Why foreign women and wine have a bad reputation in India - Part 2

Now -or if not check this out - you know why foreign women have a bad reputation in India. The reason, basically, is ... Bob Dylan

But what about wines? 

Why is everyone so adamantly – and wrongly for that matter –convinced that Indian wines are disgusting?

Goa.

Again. I know, it is starting to get nerve wrecking.

The city of sin has done it one more time.

The reason why Goa is at the center of the international despise towards wine is not because Hippies used to produce wine along their hashish plantations.

Neither is it because Saint Xavier and the Portuguese Inquisition viciously pored wine on the wounds of the poor Hindus they had just scorched.

The reason is much simpler. 

And not as entertaining unfortunately for you (and for this site’s bounce rate).

But first, let me take you through a little history:

Experts believe the grape vine was introduced in India from Persia around 2500 BC as wine is mentioned in the Vedic texts as Soma and Sura. Throughout the middle-ages and modern times, wine was the drink of warrior castes (the Kshatriyas), along with beer and other spirits made of wheat, barley or maize in the North and rice in the South.

The Mughal emperors developed and maintained vineyards in the Deccan region as did the British during the 19^th century.

However, almost all of India’s vineyards were wiped out by phylloxera in the 1890’s. 

After the independence, the Indian Constitution strongly deterred the consumption of alcoholic beverages and imports were severely monitored. These principles were expanded with the graduate prohibition of imported alcoholic beverages throughout the country and the introduction of constraint licensing under the control of the Central Government.

Despite these heavy constraints some areas continued to produce wine such as the state of Goa where vintners used ‘Bangalore Blue’ grape to make cheap wines.

Now this is the interesting part for us.

Bangalore blue wine has the status of wine, it has its color, its alcoholic content and its name.

But that’s about it. All other similarities are pure fantasy. Some say even drunkards don’t appreciate it and that its sole purpose is to get you wasted. And it succeeds in doing it very nicely.

The problem is that Goan wine was basically the only wine available in India for 25 years. So of course people now believe Indian wine means cheap, yuky, undrinkable grape juice.

But that is far from the truth. 

As I explained it in a previous article about selling wine in India, Indian wineries have developed throughout the 1990’s and 2000’s and now produce some very decent wines. It all started out with Indage – known as Champagne India now – who built a first winery in the valley of Nashik in 1985. From then on, other players stepped into the wine industry and wineries continued spreading in the valley of Nashik, Maharashtra. There are up to 65 wineries in the state of Maharashtra today, producing Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Chenin, Zinfandel and even Viognier. 

I tasted wines I actually enjoyed very much here. Like Sula Dindori or Nine Hills Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve. Actually, I was even surprised at the level of achievement of these wines. 

I'm not saying they are perfect but they surely are enjoyable with a nice curry masala dish. 

Here's one of my tasting note for Nine Hills, Chenin, 2009

Nose: nice fruity tanginess. Orange, passion fruit and pineapple. 

Mouth: the structure is really straightforward. The wine doesn't drop in the mouth, its crisp yet full and the length is good. 

Overall this is a very easy wine to enjoy. Perfect for beginners in wine drinking because the fruitiness is really appealing to the palate. 

So you see, its like I explained it in my previous article, there's a misconception about Indian wine. 

In the same way as Goan based westerners don’t walk about naked smoking hash and pot all day anymore, Indian wine is not the low-quality grape juice it used to be. 

Yet they still suffer the reputation Goan history has cursed them with. Shame. 

Do you like cat pee ?

Ok I know this title sounds a little blunt. 

Yet as you may see later on in my post, cat's urine is one of the most typical aromas of Sauvignon blanc or Cabernet Sauvignon.
That's right.
The wine you like to drink every Friday evening.

But no worries my friends, for it is not TRULY cat pee that you are smelling (just making sure for everyone).
No wine maker accidentally forgot to cover his wine barrels and let his cat take a little swim in them.

