Jakarta and Bali are the most obvious places in Indonesia to get wine, with duty-free and duty-paid shops, restaurants, hotels, supermarkets, events and wine and gourmet clubs offering the best and most varied selection of wines the country has to offer. Outside these two areas, wines may be found in certain hotels, resorts and supermarkets. The rule of thumb is that establishments offering wines can usually be found in places (including the remote) with industry or scenery which attracts Western workers and or tourists.
In Java, wines and spirits can be found in various hotels and restaurants in Bandung, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Malang and Surabaya. In Batam and Bintan wines (priced in Singapore dollars) can be enjoyed in top-end hotels. In Medan, the capital of North Sumatra, wines can be had not only in top hotels, but also from local wine distributors.
When I visited Palembang, the capital of South Sumatra, last year and early this year I found wine in Carrefour hypermarket and at the Novotel Hotel. However, the two French establishments only sold French wine, which made a British consultant sitting next to me at the hotel bar unhappy. "Insular," he quipped. He may have thought differently if he visited the Novotel in Balikpapan.
In Jayapura, the capital of Papua, wine can be had at the Swiss-Belhotel Papua -- but it is served in mediocre glasses. Outside the hotel, it was virtually impossible to find wine. I was told the sale and distribution of alcoholic beverages was restricted because Papuans have a notorious proclivity for violent behavior when drinking.
When in Banda Aceh early this year, I forgot to ask Hermes (once a Swiss-Belhotel) whether they sold wine. I have been to Banda Aceh several times, but each time I was there I did not think about wine because my mind was preoccupied with Sharia law, Acehnese coffee and delicious Acehnese food.
In Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi, wine is offered at the Imperial Aryaduta which has a wine bar. Wine can also be found at Gelael supermarket and enjoyed with friends in the privacy of a hotel room with a nice view of Losari beach -- as I did about two months ago. (We then took the wines from Makassar to Tana Toraja, South Sulawesi's most well-known tourist destination. Even without the benefit of proper wine glasses, we very much enjoyed them in the serenity of Toraja Heritage Hotel in the evening, and with lunch the next day in a hilltop restaurant overlooking magnificent terraced rice fields.)
Drinking wine in the company of like-minded friends in Makassar and amidst beautiful scenery in Tana Toraja was most enjoyable, but in Balikpapan, a seaport city in East Kalimantan, I found a locally owned hotel with an exciting wine-and-dine scene. The hotel, Gran Senyiur, displays a good selection of wines in glass racks in its main restaurant and lounge, and has a wine bar. It serves wine in modest Ocean wine glasses made in Thailand, and it is not uncommon for people to dine with wine there. It comes as no surprise that it was this hotel where I took part in six wine-and-dine get-togethers in the past month. Energy related multinational corporations and major international mining companies have commercial activities here, so demand for wine is quite high and this city may one day reach the wine-and-dine sophistication of the usual two.
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