Undercover wine tasters

In India today there are wine-centric organisations that are commercial: Vikram Achanta’s Tulleeho Wine & Spirits Academy, Magandeep Singh’s Wi-Not Beverage Solutions, Nikhil Agarwal’s All Things Nice, and even Gargi Kothari’s Magic Cellars.

They organise wine-related events (tastings, fairs and festivals, dinners) for the public at large for a small margin. All can be contacted directly — just google their numbers.

Then there are wine clubs in the major cities: Delhi has the Wine Society Delhi and the Delhi Wine Club; Bengaluru boasts of The Bangalore Wine Club, the Rotary Wine Fellowship of India, and the Chaine de Rotisseurs. There are also wine clubs in Kolkata, Chennai, Chandigarh, Pune, Hyderabad, and even Nagpur; doubtless there are clubs in other cities that one has not heard of.

Clubs organise wine events for their members (plus guests) on a not-for-profit basis and make very valuable contributions to promoting wine and wine culture. Some (like The Wine Society Delhi) have been around for over 30 years but tend to stay out of the public eye, while others are more media-friendly.

There are also what I term “undercover wine tasters”: small groups of wine enthusiasts in which participation is on an invitational basis. They operate on a self-liquidation principle of no surplus for any given event. And their focus is (naturally) wine.

The Chateau Sociando Mallet Jean Gautreau 2007, a fifth-growth from the Haut-Medoc region of Bordeaux, France, is not something for the casual drinker

The Wine Connoisseurs Bangalore is one such group: 21 friends who get together monthly for a small (10 people to a table) wine-and-dine event, with the wines coming from the personal cellars of the participants. Seven to eight wines may be presented at an event, and each wine is discussed in detail prior to the related food course.

Another small group, based in Chennai, is called “Munnakka aur Murabba”: “Munnakka” is a raisin made from red grapes, while “murabba” is a candied fruit preserve (as in “Amle ka murabba”), with whom I attended an impromptu tasting-cum-dinner session at Sanjay Kumar’s elegant residence in Bengaluru.

We tasted the following wines:

Luce Lucente 2015 from the Luce winery set up in the 1990s as a joint venture between Frescobaldi and Robert Mondavi in the Montalcino area of Tuscany, Italy. A 50:50 blend of Sangiovese and Merlot (the ratios change every vintage), rated at 93 points by James Suckling, this is the second wine of the estate, with 12 months in oak barriques. Luscious, with firm tannins and a medium+ body. Not yet imported into India.

Mouchao Ponte das Canas 2012 from the Herdade do Mouchao winery of Portugal, owned by the British Reynolds family since the 1850s: the estate spans 2,250 acres, of which only 95 acres are planted to vine. Rated at 93 points by Wine Enthusiast, the wine comprises relatively unknown grapes: 30 per cent Syrah, 25 per cent Touriga Nacional, 25 per cent Alicante Bouschet, and the rest are other local grapes. The wine had a terrific bouquet of black fruits and herbs and firm tannins that kept softening in the glass. Imported by Wine Park, available only in Mumbai for Rs 4,740.

Chateau Sociando Mallet Jean Gautreau 2007. A fifth-growth from the Haut-Medoc region of Bordeaux, France, this 87-point wine had an amazingly rich and complex bouquet of fruit, minerals, anise, and wood; on the palate the wine had firm tannins that were quite austere, but gave a very long finish. Imported by Wine Park, priced for Rs 10,976 in Bengaluru, this is not something for the casual drinker.

It’s a pity that good imported wines are so expensive in India due to the cascading effect of a 150 per cent basic customs duty, state duties, and marketing and distribution costs that push up prices here 2.5 to three times that of international rates. Talk about reduced duties on American wines may be the thin edge of the wedge.

Then we could truly say “Namaste Trump”.

Alok Chandra is a Bengaluru-based wine consultant