There is something about the Yuletide spirit that makes me want to call in sick at my AAA and maybe even buy a gift for my parole officer. Maybe you can tell me why, but the inmates at this facility don’t seem to quite understand me.

Off all my vices, I list forgetfulness as highly problematic. It doesn’t help when conversation veers towards old vintages of Bordeaux wines and I find myself

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Recently a lot of tripe has been published about sommeliers and their irrepressible habit to upsell wine just so to maximise profits. This question has been asked of me very often recently, so I think it is time someone addressed it. Not just to justify the stance or the situation of this metier in India but also to try and wipe out the ignorance that persists on the subject.

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There is a certain pleasure to be derived from being the first to taste it. A certain sense of privilege and premium attached to the notion of having experienced what others haven’t been able to reach yet. This is exactly the kind of high that lies in store for anybody at the Bordeaux en primeur tastings.

Imagine, the one wine region which is more spoken about than any other region singularly. Now ..Read More >>

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They say kids take on the traits of their parents. Apart from the resembling nose, eye or jawline, they also seem to get infused with their habits, their mannerisms and general way of life.  Wines aren’t too different in that sense. They are very representative of the grape that they come from (lineage) and reflect a strong sense of the place where they are grown (background). Further, they can be interpreted in a hundred different ways and are complex (like women!).

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I remember trying a salmon Carpaccio for the first time. Even before the dish arrived, I was trying to ascertain what exactly it could be about thin strips of raw fish with some oil on top that could have others around me so eagerly salivating. The dish came and sure enough it didn’t quite do it for me. The taste was bland, fishy, salty and far from anything that I perceived as delicious. Nobody, I thought, in their right mind would ever pay any amount - no matter how small - to eat fish where the only preparation involved bashing it on the floor a couple of times.
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From call centres to construction, nuclear presence to new industries, India and China are the closest contenders for future world powers. While that may take some time, a more local war being fought is between Indian and Chinese restaurants to woo the local diner.

And China seems to have the hold as there just aren’t as many Indian restaurants in the Pan-Asian belt as we can find right here in our homeland. Chinese cuisine finds wide acceptance and always manages to please the local palates, with minor tweaking of course!




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We all have heard how Bordeaux is to wines what Lucknow is to kebabs, and Hyderabad is to Biryanis. The region is always in the news, for good reasons or otherwise, and with every sip taken or spat, the popularity and notoriety of this region only grows.

I strongly believe that nothing builds a brand better than measured conspiracies and monitored rumours, and in that sense, the plethora of writers and reporters have unwittingly elevated Bordeaux, so much so that today, if you ask a teetotaller to name a wine-producing region, in all likelihood Bordeaux will be in the top two. The other, in case you are wondering, is Champagne.

 

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A Wine Glossary: A list of words found at the end of a book that the author uses constantly, often just to impress readers. The author might not remember the meaning of these words themselves...so he puts them at the end where he can refer to them all the time.

 

Let's take a look at some of the commonly dropped wine terms in polite society, in random order:

 

Tannin: The bitter sensation mostly associated with red wine. Different grapes produce wines with different amount of tannins - Cabernet/Shiraz being the most to Gamay being the least. They seem harsh at first sip but, petit-à-petit, grow on you. Tannins leave a furry/velvety coat on the inside of our mouth which gives the effect of dryness. They also give red wine their structure and ageworthiness, and their ability to pair well with rich, high-protein dishes. Tea too has tannins. Talk of tannins in white/rosé wines is perfect at a table where one is discussing other things imaginary, like WMDs in Iraq.

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Whenever I get flak for my columns, it is mostly directed to my choice of titles, which are generally quite unimaginative, and cheesy. Apparently my titles make wine even more boring, something that was considered impossible even by the most cynical of critics!

But I have several reasons behind the title of this piece. Two reasons actually. Here’s the first one.

New Zealand has done what no other

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Would you know how to define a hard sell?  I don't, hence the question.

For me the words seem self explanatory; rainbows would be a hard sell in the land of the colour-blind. Whisky is a hard-sell in the land of free narcotics. Wine, on the other hand, is a hard sell, period. No conditions required. It’s just hard.

 

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