It's simply physics. Here is an interesting extract of an article taken from the "aromadictionnary" :

 Cats urine does exist in wine! Well its smell anyway. Caused by the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde compound p-mentha-8-thiol-3-one, this sulfur containing compound smells exactly like cat's urine when in a particular concentration range. When weaker, it exudes the herbal scent of lantana bush, whilst when strong, it has an aroma that can be likened to blackcurrants. And where do you find it? That's right, in the variety where wine tasters see it the most, Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon (and of course in cat's urine).

There is actually an Ontario (USA) based estated whose labels revolve around the theme of cat pee and it's a huge success. I've never tried them yet though, but I certainly will in a near future.

To tell you the truth, although I knew the existence of Cat's urine in wine, I had never actually encountered it during my tastings. I didn't even know if I would recognize it when stumbling upon it...
(I know I said training your nose by sniffing everything you come across is pivotal to become a pro wine taster, but I've never actually stopped to smell cat pee. I apologize. I know what you are thinking right now : "AMATEUR !").

Yet when I put my nose over my glass of
Champs-Chenin, 2007, by Olga Raffault, there was no doubt possible.

Cat pee. Yep. The real deal. 
And the truth is : it wasn't THAT bewildering. It was even kind of nice in a way. A little herby to put it nicely.

So here are my tasting notes on this wine. We had it with a lovely seabass.

Eye : almost greenish, it conjures up freshness and herbs. 

Nose : cat pee (obviously), little notes of citrus and orange, maybe a bit of cut grass (which is a little stronger than the cats urine) and apple towards the end. 

Mouth : very acidic (too much for my taste anyway) which is typical of the chenin variety. The mouth is not extremely long however. 

What you should know about this wine however is that the Domaine Olga Raffault is one of the most famous estates of the Loire Valley. The range of prices for this wine is between 9 and 11 euros. What may be noticed is that this wine is a white Chinon, which is extremely rare (only 2% of Chinon wines are white as I mentioned in this article). It is made of Chenin, the white variety in the Loire Valley. It can be kept for years and will benefit from aging by becoming smoother and less acidic.

So this one was probably a bit young.

Then again, it allowed me to have my first taste of cats pee. Yey !

The Loire's sweethearts

Most people don't really enjoy dessert wines.

They think they are too sweet, too heavy, too powerful. And a part from foie gras nobody really knows what to pair them with.

So they usually end up being stacked in a cellar, waiting for New Years Eve or at least for you to let go of your diet for one evening.

Yet I think this is a grave mistake.

Dessert wines in spite of their ridiculous name, should not only be kept for dessert. They can magnify a whole meal if you accept to let go of your cultural prejudices.

Dessert wines contain a high level of sugar and alcohol. This characteristic comes from the fact that they are made from mouldy grapes.

I know this does not sound very appetizing.

Yet in fact this mould is not just any mould: it is a noble mould, called Botrytis Cinerea, also dubbed "noble rot".

Wine makers can really be poets.

This idiosyncrasy is only possible when the weather is sufficiently moist during the autumn.

Therefore only a few regions in the world have the adequate climate to produce dessert wines.

In France, Sauternes, in the Bordeaux region is the most famous of them all. Just check out the price of a bottle of Château d'Yquem.

But there is also great noble rot wines in Alsace (some Gewürztraminer for example) or, as my main title suggests it, in the Loire Valley.

Chenin, (the Loire's main white grape) is the variety that produces these great dessert wines. There are 3 dessert wines in the Loire Valley:

- Coteaux-du-Layon

- Bonnezeaux

- Quart de Chaume

As they are much less known then their counterparts from Sauternes, these amazing wines also have the great advantage of being much cheaper.

But this is not their only asset! Also their general acidity (typical of Chenin) gives them the ability to age easily and provides them with an overall impression of aerial lightness which is a plus when you want to pair them with non dessert foods.

So you see these wines are magical with the appropriate pairing.

For instance, try to taste a Coteaux-du-Layon with a veal medallion and mushroom sauce.

Or dare and pair a Bonnezeaux with an Orange glazed duck.

