IT indicates the degree of development and maturity of the wine culture here that the question asked today is more often: "What shall we drink at dinner tonight?" rather than "Shall we drink wine at dinner tonight?" It has been a gradual maturing, which I think began in the late nineties, gathering speed since the turn of the century.

Growing up in colonial Singapore, my wining and dining practices were naturally influenced by Western, basically British, colonial culture. The British brought with them to Singapore Scotch whisky (naturally!), gin, cognac, port, champagne and French red and white wines. And British dining culture. For readers too young to know what that means, it meant that the evening would generally begin with cocktails, or brandy or whisky with soda, or the ubiquitous gin and tonic, champagne being considered a great luxury and reserved for very special occasions, eg birthdays or weddings. Dinner would then begin with a sherry, usually a dry amontillado to accompany the soup, almost de rigeur. This was followed by a white, a burgundy generally, with the seafood. A red, usually Bordeaux, would be standard practice with the main (usually beef or lamb) course.

The next and very civilised custom would be the after-dinner practice of retiring to the library for port with cigars or cigarettes while the ladies retired to the dressing room to repair their make-up. Standard English culture; all by the book. Boring? Not really at the time. For us natives, rank amateurs, all this dining culture was totally foreign, but very useful and stands us in good stead when travelling in Europe.