A life of wine

LOOK, N K Yong said to me as he flipped through the Visitors Book in the hallway of his Draycott apartment, circa early 80s. "Before, all my visitors were doctors, surgeons and professors. Now they are all winemakers, wine merchants and wine writers!" Then he let out a chuckle in that deep baritone familiar to those who knew him. It summed up the two halves of the life of Dr Yong Nen Khiong, better known as "N K" Yong.

The visitors book occupied a prominent position in his home back then, when he started having friends round for wine dinners. He called it the Draycott Wine Club. Among those invited was my father. I was nearing the end of my National Service and often tagged along before I went to university in the UK. The DWC dinners were a portal to another world - the world of fine wine.

One such dinner included Chateau Mission Haut Brion 1964 and Graham's 1927 - a legendary port vintage, which he proudly showed my father, as they were both born in that year (by another quirk, N K and I shared the same birthday). It was not unusual to come across such gems at N K's dinners, such was his zeal for collecting the finest and his generosity in sharing them.

Intellectual rigour

The alcoholic beverage of choice then, it must be remembered, was beer for everyday and cognac for special occasions (like weddings). Only a few expatriates drank wine. That wine is so ubiquitous in Singapore today is due in no small measure to N K Yong.

Firstly he educated himself about it, devouring the literature on the subject. One of the reference books of that era was Michael Broadbent's The Great Vintage Wine Book, a compilation of tasting notes on wines from across the decades. He had two copies at home, he once confided, one in his study and the other in the toilet. He applied the same intellectual rigour to wine as he must have done to medicine, achieving excellence in both fields

To supplement his book knowledge, he travelled extensively. He visited wineries, talked to wine makers, and tasted wines from cask (wines that were not yet bottled), to better understand how wines were made. Along the way he made friends and became a connoisseur.

And then he wrote about wine. Much of what qualified as wine writing then was journalism, as few had the opportunity to drink the better bottles on a regular basis. Robert Parker, the American lawyer who published unvarnished tasting notes in his Wine Advocate and - to the horror of the wine establishment - assigned a score to each one he tasted, revolutionised wine writing. While N K was not in the habit of publishing scores, he, like Parker, had the wherewithal to pay for the wines he tasted. As such he was not beholden to any winery or importer.

For three decades he contributed a weekly column to this newspaper. He wrote about specific wines, adding tasting notes for each, in simple, clear language which the layman could understand. We may not fully appreciate the value of this approach today, when all information is available online and there are bloggers aplenty. It was writers like N K who helped democratise wine knowledge.

He was instrumental in the celebrated Raffles food and wine events of the 1990s, bringing wine to a wider audience and putting Singapore on the F&B map. With his wife Melina, a talented chef, they demonstrated that Asian cuisine could be paired with fine wine, each one enhancing the other. They co-wrote and published a cookbook, Wine Dinners, in 2007.

With every year, his circle of acquaintances widened. I remember meeting at DWC the charming May-Eliane de Lenquesaing (Chateau Pichon Lalande), the courtly Thierry Manoncourt (Chateau Figeac), an ebullient Gerard Jaboulet (Paul Jaboulet), the patrician Egon Müller, and too many others to name. He gave encouragement to and demanded high standards of wine professionals, whether it was proper handling of wines by importers or the level of service by wine waiters.

Singular contribution

For his 80th and 90th birthdays, he organised huge birthday celebrations which were flawlessly planned and executed. He orchestrated wine auctions on those occasions, with winemaker friends donating treasured bottles from their private cellars and the sale proceeds going to charitable causes.

The wine career of N K Yong mirrors that of Singapore, which lifted itself from the third world to the first. Our current status as a vibrant global city with an outstanding food and wine culture would be unthinkable without the singular contribution of N K Yong.

• Whang Shang Ying is a director of Cellarmaster Wines, a wine importer in Singapore and Malaysia. He was president of the Oxford University Wine Circle in 1985-86.