerality, to complement the rich appetizers and the sweetish mains.

Here’s what we had: the Clos was paired with the Otoro Rolls from Kuro Maguro. The fresh, juicy, mineral scent of the Clos cut through the very fatty and thick tuna belly. We also had tuna sashimi, a leaner cut compared to the otoro. With the Clos, the tuna was given some spice and liveliness.

We also had Chinese selections from 18 Jade and HK Ma, as well as the Beef Cheeks Adobo from Chef Jessie’s. These we paired with the Chinon. The Chinon had a very tannic-forward scent, smelling almost like tea, and made our mouth water. With the adobo, it added some spice but cut through the fat and the gelatin. With a ubiquitous Sweet and Sour Pork, the wine added some gravitas. For Prawn Noodles from HK Ma, it added some liveliness to the seafood and starch.

A surprising dish from 18 Jade was deep-fried eggplant served with pork floss and, get this: condensed milk. It’s a confusing dish that surprisingly works, balancing all the tastes with texture. This must have been a challenge to find a pairing for, but the Chinon added a fruitiness that was welcome.

REASONABLY PRICED
The wines have a surprising markup: the most affordable ones in their selection are priced at P800 a bottle, which Ms. Juntereal estimates would cost about P2,500 somewhere else. Wines by the glass start at P200. The explanation is delightfully elegant: this is a pet project of Jorge Araneta, the Araneta Group’s chair, and bon vivant.

Of course, they have other choices for the more discerning buyer: we saw bottles going up to P30,000, from his personal collection on site. One section of World Cellar is devoted to his collection, which you might be able to tour if you ask nicely (and promise to keep your elbows in check).

“Mr. Araneta wants to build a wine culture here,” said Ms. Juntereal. “He wants to introduce wine to more people.”

For a lot of people there are two big barriers to drinking wine, said Ms. Juntereal. “One, the price. Two, it’s seen as something difficult, complicated, or kind of snobby and sosyal. We want to take that away,” she said. “The price barrier is gone.”

WINE CLASS
Not only is the price barrier lowered, World Cellar is promoting the joy of drinking wine through education.

Every Friday from 6 to 7:30 p.m., Mr. Tan holds a wine class called Wine 101. The guided tasting costs P999 per person. “By making wine education accessible and engaging, the program encourages a broader audience to appreciate the craftsmanship, stories, and traditions behind every bottle,” says a statement from the cellar.

As limited slots are available per session, interested parties ought to register in advance via https://qrco.de/wine101atWK or via the QR code on the official social media pages of World Kitchens.

World Cellar is located inside World Kitchens, at Level 4 of Gateway Mall 2 in Araneta City, Cubao, Quezon City. For inquiries and reservations, contact 0918-939-4537 or e-mail wk.reservations.aranetagrp@gmail.com. — Joseph L. Garcia