Indian Sauvignon Blanc

The latest Wine Spectator Wine of the Week selection, Stoneburn Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2010 at under $ 10 made me sit up and make a mental note of the continuously falling prices of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc during last year or so, that might make my favourite white more affordable in India where some price corrections might help New Zealand increase their share.

The latter was like sweet music to my ears and soothing sensation to my palate since the first time I tried it over 20 years ago. The tropical flavours of mango, citrus, gooseberries, passion fruit, have always been pleasing. Despite wine snobs looking for the 5th dimension (the x-factor beyond colour, nose, flavour and after-taste characteristics), starting to give thumbs down to the Marlborough Sauvignon for its ‘boring’ and predictable character (like Champagne?!), I have always loved the fresh crispiness and fruity flavours, especially the tropical ones.

I had to hide my disappointment when we blind tasted several samples of Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand at the Hong Kong International Wine Competition last November and found that some of them were atypical-with the grassiness, vegetal characters more predominant along with the cat’s pee which is apparently a favourite of cat lovers. I was told that in order to compete better in the world markets the producers were experimenting with changing style.

Perhaps they are looking at the Australian market which is the most significant importer of New Zealand wines and is looking at reducing imports because of its own excess availability. Perhaps they are worried about the UK market where reportedly Tesco bought their wine at less than £2 a bottle due to the grape glut during the last couple of vintages and that made Dan Jago, Tesco Category Director for beers, wines and spirits, to apparently comment after the purchase that if left to him, he would have thrown the wine in the gutter rather than supply at such low prices and depreciate the brand value of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc..

Blog: Come to Marlborough Country - Indian Wine Academy

After a whirlwind chat last month with Benares head sommelier, Costanzo Scala, to unravel the intricacies of matching wine to Michelin-starred Indian food, it was only going to be a matter of time before db trotted up the stairs again for more empirical enlightenment.

Located on the first floor above London’s Berkeley Square and accessed through a doorway which is easily overshadowed by Jack Barclay’s Bentley showroom, it’s easy to walk straight past Benares.

Keep your eyes open though as its bar offers a rather classy version of happy hour from 5-7pm every Monday to Thursday. Half price cocktails come with an appetising freebie from the bar menu – not a bad start to an evening and a bite-size way to size up the venue before committing to a major birthday blowout.

Starting at £110, the serious tasting menus where kitchen and sommelier really get a chance to show off their combined strength were going to have to wait for another day.

db eats: Benares - The Drinks Business (blog)

Early this month, two new wines were introduced to the Indian market. Paul P John, Chairman of John Distilleries, launched both from Bangalore. The Zinfandel Rose, called Rossa Rosa, and the stunningly light late harvest Muscat desert wine, called Bellissima, brought the total of local wine labels in India to 123 between 28 different companies. Count the imported wines available, and there are over 540 labels from 50 companies to choose from. If you are a wine drinker, there never was a better time than this to raise a toast.

Wine drinking is changing rapidly in India. Rajeev Samant’s Sula Vineyards has been attracting VC investors, proving that Indian wine drinkers are maturing. A Stanford graduate, Samant brought Indian wine to international attention by carrying two bottles of his Sula Sauvignon Blanc to Tokyo’s 2002 Vinexpo, the industry’s annual wine show. His wines floored respected Italian winemaker Angelo Gaja, who placed an order for Samant’s wine. In 2008, Sula produced over 220,000 cases of wine, becoming a leader in the Indian wine industry and setting off the Indian wine story on an exciting journey.

In April this year, Federico Castellucci, the director general of the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV), announced that India would become “the first eastern Asian nation to join the organisation.” The OIV affiliation will help give India – which currently has no laws concerning grape growing and wine production — access to the government bodies of 43 wine making nations as well as the resources to make better wine.

A Nielsen Syndicate Wine Study, released in mid July, said that the Indian wine industry was witnessing phenomenal growth. The study was aimed at understanding wine drinking habits across the major metros. Its finding: 82 per cent of the wine consumed in the last three months was red. The survey found that wine drinking was associated with business in Delhi, as a drink for all seasons in Mumbai and as a drink to relax with in Bangalore.

