Douro Boys, Douro, & the Wines, Portugal Jan 2012
Douro river flowing through the vineyards
Portugal is a country that, to us has connections with Goa. They made some beautiful churches, and supposedly left behind certain traditions, including one around the Port wine. For a history of Port refer to another blog, or just view it somewhere online, but suffice to say that while Port was a wine destined for transport, the Goan Port is only meant to make one journey: to the deepest darkest abysses of a dustbin! To truly understand this country and its wine, nothing short of a visit will suffice. Sure you could attend some tastings, as so did I, but unless one has seen first-hand the slopes and gauged their steepness while trying to climb or descend one, one can never entirely comprehend the scale of difficulty that is involved in making wines here.
Jacob’s Creek St Hugo Vertical Tasting
Fastest customs and immigrations ever!
Coonawarra is a town with a population of 30 people, give or take a few. When we landed there on this remote air strip, we immediately swelled the population by a factor of three! Even with the neighbouring towns, the number of people can’t exceed 5000, (and yet, they had this superb restaurant, Fodder, which I suggest you must try, for the food but also for its very extensive international wine list.) And the defunct railway station is a picture postcard from the last century!
Alight here for red wine
Indian Food and Wine: London Case Files
When Indians settled down in the UK in the late 50s, they unknowingly ended up planting something in their adopted land that was far stronger than their rich culture – a taste for richer spices. For a long time Indian food in the UK was synonymous with pub grub and after-dinner binge eating with chilli-slapped food that could burn a hole through space-age metal. Today, a lot has changed. Indian chefs who migrated Westwards, tired of the dichotomy that existed here between Indian and foreign cuisines served here in India have now come into their own and Read more
An Austrian Adventure
You know you have become a wine sissy when you refer to a series of tastings as an adventure. You then sadly realise that you will never be able to brave the outback alone or accompanied and a vineyard will be all the wilderness your faint heart can manage.
Pity, but on the flipside, you get to taste some fantastic wines. Here is a rant oops I mean list of some things I recently got to nose and tongue. Wherever there are breaks the grape variety or wine style may be changing. The key is:
PB – Pinot Blanc, SB – Sauvignon Blanc, PG – Pinot Grigio, WB – WeissBurgunder aka PB, GB – GraueBurgunder aka PG, RS – Residual Sugar
One more thing; an asterisk (*) denotes a personal favourite. Honestly, few wines were bad and turn-away-able. The brands mentioned here pretty much epitomise the highest echelons of winemaking in the (Southern) Styrian region or Austria. Read more
Wine Retail in India
L'Essential in Saint-Emilion
It is very deplorable the way our liquor vends are so ineffectively called “wine shops”. You would sooner call my hair style an afro rather than refer to these caged holes-in-the-wall establishments, wine shops. Walk into any one across the country (barring a few cities) and chances are you will find that wine occupies the least amount of shelf space and still manages to collect the maximum amount of dust!
The reasons for drinking wines are many, and as good as any – social consciousness, health concerns, curiosity – whatever the excuse, the fact remains that the market is growing at a stunning and stable 30% per annum. Read more
Sipping Somethings Spanish – Fenavin 2009
Spain was a beautiful visit…so much to learn, more to unlearn, and so much forgotten already! I would love to put the blame on that lovely ham, that ode of culinary class – the famed Pata Negra (black footed or more correctly, hoofed).
I was in the region of Castilla LaMancha followed by a few days in Madrid and I can see why it would be considered the precursor to Ibiza but that is not what this post is about. (Mail me for more dope on that!) Meanwhile, here are a few things I tasted and am sharing. Read more
Nightspots – What makes them tick?
The human species is possibly the best standing example of that eternal cycle of life and death. Nothing else showcases this chronological phenomenon better; well, nothing except nightclubs. They have a similar cycle but it moves much faster – like those fast forwarded clips they often show on Nature channels where the sun rises and sets in a matter of seconds (Time Lapse shots – for those who know and should now know that I too know).
I am not a celebrity so I can’t say that I am reporting first hand; more like an acquaintance of a friend who attended told me: but in this age of information and technology, such data can be treated as first-hand information, right? Or have I been inside my office far too long?
Say what you may, you can’t miss the splash on the pages. The prime minister shakes an opportune hand with the US and gets a massive cold; someone operated and saved the oldest Siamese twins, disjoint only on their political views…All humbug! A new night spot just opened and briefly seen were two actresses from upcoming films with lots of nudity (in the film that is) in hunky male company (at the club that is) – Carry on tabloid, we are all tuned in and listening… Read more
Keeping Up With The Jains
Starting from the era of Adam & Eve right up till Armageddon cometh, we mortals pay for all we consume. I remember a time from a previous life when people were happy drinking whatever was classified as intoxicant; and if it could power some medieval form of transport, all the better!