Prunes or raisins go well with these wines too. Try it out, you'll be surprised.

Anything with a little honey, dried fruits or foie gras will do the trick.

It's not very complicated and I assure you having one of those at your table will make a huge difference.

Here is a Coteaux-du-Layon I tasted last week and paired with chicken stuffed with dried prunes. It was absolutely delicious.

Coteaux-du-Layon, Saint Lambert du Lattay, 2005

Michel Robineau

Selection grains nobles

Nose: very subtle, fresh peonies, apricot

Mouth: an explosion. Dried apricot, honey, a very well balanced acidity and a round attack. Very long lasting taste.

This wine is just a drop of gold diluted in your veins. It's powerful yet soft, fragrant yet delicate, sweet yet elegant. Overall you really feel there's something different about this wine, something noble and pure.

How to select wines for your first beginners' wine tasting

As you may have read in my 7 steps to organizing a fabulous wine tasting -to view click here , it's easy to impress your friends with a few tricks and a little preparation.
You don't need to be a wine expert to show off. Trust me, my friends usually rave about my wine tastings for days and I can tell you I still have a LOT to learn.

So here are a few more tricks to make sure that you too are able to enjoy a great wine tasting.

1. The most important thing you do is select simple wines.


No need to go directly for a Romanée Conti just yet. You may settle for a 5 to 15$ bottle which I'm sure you'll appreciate.
What I suggest you should do, is buy one-varietal wines. It's hard enough to try to understand what the characteristics of Merlot are, so don't bother and buy an intricate assemblage wine ; you'd be completely lost (and worst of all, your guests would be lost too!).

2. Try to go for an all white or an all red tasting.


This will ease up a lot your task. First of all, you will only have so much aromas that you may find in these wines. For example, if you select only white wines, don't even bother to find strawberry or mushroom and stay focused on the typical white wine aromas like orange, lemon, pineapple, honey, nut, litchi, rose or pear.

3. Find stereotypical wines

What I mean by that is that should really try to find wines that display the typical aromas you would usually find in their varietal.
For instance, I would start out with a Chenin wine (not the most famous varietal, as it mostly grows in the Loire Valley in France). Chenin is a white wine that has the characteristic of showing very vivid acidity. So you would know, when tasting one that you would be most likely to end of sensing aromas of orange or citrus.
If your guests (or yourself!) have really never tried wine tasting before, it would probably come in handy to have flavors that are easy to recognize.

4. Buy a little bit of bread or neutral food, for people to chew on when they feel their mouth is starting to get numb.

Also I may add, that it could be useful if one of your guests has not have time to eat before. Once I organized a tasting in a rush and didn't have time to have a decent lunch. Well, I can let you guess that although it was very fun (for me at least), I ended up trying to convince my friends that red wine was actually white wine with tomato juice inside. Yeah, surprisingly enough the people I had invited to that specific tasting never really wanted to try it again ...

If you manage to get all this straight, there is no reason why your wine tasting shouldn't be a great success!

As an example here are the wines I tasted for a beginners wine tasting last week (red and white).

Chenin, Domaine de la taille aux loups, 2008
Vouvray

Pinot Noir, Les bons Ores, 2005
Chorey les Beaunes

Syrah, Domaine Gros, 2007
Minervois

Grenache, Syrah, Domaine de la Citadelle, 2003
Cotes du Lubéron

7 steps to organizing a fabulous wine tasting

So now you think you are good enough to deliver your knowledge of wines to others, huh?

You want to please.
You want to share.
You want to impress.
You want to show yourself and your friends that the money you've spent in wine tasting classes has not been totally meaningless.
But the truth is (and I know this because I've lived the exact same thing) you are terrified at the idea that it might just turn wrong.
What if the wines are not good?
What if people get bored?
What if you don't recognize a single aroma?
What if...

So you need some help. And luckily, as I've been there, done that, I can tell you that there are 7 very easy steps to make sure that your wine tasting will be a total hit.
Are you ready? Here we go !


