Wines To India

Americans aren’t terribly familiar with Madeira. Too often they view it as a sub-par cooking wine, indestructible if not flavorful, and completely irrelevant to modern wine drinking styles.

During the eighteenth century, the American colonies were the largest market for Madeira. It was actually used to toast the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and Thomas Jefferson had more than 4400 bottles of Madeira in his cellar during his presidency. Though over time Madeira has unfortunately been falling out of favor, its immense sip-ability makes it more than worth a second look.

Since that method didn’t prove to be logistic or cost effective, winemakers developed the estufagem system to generate the same effect on the island. Even today, basic quality wines are placed in concrete tanks and heated for several months by a heating coil, or aged in casks in a room adjacent to the heating element. The highest quality offerings bask in the sun in casks called canteiros for a year or longer.

Most common are wines from the Tinta Negra Mole or Complexa grapes, labeled according to their level of sweetness: “Dry,” “Medium Dry,” “Medium Sweet,” and “Rich.” Priced accordingly, these bottles tend to lack the complexity of varietal bottles.

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Bulli No. 1 to Take Sabb...

I had met Count Lucio Tasca last October at Villa d’Este in Italy, at the first World Wine Symposium. Sitting next to him at the dinner table and chatting with him, I discovered  that he was a man of colourful personality and made a mental note to meet him again when in Sicily. The opportunity came in February during the Anti Prima Tasting of Sicilian wines where he was there at the tastings for a brief while.

My inquisitiveness took another jump when, while being driven from Gulfi Estate near Catania, the winemaker who was driving me to the Palermo airport, pointed out to the 8-acre estate of the Count in the middle of town- he seemed to be overawed by the aristocratic background of Lucio Tasca. I decided to make efforts to meet him at the estate rather than the winery whenever feasible.

Full Story: Lucio Tasca d'Almerita - Indian Wine Academy

ASPRI has introduced nine wines from the portfolio of Italian wine estates Bacci Group. Bacci Group produces its wines organically.

Internationally, Bacci wines are distributed only to the institutional segment and the Italian firm plans to adopt the same strategy for the Indian market.

In India, Aspri will distribute nine wines from Bacci’s portfolio namely Chianti Classico DOCG, Berardo – Chianti Classico Reserva DOCG, Girolamo IGT Toscano and Corbaia IGT Toascano from the Castelli di Bossi estate and Regina di Renieri Syrah IGT Toscano, Re Di Renieri IGT Toscano, Renieri Brunello Di Montalcino DOCG and Renieri Rosso di Montalcino DOC from the Renieri estate and Piano Piano IGT Toscano label from the Terre di Talamo estate.

Full Story: ASPRI brings Italy's Bacci wines to India - Hospitality Biz - Indian Wine Portal (blog)

Time was when the only “wines” available were either the port-style stuff from Goa (remember “Adega de Velha”?) or Golconda. In 1986 Indage launched “Marquise de Pompadour” — touted as the first “Indian champagne” (we really didn’t know much about wine back then, did we?). Grover’s entry three years later gave some competition, but it was Sula which raised the bar by bringing in better-quality wines and marketing their wines professionally.

Today there are 50-odd wineries in Maharashtra (with another 10 new units said to be starting-up in 2010 in Karnataka) and the number of wine labels available is large enough to warrant an annual competition (or two) to sort out the wine from the vinegar.

For me, too, end-2009 is a bit of a milestone: five years of writing for BS (the first article came out in December 2004)! Along the way, I’ve written about everything possible on wine, and seen the industry grow threefold (as predicted), from a measly 500,000 cases to the present 1.5 million.

Full Story: Anniversaries and milestones - Business Standard