Wine as much as you want - Deccan Herald

It’s the end of the line, well at the end of one branch of the Northern Line that is. Having not previously been to Edgware my first impression was of its diversity of styles and cultures and quite broad busy roads. We had gone to Edgware to eat at Zan Zi Bar, whch is for want of a better description, an Indian ‘gastropub’. Zan Zi Bar is set back from the pavement and despite its double fronted exterior it appears to be quite a modest establishment as you approach it. That all changes as you walk through the doors, two things strike you, the sheer vastness of the place and a warm inviting spicy smell. Decorated largely in creams with other coloured accents, it is a comfortable place in which to sit and enjoy an evening.

We ordered drinks straight away. There was an Indian Sauvignon Blanc (Sula vineyards) on the menu so that was a must: it was very fruity and had a good fresh tang to it, and at Just short of £19 per bottle was well priced. I tried a few of their range of bottled lagers during the evening. Our drinks arrived with the menu - which in itself was extensive but was augmented by a list of some eight or ten specials for July that had been selected just that day. Our waiter could see us cogitating, so offered some assistance, we took his advice on starters ordering two of the specials – the chicken tikka salad and kebabs tak a tak, alongside the fish tikka from the main menu and were pleased we had. The chicken tikka was lovely, tender chunks that had great spiciness with a little heat from their marinade, the salad on which it was sat had taken flavour from the grilled meat which we liked. The kebabs tak a tak were spicy minced lamb kebabs that were medium to hot  as was the fish tikka, which was a substantial skewer of marinated cod chunks that had a good meaty texture from the marinating process. Each of these dishes left our mouths tingling from their spiciness and moderate heat, all three were very good.

For mains we chose the asli chicken curry (on the bone), karahi lamb, Punjabi chole, tarka dal, lemon rice and a laccha paratha. The chicken curry had a great fragrance from the whole spices used in its cooking; the curry sauce was lovely, a great consistency, this tomato based sauce had a nice medium hot spiciness. The lamb karahi was good sized chunks of the meat in very thick gravy, which had great depth of flavour; like the chicken it had a medium heat to it. This was another very good dish. The Punjabi chole, a spicy chick pea dish, had a fragrant flavour with a slight tang and the tarka dal had a good medium/thick consistency, with a garlic spice background, perhaps one of the best I have tasted. The laccha paratha, a butter layered nan, was indeed buttery, quite flaky in texture and was an ideal choice for scooping up sauces and the dal. The lemon rice was a wise choice, it had a very lemony taste, quite fresh and contrasting well with the intense flavours of the two meat mains. We thoroughly enjoyed all of these dishes. We had, of course over ordered so didn’t quite finish, but were pleased with every dish we had chosen and were left with a lovely spicy tingly glow in our mouths.

Although not hungry after all our starters and mains, we were tempted by the suggestion of something cool and had the kulfi which had a good pistachio creaminess to it that cooled our mouths down perfectly.

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The autos often screech up next to me, wrongly thinking I want a ride, thus preventing me from crossing the road even more, and the motorbikes just head straight for me, as do the black and yellow cabs, dropping off passengers. It’s up to me to get out of the way, or get run over. I am not standing on the road – I am at a parking lot waiting to cross the road. There is no pavement to stand on, as it has been encroached by a pani puri stall, a Xerox stall and a vegetable vendor. Various huge white Mercedes cars park up in the parking lot. At one point they are still, but you have to keep your wits about you, as all of a sudden they will randomly reverse directly at you and into you, unless you move…the drivers are usually rich woman, very bad drivers, who don’t bother to look in their rear mirrors as they reverse.

I wait for a gap in the continual onslaught of traffic, watching motorbikes with families on, sometimes none of them wearing a helmet, so that I can cross the road, to reach the taxi rank.

Once I am there, my chances of getting a taxi are no higher. Usually the drivers parked at the cab rank look away, when I say ‘Mahim’, which means they are refusing the fare.

Full Story: Baffling aspects of Mumbai - Hindustan Times (blog)