1. Plan at least a week in advance and think about the people you are going to invite.

It may seem dumb, but I can assure you that a last minute wine tasting is never easy to tackle. All the more so if you've planned to drink wines that need to decant... you might just disgust your guests.
So you need to think in advance of whom you want to see at your little event. First of all, don't go for quantity. Having 50 people for a wine tasting may seem fun, but in fact you might end up with too much you can handle. Trust my experience when I tell you that 10 people is just about right if you want to keep good relations with your neighbors. Secondly, tell people in advance. Otherwise you might end up drinking all this wine alone with your cat and your grandma. That would be a pity.


2. Think about the wines you are going to taste in advance.

Yes I know, it's a shame because you will not be able to blind taste like the others. But on the other hand, you'll be very happy to have a little idea of what you SHOULD find in these wines if by any chance you can't smell a damn thing.
So my advice is to sacrifice yourself (I know noble isn't it)and ask your local wine seller if he knows 4 or 5 wines that would be adequate for an introduction to wine tasting.
And then, ASK FOR HINTS ON WHAT TO FIND INSIDE THEM.
If you have the time and feel a little unsure about yourself, you may even look those wines up on the internet to get a little feedback from the experts.


3. Open your wines in advance.

This is really important for red wines. White wines don't need this and should be kept cool until the beginning of the tasting. However remember to open up your reds in advance or you could encounter two hardships:
First, your friends will hate you for serving them something too tannic. All the more so if they have gum issues. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about (sorry granny).
Secondly, don't forget wines evolve with time and oxygen. So if you open your wine right before the first part of the tasting, by the time you get to step 6, the wine will have completely changed and it will ruin everything for you. No I'm not being over-dramatic.





4.(optional but much better) Buy le Nez du vin (if you haven't already done it).

To understand what le Nez du vin is check out my explanatory post "How to drink wine, recognize aromas ... and impress your friends ! ".
What you need to do during your wine tasting session, is begin by a little nostril momentum. You should select a few aromas (about 20) that may be found in the wines you have selected and tell people to sniff the little flasks of le Nez du Vin and try to decipher what smell they convey.
This is actually a very important element of a good wine tasting session. Most people can't make a difference between a strawberry and a banana (with their nose I mean !) so it usually really helps people to focus on their olfactory sense.
I truly believe this is a pivotal moment of a successful wine tasting so don't skip it !

5. Wine tasting per se. Finally.




After your little sniveling game, your friends will pretty thirsty and glad to start drinking. Use proper tasting glasses if you can and take your time taste each wine individual. After each wine, try to pause and have your friends explain what they felt. You should tell them that this part is actually important because there will be a little competition by the end of the wine tasting, and they will have to try to recognize which wine is in which glass.
Give you guests pens and paper so that they can jot down their impressions to try to remember later on what they tasted.


6. To be sure to win your friends over, you have to create emotion.

Competition and the promise of wining a bottle can be a very good way of having people remember your event.
People are like kids. They like to win. They like to have prizes. So you should buy an extra bottle to give it to the person who will recognize the wines you tasted the fastest. I know it sounds childish and stupid, but trust me: it works! People go crazy for a 3$ bottle of wine!

So do a blind tasting with our four wines in four different glasses dubbed 1, 2, 3 and 4. The person who answers the fastest wins the jackpot!
You'll be surprised how hard this game is actually. Most of the time, if you didn't open your wines early enough, they will have oxygenated and changed by the time the game starts. Also, if your friends didn't spit during the preceding tastings they might be having trouble staying focused by now...


7. How not to go bankrupt.

I promise that if you follow these 6 very easy steps, you are pretty sure to have a great time during your wine tasting.
The best thing to do (to avoid thinking about your diminishing bank account during the whole session) is to ask a little compensation (just the amount you paid to get the 5 bottles) to your friends. Try not to by Opus One or Château Margaux on your first try, people might be a little taken aback to pay 800$ for a friendly wine tasting session.