Lately the scene has changed. More people are asking what exactly is in there glass; will it kill them or send them flying, and all this at what cost? It started with the more common whiskey and beer and gradually drained into wine. So much that even fellow Indians everywhere are up in arms and happy hours, inquiring apropos their evening elbow-exercise. Read more
The Great South African Round-up
Recently, I was fortunate enough to spend some quality time in South Africa where we got plenty of time to get to know each other better. There was chemistry, attraction, serendipity even controversy…all the makings of a successful relationship. Overall, there was much to explore and I, as usual, felt extremely short on time. As a result, I would urge you to treat none of my views as final; more in-the-making if anything; as I always like things to be. A read through this may not make you a Cape Wine Master (such may be out of the grasp of many as it is) but it should definitely give you enough grounding and juice to be able to hold your own if accosted by the Pinotage Association of Disgruntled Winemakers (if they aren’t disgruntled yet, they are yet to read on further below).
Sliding on, this is what I have come to learn about this lovely winemaking country.
Are We Being Served??
The world is full of places and institutions that we collectively refer to as the hospitality industry – bars, cafes, restaurants, hotels, motels – all are a dot on the hospitality map. Hospitality itself can be defined as the combination of an array of products (tangible) and a series of actions (intangible) which together help facilitate productive and effective employment of one’s time and also to make one feel welcome and at home.
So when we go and buy a meal or a glass of wine we are contributing to the hospitality industry in exchange for services that can and cannot be quantified. A room we hire is a certain size and we can hence calculate how much a hotel charges per square inch of space they rent out. The bottle of water they sell too has a similar measurable cost component. But what about a bed that is always made and the fact that at some places they buff-shine your shoes and arrange your clothes in neat folded piles? What about the steward who always greets you by your name and remembers your favourite dish and the way you like your drinks? There is no defined way of measuring the worth of all such gests and instances which although almost invisible are an intrinsic and important part of the hospitality product.
These are services and for a sceptic like me they remain the most desirable and yet the least offered part of the hospitality component. Are we, the people of an independent democratic republic, really being served?
Wine List Awards & Critics
I don’t get it; for all my limited knowledge I thought we won our independence back in ’47. People laid down lives for the cause; the cause of making our voices heard, making our opinion count and being citizens of the world.
Somehow, when I look at things around me, all that sacrifice seems futile, even lost. Never ever have we been bigger suckers for Western approval than today. Everything we do seems a lot more ‘doable’ if a Western authority (or Western anything) commends or endorses it. We look down upon our own language and a sceptic would easily be inclined to think that we would sooner trade our culture in for a designer hand-bag; I so hope that is not the general case.
But let me not sound so general and long-winded, I upset enough egos with my bluntness as it is. But you see, brevity and softness of delivery are things I am yet to learn the virtue of. What I am really on about is how we, in our naivety, subscribe to views and opinions of people who don’t even know we exist. What Milan considers fashionable may never be considered so in the Indian context. From physical build to our cultural build-up, we are a different lot the world over so it is only natural that what applies in one place may hold no meaning even a few hundred kilometres away.
Wining and Dining in New Delhi
India is (finally) shining. It may not seem like a complete even sheen but it sure does have a certain lustrous appeal about it. It’s the beam of a satiated belly, a good Indian meal downed with some good wine.
No, wait, I am not going to rant about Indian food and wine pairing for 2 reasons: I have bored too many too often with it and secondly, I charge for it.
What I am on about is how restaurants in the capital have upped the ante thus taking local competition to a whole new level. Having reached a certain sense of peak with respect to decor and dining props – cutlery, crockery, freshly flown-in fish et al – the stripes now belong to the one who can slickly and superbly pair off the food with some wine. Gone are the days of Punjabi Chinese and stale Sushi. The new places take every precaution to make sure that you get great food and superb service – supreme satisfaction. But they are still not cheap, who said anything about cheap.
So here is a list of restaurants which I feel are doing a fairly good job of choosing the right food and wine and then making sure that the two come together at the right time on the right table to culminate in unparalleled culinary delight, or big tips, whichever happens first or more often.
On Indian Wines
Of all the things I am accused of, there is one I just don’t seem to be able to get around doing much about: commenting on Indian Wines.
The problem starts from the wide-spread ignorance that Indian wines are good with Indian food. Sounds logical right. If Italian wines pair with pizza and French fit Foie Gras, why shouldn’t Indians wines do justice to our vast Indian cuisine?
If you want a simple answer: because Indian wines aren’t good enough to drink, let alone pair. Outside of 2-3 brands I can’t think of many Indian wines that I would wish on my enemies. They are inconsistent, over-priced and just plain insipid.
I seem to have gone off on one without explaining why. Let me share the reasons for my grief. Trouble is there’s so much to lament I don’t even know where to begin.
As Dry as a Hotel!
English is a constantly evolving language and that is perhaps what makes it so beautiful – even if what you utter today is considered wrong or incorrect or just pure rubbish has a chance of making its way into common parlance over time, and, if Indians catch on to it, into Webster!
So, after phrases like Jumping the shark and Nuking the fridge, get ready for the latest simile on the block: as dry as a hotel.
More precisely, as dry as a hotel owned by a rich Sheikh but that’s just being puritan. In case you haven’t heard, the Hyatt in Cairo recently poured about a million dollars worth of liquor into the Nile. The Saudi Sheikh who owns the place wants to put in place a code of conduct in line with his religion. So the local English pub now serves teas and the likes and the nearby Hard Rock Cafe is the only watering hole in the desert.
