16 November 2018
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The year-end festive season is a special time for Taste of Tradition’s executive director Emil Teo. “Christmas coincides with my birthday, so there’s always a family dinner and there’re always a few friends around,” he says. To celebrate, the avid host has whipped up a veritable feast, complete with homemade ham, roast turkey and Asian-style vegetables, a nod to his love for Peranakan cuisine.
Teo has picked out some choice tipples to complement the spread. “I don’t have a lot of wines at home, but I have a very large cellar in the office,” he chuckles. “We have about 500 to 1,000 different wines at any time.”
Wine importer and distributor Taste of Tradition imports more than 500 wines from 47 wineries in 11 countries with varying climates and offers refrigerated transport services and climate-controlled warehouse facilities in an unbroken cold chain. Since 1998, ToT has been a pioneer in cold chain logistics, which minimises damage and spoilage of wine shipments and preserves the provenance of every bottle.
Wine importer and distributor Taste of Tradition imports more than 500 wines from 47 wineries in 11 countries with varying climates and offers refrigerated transport services and climate-controlled warehouse facilities in an unbroken cold chain. Since 1998, ToT has been a pioneer in cold chain logistics, which minimises damage and spoilage of wine shipments and preserves the provenance of every bottle.
Meeting and developing relationships with prominent wine makers like Pierre Perrin of Famille Perrin and Vincent Avril of Clos de Papes deepened Teo’s appreciation of wine and the labour of love that goes into each bottle.
“We all know that heat damages wine and influences the flavours and perfume, so if you’re dealing with high-end wines, you really have to be dealing in cold chain,” says Teo. “Flipping that argument around, if you’re dealing with wines of good value, then they would need the cold chain all the more.” With that conviction, he made the decision to ship all wines in cold chain, even though the logistics process was costlier.
“Maybe foolishly, I am more concerned about quality than I am about the economics of the business. Delivering quality to my clients is very important.”
“We all know that heat damages wine and influences the flavours and perfume, so if you’re dealing with high-end wines, you really have to be dealing in cold chain,” says Teo. “Flipping that argument around, if you’re dealing with wines of good value, then they would need the cold chain all the more.” With that conviction, he made the decision to ship all wines in cold chain, even though the logistics process was costlier.
“Maybe foolishly, I am more concerned about quality than I am about the economics of the business. Delivering quality to my clients is very important.”
