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July 2006 - Posts
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Their flavour is completely desi and very intoxicating!
Even as Indian wine brands make a presence on the international scene, wine hobbyists in Lucknow have long enjoyed making wine in their kitchen *** winery for celebrations at home. Family recipes and experimentation have kept the tradition strong.
Amrit Kiran Singh, vice president and area manager for South Asia of an international liquor house, and an avid wine lover himself, reminisces about the wine his father used to make. "Lucknow doesn't have the grapes best suited" for making the elixir, he rues, adding, "Maharashtra does have vineyards supplying to commercial wineries, but Lucknow's wine hobbyists rarely get a pick from there."
Never mind the Lucknow grapes, says, Annabelle Williams, as her "dad Gasper Rodericks brewed some ethereal ginger and beet root wine for festive occasions, especially Christmas." Though one needs to be at least 18 years of age to legally access an alcoholic drink, a winery in the kitchen does get the kids all excited. Annabelle shares a leaf from her childhood, "The excitement started with shopping for the right stuff, and sustained all through the sacred rituals of fermenting, racking, straining and bottling; going by a yellowing, hand-written recipe notebook and dad's secret ingredients."
Well, special ingredients in well preserved recipes have kept wines on the most wanted list even two millennia after Christ. Leaves, roots, flowers, and other fruit juices add masked flavours. Hibiscus, anise, cactus flowers, apricots, apples and figs being some of the magic-makers that wine hobbyists experiment with. Jamun turns out to be an Indian addition to the otherwise predominantly European art.
And Lucknowite, Allen Bennet talks of local flavours, "Grape, beet root and jamun wines that I make at home are great treats. I have been lucky to pick up the finer details of wine-making while apprenticing with family elders," he laughs.
Unlike Allen, Binoo Bhargava fell for wine-making despite a lack of family history, and 20 years of mastering the craft has got her rave reviews from all who taste her homemade Red port wine. Incidentally, when entertaining at home, she takes pride in the fact that "even ardent whiskey lovers ask for a swig of my brew instead of their customary hard drink!"
An expert with these things, Chef Sanjeev Kapoor understands the passion with which wineries open at home, but figures out that "many people usually do it as a one-off thing, unlike the pickle-making ritual that grips all Indian households' attention. Mastering the art of wine-making is vested in a taste for good wine and passion to get it right." Amrit Kiran Singh, adds that wine-making is a craft for the initiated, "First, a taste for wine is developed, only then can one go ahead and experiment with making good wine.
Usually people begin with sweet wines, going on to medium and then dry wines as their palette develops a taste for the sensual stuff.
And if I can find time, I would like to make wine at home, just for the thrill of it," he shares. However, "Making good wine means accessing the centuries of experience that has gone into its evolution," he adds on a final note, applauding the wine hobbyists who nurture this ancient wisdom in their personal wineries.
Cheers to this one!
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| In a quiet corner of Nashik Valley, a hundred-acre vineyard and winery is making arguably the best wine in India. |
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| The architects of this home-grown story are Suresh and Yatin Patil, a father-and-son team whose roots go down deep into the rich loamy soil of Nashik: their family has farmed the land for over 100 years, and still continue to export table grapes around the world. |
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| Five years back, when the Maharashtra Grape Processing Policy 2001 was announced, Sureshbhai took a decision — he would make the best wine possible. |
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| In preparation, Yatin quit his job in Bombay with a multinational company and started Vintage Wines, whose Reveilo label is starting to become selectively available in Mumbai. |
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THE ECONOMIC TIMES
MUMBAI
Vijay Mallya
who has just bought a 150-year-old French wine-maker Bouvet-Ladubay, is learnt to be making an all out effort for a foothold in the fledgling Indian wine market. The company is in an advanced state of discussion for a joint venture with the Nashik-based ND Wines.
Ashok Gaikwad, chairman, ND Wines, confirmed that he is talking to UB. "The negotiation is for a possible joint venture, through which ND Wine can manufacture and supply wine to UB", he said. But he did not divulge the quantity to be produced under the joint venture.
If talks succeed, it will be UB's first foray into the Indian wine market. The UB group which has been occupying prime position in the spirit and beer industry for the past 20 years, has not focused on the wine segment so far, largely because of the small size of the Indian wine market which is less than 4,00,000 cases.
For more details...
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Raghu Sawkar, born on April 10,1949 in a small town Near Gadag in North Karnataka state, went school in Bangalore and Hubli, graduated as Medical Student in 1972 and moved to UK for further studies. At that time he exposed to German wines and fall in love with that. He moved to Ohio, USA in 1975 for further study and practices in "Vascular and General Surgery" He practiced at Cleveland, Ohio from 1981 to 1998. He was introduced to fine wines and food pairing by a dentist friend named Frank Kysala in Cleveland. He is the president of Cleveland Wine tasting club. He learnt a lot about wines from him and decided to jump in to the Wine business with passion. 
In 1998 He bought 23 acres vineyard in Sonoma and created the Raghu Sakar Family Vineyards. He took all the old vines and planted SYRAH Merlot and Cab Franc. The first crop came in 2001 and first vintage Syrah was released in 2002. He attended 2 years full time Agriculture School in Napa to learn Grape growing and wine making. He met Kerry Damski a (wine maker for Sula winery in India) in Sonoma. He was his consultant wine maker and Raghu was an assistant wine maker and grape grower. He cultivated 20 Acres in Sonoma MT. Road. Production is only 1800 cases per year and he also buys some good Cab grapes in Napa. That brings his total production to 2200 cases. He make quality wines from this small estate. We keep the yield to 2.5 tons per acre to produce high quality wines. His expertise is in wine making, tasting and food pairing specially with Indian food. He also collects wines from around the world, at one time he had 10,000 rare wines in his temperature controlled cellar.
Raghu Sawkar wines widely available everywhere in USA in high wine restaurants and stores.
His future plans to open a winery and wine bars in Bangalore, India
More Phots...
http://sawkar-vineyard.com
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