Hawkes Bay & Wairarapa Wines get a special Commendation.

Singapore tastemaker Robin Greatbatch proprietor of the Blue Bali restaurant on the Botanic Gardens has declared himself an ardent promoter of New Zealand wines, especially those from Hawkes Bay and the Wairarapa Valley.

“These wines have the dual advantage of being perceived as premium, yet at the same time are affordable,” enthused Mr Greatbatch.

He is widely credited with introducing to the island city state Indonesian cuisine and presentation. His Blue Bali series of restaurants and bars is definingly positioned in a large colonial era administration building situated at No 1 Cluny Road.

With an East Africa background Mr Greatbatch (seen brandishing Gladstone Vineyard and Sileni Estate) was educated in England, and thence to the United States and the aviation sector.

He was posted to Indonesia and it was here that he encountered his wife, and also his new future as an applied advocate of the Indonesian way of life.

It was now that he saw an opportunity in that while Malay and Chinese restaurants and cooking were well represented in Singapore, there remained the absence of a sustained Indonesian presence in the hospitality realm.

The historic Dutch influence on Indonesia simultaneously gave him considerable latitude in introducing in parallel certain European influences, notably those in wine.

In recent times he has followed through on this theme by developing a northern European style pilsner under his own Pumpkin label.

From the MSCNewsWire reporters' desk Tuesday 2 August 2016