It Ain’t Half Hot

Thinking of movies and comedy series set in British colonial environments, I don’t think I have ever seen someone drinking wine. Sweaty men gulping whisky, elegantly dressed women sipping tea on well-mowed lawns, yes, that I can remember (though the mind is a source to be distrusted). Yet I just read that the British have stimulated India’s already century-old wine industry during colonization. In India’s hot climate, where in some regions one can harvest two crops a year (one shouldn’t), there must have been enough wine to wash away their curries. At least till Phylloxera took its toll, followed by shifting public opinion, and, in the 40s, shifting powers.

The end? Certainly not. There are even new beginnings, as shows Sula Vineyards (Nashik, 180 km northeast of Mumbai). This relatively new player in the Indian wine industry (1997) has gained some fame already, their wines for sale in several European and New World countries. Nashik having similar climatological and soil conditions as California, Rajeev Suresh Samant, CEO of Sula Vineyards, brought a Sonoma County winemaker and some New World grape varieties (the result being a sort of Neo-Mock Cabernet?).

His Sula style is herbal (whites) and spicy (reds) with a sweet touch, the reds and some whites rather high in alcohol. More often than not a I smelled and tasted something chemical. As different as these wines may be, they have one thing in common: both whites and reds matched perfectly with the hot and spicy Indian snacks that were served with them by the Dutch distributor.

Sula Sauvignon Blanc 2011: lots of flavour, dry, greenish, mineral. Not bad. € 7,95. (With spicy cod.)

Sula Chenin Blanc 2010: withdrawn, Lysol?

Sula Dindori Reserve Viognier 2012: I wouldn’t have recognized it as a Viognier. Herbal, fruity (apple, a little peach). Adequate, but at € 10,95. (Good with cardamom.)

Sula Zinfandel Rose 2012: if you’re fond of Danone style strawberry yoghurt, this is your wine. € 7,50.

Sula Cabernet Shiraz 2010: I smelled dried watercolour; taste a bit sweet. Not my favourite but our most experienced taster detected wet leather and said this wine was too young but would mature well. If we take his word for it: a great wine in a few years’ time at € 7,95. (With Indian ‘kroepoek’.)

Sula Red Zinfandel 2011: a bit hazy, mildly chemical strong dark fruit, a bit alcoholic. Not bad, but I’m unfamiliar with Zinfandel. € 8,50.

Sula Dindori Reserve Shiraz 2011: now we’re slowly getting there; a bit hazy, spicy, dark fruit, vanilla, pepper; a full bodied New Worldish shiraz. € 11,95. (With Chicken Tikka Massala.)

Sula Rasa Shiraz 2011: now we’re really getting there; no whiff of industrial candy here but real dark fruit; spicy, balanced; Old Worldish Shiraz. Great wine. You pay for it though: € 18.

Sula Sparkling Wine 2012: not very sparkling (but not the right glassware) and an unfavourable nose; yoghurt. Something went wrong?

So which one would I pick in my favourite Indian restaurant? Well, I’ll stick to tea, but that’s because—for reasons that are of no interest—I always go there by car.

Bordeaux Tasting

Bordeaux tastings have magic around them. And why shouldn’t they? The ‘fine fleur’ of wine journalism and wine trade from around the world gather in this château-studded area to taste and judge new vintages. Being the world’s most famous wine region, its blends imitated by many a New World wine maker, where the best wines are only affordable to the (nowadays increasingly Chinese) rich and famous, pension funds, and insurance companies—a bit of magic comes natural. Even more so as the wines are tasted (and sold—this is not a charity event) ‘en primeur,’ as cask samples, i.e., as unfinished wines. A true surprise party.

I am not easily scared off, so I boldly accepted an invitation for a Bordeaux tasting last November. Of course it did help that the tasting didn’t take place in Bordeaux, that it wasn’t ‘en primeur’ and that the invitation came from Gommers, a trusted, sympathetic wine retailer. No Pétrus here, nor a Haut Brion, but then the wines didn’t cost one a month’s income (per bottle, that is).

 

Magic was there all the same: 42 red Bordeaux wines of sometimes lesser, sometimes better known châteaux, elegantly presented in a renovated coach house. That was more Bordeaux than I had ever seen in my life. What to choose, where to start, especially if one is fairly unfamiliar with Bordeaux wines? Spouse and I had done some homework, thought it better to skip the wines under € 8 and kicked-off. We tasted lots of blackcurrant, leather, vanilla, remnants of cigar box, a dash of stable, harsh and soft tannins. Each wine, each vintage different from the other (with 2009 acknowledgedly sticking out as pretty near-perfect).

Here are a few of our favourites.

2009 Château Croix de Rambeau, Lussac Saint-Emilion, a 90/10% Merlot/Cabernet Franc blend. Though I noted a floral nose, lots of fruit and soft tannins, the tasting comments of the French cellar master—and who am I to think differently—tells me that, I quote, ‘the mouth is very pleasant from the attack.’ For sale at € 15,50, and well worth it’s price.

2009 Château Saransot-Dupré, Listrac Cru Bourgois, a classic Bordeaux blend of Merlot (56%), Cabernet Sauvignon (24%), Cabernet Franc (15%), Petit Verdot (3%), and Carmenere (2%). Dark fruit, cigar box, leather, laurel. Friendlier and fresher than the 2006. At € 16,25.

The 2009 Château de Pez, Saint-Estèphe Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel was the most expensive, selling for € 45 a bottle, and to my taste also the finest. Blackcurrant, vanilla and leather in the nose; soft, full-bodied, fresh; balanced. Yummy indeed, but three times as yummy as the Croix de Rambeau or the Saransot-Dupré? I didn’t think so.