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!