‘Da Lounge Bar’ to host wine tasting nights in Aug.

Da Lounge Bar at the lobby of the Imperial Pacific Resort Saipan will be hosting a wine tasting and appreciation event every Friday, from 6:30pm to 8:30pm, for the whole month of August.

Called “Wine Indulgence,” guest can swirl, sip, and enjoy 10 to 15 kinds of wines for just $25.

The wines that will be highlighted every Friday for tasting are a part of the Da Lounge Bar’s menu, which carries 60 different kinds of wines from Italy, France, U.S.A., Argentina, Spain, Australia, and New Zealand.

The wide variety of wine—sparkling, rose’, Breit, white, red—will be on deck every Friday, according to IPI food and beverage assistant director Eric Cheong.

“The idea is that you can taste everything and, when you pick out the wine that you like, you can order a glass or a bottle,” said Cheong. “We have New World wines from Australia, New Zealand and Argentina and Old World wines from Italy, Spain and France.”

The wine tasting will be served with little bites or canapes to help clean the palate.

“Guests are sure to enjoy the wines that we have, from light to heavy body, because they are very rare as you can only get them outside the market of Saipan,” he added.

Convincing beer drinkers to switch to wine is not really their intention, according to IPI Group & Marketing Communications manager Henry Yap. “We know that Saipan is a beer drinking community. We are here not to educate but…to share the wide array of wines out there and this opportunity will hopefully encourage people to try something different other than beer and whiskey,” he said.

“We hope to do this not only for the month of August, so we will treat this as a trial run. If the response is overwhelming, we may continue this every month. We hope that a lot of people will support the idea of wine tasting as we have a lot of variety, so wine drinkers and even non-wine drinkers can try as many as they can,” he added.

Guests need not be intimidated when they go. They will be assisted by experienced and friendly wine servers like IPI Grand Lobby Bar manager Kristoferson Cuaderes. “ We are happy to be here to serve the guests and assist them with our wine offerings. This wine tasting is a first here at the Da Lounge Bar and we are excited to present the rare wines,” he said.

“Generally, to appreciate wine, you have to have a deep knowledge of its origin but we are here to help you appreciate the taste by giving you a background of where the wine came from and the ingredients used. We also have a list and description of wines that are served so guests can learn more about wine while appreciating its taste,” he added.