District 10 - Ambience To Chill

District 10
Suntec City Mall
Central, Singapore
September 2015

The countertop in District 10 is a showcase of all things butchery. And seems like a movie set straight out of the movie Saw. Its bespoke butcher's block is cleaver-ready for any hungry customer's specific request.

Watch out! The saw with its sharp edges longer than your arm's length hangs by the side...

You could really imagine these lights fizzling out any time!

That looks like one nasty cleaver! Careful with the neck...


Bad reviewers will be quartered and weighed...

Well... that is until you realize that the owners and staff here are really fun people!

Here's resident chef, Luca Pezzera, with a huge smile, and owner, Serena there with the rest of us enjoying the light-hearted atmosphere...

Wines

To perfectly balance its dry-aged meat concept, District 10 brings in a wide selection of the finest reds and whites, including Zonin Wines hailing from vineyards in north-east Italy. Founded almost 200 years ago, the Zonin family vineyard has its roots in Gambellara, a wine growing region in the heart of Veneto. The house produces a wide range of wines, many of them from varieties native to the regions in which the grapes are grown.

A welcome to the event by Francesco, with his baby pink suit...

To start off the evening, the Zonin Prosecco, a sparkling white was served. Deriving its name forom a little hillside town near Trieste, the must is split into two batches - half of which undergoes an initial fermentation, while the remaining half stored as unfermented must. Unlike the traditional fermentation, whereby the second fermentation happens in bottle, the house uses the Charmat Method where the second fermentation takes place in a large closed pressure tank.

The result is a pale, straw yellow sparkling wine with subtle green hues. Merlion Wayfarer especially likes the pleasing fruity notes with an aromatic citrus finish.

While sampling the reds, the fascinating story about the origin of the Black Rooster for the Chianti wines was shared.

In Medieval times, Florence and Siena went through many bloody battles over who should rule the hills of Chianti. In fact, so much blood was shed that they finally decided to settle this once and for all, and came up with a rather unique way of doing it. They decided that two horsemen should depart at the same time from Siena and Florence and travel towards each other. Where the horsemen met the borders would be drawn. As it was a challenge to synchronize the start off times, unlike in modern days, they decided that the crow of a rooster would define the departure time in each city. 

The Sienesi chose a white rooster and fed him well the night before, hoping that a well-fed rooster would crow with more determination and strength. The Florentines, instead, chose a black rooster and kept the poor bird hungry - hoping that a hungry rooster would get up and crow earlier. Indeed, the Florentines were right. Their rooster was up well before dawn crowing desperately in demand of food and their horseman started riding much before Siena's horseman.

The Florentine horseman made it to almost 12 kilometres outside the Siena walls before he was met by his counterpart. This claimed, practically, all of Chianti for Florence and established the black rooster as symbol of Chianti up to this day.

Fermentation is allowed to progress until the wine has obtained 7% alcohol. To preserve the grape's natural sugar content, refrigeration is used to give the wine its unique sweet and fragrant characteristics. A golden wine results, with intense scents of peaches and exotic fruits.

Top off the evening with a Cafe Latte - 

Served with full-bodied beans and a double-shot espresso base...