Reading through the review of the single-parcelled grower champagne by Megan Nunn on facebook sometime back, I happened to read about how she noticed the notes of Indian Spices in a champagne she tasted. Megan is a devoted enthusiast of small grower champagne houses with a keen interest in their wines, regions, cuisines and culture […]
I had kept the Shiraz in the cooler to be opened on the weekend – Friday to be precise. Today was egg curry for lunch. But getting impatient, I found myself opening the Shiraz and pouring in the glass. Initial whiff, sniff and a sip promised a wonderful wine. Impromptu decision next was to make […]
“What grows together, goes together” is the time tested mantra to pair food with wines. So here’s the earthy sauvignon blanc from the leading Indian wine house – Sula, paired with home made chicken pasta which we had for lunch today. It made a perfect Food-Wine pairing. Next was the black pepper cream chicken prepared […]
As we progress in our wine journey, broader understanding tends to break into multiple layers, and this is where it gets both challenging and interesting. To illustrate, lets talk about the difference between ‘Appreciating a Wine’ and ‘Judging a Wine’. Many wine schools teach about the structured manner to appreciate a wine which primarily implies […]
Bacchus (c. 1596) is an oil painting by Italian Baroque master Michelangelo Caravaggio which shows a youthful Bacchus reclining in classical fashion with grapes and vine leaves in his hair, fingering the drawstring of his loosely draped robe. On a stone table in front of him is a bowl of fruit and a large carafe of red wine. He holds out a […]
Throughout history wine has intermingled with almost all spheres of human activity and particularly so with Art. Here is one such painting created in 1640s which depicts an interesting anecdote. It is named as The trick of the wine, and done by the famous 17th CE Florence artist Baldassarre Franceschini, also known as Il Volterranno. The […]
As we know, during making of a red wine, the grapes picked from the vines are crushed to form a ‘Must’. This is followed by addition of Yeast to make wine by the process called as Fermentation. Often winemakers add a pre-fermantation stage too by means of a “Cold Soak”. Pioneered by the famed innovator […]
Turn of the previous century or more precisely from 1870s to start of WW1 were heady times in France. It was peak of industrial revolution, economic prosperity and peace. Eiffel Tower was inaugurated, streets and homes had incandescent light bulbs, Wright Brothers flew their first successful flight. It were days of celebration too. Films, Moulin […]
At first there was purely natural wine – from the grapes picked and left overnight in a tumbler which got fermented by the natural yeast present on grape skins. Maybe this produced enough wine for consumption by a man and his family. But then may be driven by greed or sensing profit making, he planned […]
“Barbera d’Alba is an elegant woman with finesse that you can dance with whereas Barbera d’Asti is determined, powerful, intense, a woman you gotta watch out for…”, that’s the quote by the renowned winemaker Luca Vietti in an interview with the Wine Spectator magazine sometime back. These two wines happened to be in focus during […]
