Thailand does actually have a wine industry, centred around Chang Mai (well it looks like that’s where it is on the map on the website I found) but none of the wines at our Thai wine tasting were Thai. However, the heat and food was, so it promised to be an interesting night. The tasting had been arranged by a company called Source Creative, if you work in the advertising industry look them up. Our hosts were the irrepressible Lee and Nicki. And ‘we’ were a lucky few advertising professionals who had been invited to judge at AdFest, a wonderful show that celebrates the best in Asian creativity.

An ice cold beer is the natural beverage of these parts. It goes with the heat and the food, some prefer a G&T, arguably better given its antimalarial attributes, but here we were drinking wine. Red wine. And big muscly ones at that.

We were told what varieties were coming up and which countries were represented. We had to identify the correct ones and where they came from. Which sounds easy. But it wasn’t. Out of 80 people only two got it right.

The varieties: Pinotage, Pinot Noir, Syrah/Grenache, Zinfandel, Shiraz

The countries: France, New Zealand, Australia, USA, South Africa

If you know your grapes and your regions you’ll be thinking ‘too easy’! Pinotage is South African and Zinfandel is California (and both are the same variety). Syrah/Grenache has to be France, Shiraz has to be Australia and then your Pinot, by default, is from NZ.

But which one is which?

First up was the Pinot, which was an easy pick – strawberries and soft tannins etc and given the most likely home for this was NZ I went with NZ.

Next was trickier. An explosion of fruit without those chocolate and violet notes, it reminded me of a Grenache tasting I went to recently. So it had to be Syrah/Grenache which had to be France! This was easy!

Until the third one came along. Weird. Reminded me of a drink called Dandelion and Burdock, which used to exist in the UK. Hopefully no more. Big and medicinal like some rugby playing doctor. I had no idea what it was. All I knew was that I didn’t want another glass. I decided it had to be Pinotage from South Africa and went back to the second wine to recover from the shock.

The fourth wine was tricky too. I’d decided that Shiraz should be last in the line up, but this had some very nice Shiraz-like qualities you get from some Australian wines. I wasn’t sure, but I went with Aussie Shiraz (Hunter).

When the fifth rocked up I was horribly confused and just a bit pissed. Was this the Pinotage? Zinfandel or Shiraz? Were 4 and 5 wrong? I needed a beer so I went with the only one I hadn’t included – Zinfandel from California – and went to the bar.

We did the ‘sit down if you are wrong’ thing and in a couple of rounds I was on my chair, beer in hand, waiting for the outcome. This was the true order:

• Pinot Noir, Sileni, Satyr Hawke’s Bay, Marlborough, NZ
• Chapoutier, Les Vignes de Bila-Haut, France
• Zinfandel, Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi, California, USA
• Pinotage, Nederberg, Winemaster’s Reserve, South Africa
• Shiraz, Domaine Chandon, Heathcote, Australia

It was a cunning tasting. I defend myself by saying the Shiraz was one of those vegetal ones you don’t get very often in Australia. I apologise to South Africa and swear never to go near a Californian Zinfandel again.

And congratulations to the two true palates, one of which was our irrepressible Chairman of Judges.

On a different note I took a bottle of De Bortoli Estate Grown Yarra Valley Chardonnay to a mate’s the other night. He said it reminded him of a 2003 Mount Mary Chardonnay he’d had recently. Praise indeed and it’s just $21.90 in six from Dan Murphy’s.