Chenin Blanc

Indian vineyards started their careers by sticking to predominantly four French varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc. But other interesting varietals such as Viognier, Merlot, Chardonnay and Reisling are gaining prominence. The Indian basket is getting more diverse and better.

Concentration delivers students to distinction. Concentration does well for the vines too and Sula scores great points on that account with this Shiraz. Straight Shiraz hasn't been popular until recently, prior to which all of Sula’s Shiraz were going into blends. This effort though makes that decision seem ever more curious. This wine has intense, spicy aromas and the sheer concentration of fruit comes through on the palate while the oak element is subtle, at best. The tannins are however very present which gives the wine good structure. Sula maintains that it will only bottle the Rasa during the best of vintages. The first batch, a 2007 vintage, contained only 600 cases and they don’t come cheap. This is an occasion wine and putting it away for a while longer, to further soften the tannins, will only do it more good.

It's long held the mantle as India's best wine, becoming an almost household name for the first generation of wine drinkers in India. The legacy has filtered through to the current generation to whom it has endeared, in spite of the variety of international reds they’ve drunk. Ironic then that this iconic wine was produced in Nandi Hills in Karnataka, not Nashik, regarded hitherto as the Indian wine capital. The first adaptation of the patently Australian style of Cabernet Shiraz was grown under the uncompromising attention of revered French wine maker Michel Rolland. Even today, the grapes are hand picked from the oldest of the estate’s vines and given six months in French oak barrels. La Réserve is a rush of ripe fruit but in a good way. There are also notes of chocolate and vanilla. The fruit and oak contain one another and the tannins balance the two. The wine has a near perfect landing so to speak. Its astonishing consistency over the years justifies the grand name.

On the way to Nashik from Mumbai, Igatpuri is a well-known home to a cult of meditation and draws trekkers during the monsoons. Last weekend it drew a certain curious trio of city professionals, out from their urban lives towards the valley’s soil and the consequent result was not just sterling wine under the brand name Indus, but the discovery of a sub-region and micro-climate that for long lay under the noses of wine grape farmers and is only now gaining recognition. The Indus Cabernet Sauvignon is a great one not just because it outdoes the standard but that it bares another all together interesting style with hints of mint and eucalyptus, not a hint of sweetness and a full body that fills the mouth and the senses. The dry finish is the proverbial icing on the cake. This wine goes down very well indeed and the bottle looks beautiful too.

Full Story: Buyer's guide to the best Indian wines - CNNGo.com

The company’s wines are produced with the help of wine-making legend Michel Rolland. “This is a very exciting opportunity to bring India’s best wines to a wider audience,” said Bibendum buyer Tim Marson MW.

The company’s wines are produced with the help of wine-making legend Michel Rolland. “This is a very exciting opportunity to bring India’s best wines to a wider audience,” said Bibendum buyer Tim Marson MW. “Grover Vineyards has the passion and vision to succeed in seeing Indian wine become the beverage of choice in good Indian restaurants around the country, but crucially the wines hold their own in terms of quality, which will also enable them to gain fans beyond the Indian dining sector,” he said.

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Full Story: Bibendum eyes curry market - Morning Advertiser

The multi-starrer has Katrina Kaif and Ranbir Kapoor in the lead role. About 30 minutes into the movie, both of them come to a restaurant, possibly shot in the Jehan-Numa Palace Hotel in Bhopal where most of the movie has been shot. She orders a bottle of Champagne and when it is popped, she proposes to him-and he declines. But getting back to our own protagonist, Freixenet Cava, will suffice as Champagne, thank you.

Cava is the sparkling wine made in many parts of Spain, designated as DO Cava, the most of which coming from a small town called Sant Sadurni d’Anoia, about 40 kms from Barcelona. Several sparkling wines like Freixenet are produced here-mostly using the indigenous grapes Macabeo, Parellada and Xarello- sometimes Chardonnay too, using the traditional Champagne making method of double fermentation-like the one being used by Indage and Sula in India (however, in Maharashtra they use either Chenin Blanc, Ugni Blanc or Thomson Seedless eating grapes-the procedure of second fermentation in the bottle is the same).

The interesting part is that apparently it has not been used as a promotional product; the film producers have not charged any money from the wine producer or the importer Global Tax Free Traders. Mukul Mehra, owner of the Delhi based import firm is happy that the Spanish bubbly he has been marketing for years, making it the number one selling cava in the country, was used in the film when they could have used any number of Champagnes. It may be possible that the hotel charged them for the drink and so selected the drink instead or maybe the name fascinated them.

When delWine asked Mehra, if he thought it would help his sales of Freixenet- the most popular cava brand in the USA, he said, ‘it is too early to speculate, but one hopes it will help increase the consumption of all sparkling wines or even Champagne.’ It is an accepted fact that most Indians like the fizz and flavour in Marquis de Pompadour (Indage) and Sula Brut- a few more brands have also been seen sparring recently and more are in the process of second fermentation.

Full Story: Freixenet Features in Bollywood Blockbuster - Indian Wine Academy

I was very excited, as I am an avid soccer fan who got this passion from coaching my daughter for nine years. While only soccer is on the mind of many when they think of South Africa, I am one who also thinks of the outstanding wines it produces.

South Africa has been producing wine since the mid-1600s. There are about 60 wine appellations in South Africa. Three of the most well-known wine regions are Constantia, Paarl and Stellenbosch. They produce many of the highest rated wines in South Africa.

About 55 percent of their productions are white varietals. Chenin blanc is the most produced white varietal in South Africa, followed by colombard, sauvignon blanc and chardonnay. Although they produce more whites than reds, their “signature” wine is a red varietal called pinotage.

Pinotage is a cross of pinot noir and cinsaut, a grape of prominence in the Rhone Valley in France. Cinsaut is known as hermitage in South Africa, thus the name pinotage. Not only still wines are produced from pinotage; so are fortified and sparking wines.

Full Story: Briley: Soccer site known for wines, too - Ventura County Star

The Sunday Times, The Times and www.timeslive.co.za in partnership with Nu Metro Films, M-Net and Volvo are giving you the chance to win your very own VOLVO C30 as driven by Edward in Twilight.

Cameroon became the first side to be eliminated from the World Cup after the Indomitable Lions somehow lost 2-1 to Denmark despite taking the lead and playing some superb soccer in their Group E match on Saturday.

The recent achievement of Dr Craig Venter, who made artificial life from some bits of sticky paper and a piece of string, is good news for wine lovers. For, rather than having to put up with overpaid prima donna winemakers who demand outrageous full-time salaries to work three weeks a year, farm owners may soon be able to "employ" nano robots - nabots, if you like - who will whizz around fermenting tanks of grape must, herding yeasts like sheepdogs. Inappropriate odours and flavours will be hunted down mercilessly and excessively alcoholic molecules will be ejected faster than a BBC reporter from an ANC Youth League meeting.

Hanneli Rupert-Koegelenberg, châtelaine of Franschhoek estate La Motte, quickly realised that, while the village (dubbed a sunny place for shady people by readers of Somerset Maugham) is a great place to drink wine, when it comes to growing grapes, you can do better - such as Bot River, that drive-through hamlet at the foot of the descent from Elgin to Hawston to buy poached perlemoen. Bot River is already producing some of the best barrel-fermented chenin blanc in the shape of Sebastian Beaumont's Hope Marguerite and it is now making waves with a stellar sauvignon blanc.

Full Story: Sidebar: Run nabot, run - Times LIVE