If you follow these simple rules, you'll experience the joy and fun of sharing something you love to do with people you care about. And you won't even get nervous about it.

How to drink wine, recognize aromas ... and impress your friends !

It was a few years ago, in a fancy restaurant in Paris. The sommelier delicately poured a crimson colored wine in my glass. The moment was tantalizing. The beauty of terroir. I leaned forward to taste the wine and tell him it was great. Everyone was looking. Waiting. Expecting me to sigh with ecstasy. So I did, of course.


But it was corked.
And I thought it was just a very heavy smell of mushroom. Or someone's bad cologne. Or my nose. Hell, I didn't have a clue.

Now I'm pretty sure this could happen to anyone who doesn't have any experience in wine tasting. And it's ok. It happens. It would just be a shame for you to spend 200$ on cork juice for your wedding day.
That's why I decided to deliver my experience of and show you with a little "how to" post, precisely HOW TO drink wine, recognize aromas... and impress your friends !

1. The first and most important thing you need to do is train your nostrils.
Nowadays our noses have just about all their core functions. They are meant to smell, whiff, sniff, snivel, inhale, and mostly identify. But that last action takes practice. You need to learn what a food or flower smells like and memorize this scent. It should be a game really. Each time you go out in a garden or stand in your kitchen (or someone elses !) just try to deeply inhale and sniff everything you can get your hands on.
Ok so you may look a little dumb if your friend stumbles upon you with your nose stuck in a jar of mushroom.
But remember one thing, it is for the greater good: you may have lost your dignity, but next time you drink a 10 year-old Burgundy, you'll know there's truffle in there.


2. The second thing you should consider is, well, cheating.
Fumbling around your friends kitchen may be fun once or twice, but what will happen if people start thinking your a kleptomaniac, or a utensil fetishist? There must be another solution.
Well, there is my friends, and I, in my immense generosity, will promptly deliver it to you. It is a well kept secret. The secret to learning quickly how to recognize different scents without loosing all your friends.
Here is my secret weapon to shine in society and impress my friends with my super smelling skills (I know it sounds very sexy):
Le Nez du Vin, by Jean Lenoir.
A kit of 54 aromas captured in little flasks (the basic fragrances you can find in wine)so that you can train your nostrils until they die. I do not work for Mr Lenoir, nor do I have shares in his business, but I still really recommend anyone who wants to learn how to taste wine to buy it.






3. Drink and taste as much as you can.
But mostly don't just drink, take the time to reflect and think about what you are drinking. Why do you like it ? or not ? What aromas are predominant. Do you smell fruits, flowers ?



So next time you sit in a fancy restaurant, and the sommelier comes up to you and asks you to taste, don't be scared, if the wine is corked, you're allowed to say so. Just think about your little flask and try hard to remember if it corresponds to the same smell. Before you know it, it'll come naturally and you won't even have to think about your magic kit !

Chinon Wine Makers Fair

Do you know Cabernet Franc ?

I mean do you REALLY know Cabernet Franc ?

The only true way to discover this unusual varietal in its depths and idiosyncrasies is to taste it in a wine from the Loire Valley.
Saint Nicolas de Bourgueil and Chinon are areas that usually produce 100% Cabernet Franc wines and take pride in the specificity of this unusual varietal.

Independent Wine Makers Fair

Twice a year the Independent Wine Makers Fair (Salon des Vignerons Indépendants) takes place in Paris.

It's quite an event, and the occasion for amateur wine connoisseurs like me to discover small estates that are hardly sold on the mainstream wine market.

I went there with a couple of friends to experience the frenzy of tasting wines from 9am to 5 pm in a gigantic garage-like hall that held approximately 1000 wine makers.

We started out spitting our wine, but by 2pm we had completely forgotten all about our spitting cups. So I'm not sure my judgment on the last wines we tasted is totally accurate...

In fact, I realized the following morning that I had bought 3 times as much wine past that time.

Unfortunately, I don't think this is because we got lucky and found the best estates towards the end.