Close to my house is a ‘wine shop’ at least that is what its name suggests but in reality it is a liquor shop because they sell more of brown, white liquor and beer than wine, having said that, the situation has improved in the last two years that I have been visiting the shop, initially wine was reserved to a corner of the shop but now a days wine occupies more space and they are willing to run the schemes on wine during Christmas and New year, with these ‘wine shops’ I have a problem, most of the time these ‘wine shops’ keep wines of the first generation wine manufacturers of India and it is very difficult to get wines of the new generation and they sell the wine like they are selling any commodity, wines are offered by the colour ‘red’ and ‘white’ most of the times there is no mention of the grape that makes the wine.
In Maharashtra we have the ‘beer shoppe’ that have come up at many places in the cities where they sell beer and wines only and no brown/white liquor. This is a good opportunity for distribution of wines for the lesser known wine manufacturers.They can use these outlets to inform the market about themselves , their grapes and wines and conduct wine tasting or any other events at these outlets. This will help the ‘beer shoppe’ owners by increasing the traffic to his outlet and also help the wine manufacturer to establish his brand, improve his reach and most importantly to educate the customer on wine and methods of evaluating the wine. The wine industry can only grow in India by increasing the numbers of wine drinkers and this can happen only through educating the customer and these beer shoppes are a good opportunity for the wine manufacturers towards that end, I wonder how many of them are making use of this opportunity. Also selling to a beer shoppe owner will be ‘service’ driven and not ‘scheme’ driven as it happens in a traditional ‘wine shop’
I wanted to taste some wines of the new wine manufacturers so I went to one of the beer shoppe and I found that this outlet was no different than the ‘wine shops’ the look and the feel is the same and the same level of ignorance about wine, so any beer shoppe owner or any wine manufacturer takes steps to educate the counter staff of these shoppes will score some points over their competitors. I had to do shop hopping to get the wines I wanted to try they are the Reviolo, Chateau d’ori’s merlot and Vinsura’s sparkling white. So, here are my experiences with these wines
Reviolo syrah 2006 : The colour was ruby red and at an angle it was opaque and with no variation and violet at the rim. The aroma was of berries, medium bodies with soft fruitiness ,fizzy, lively, mildly tannic and acidic, I could taste some salt, medium to long finish complemented the pasta and the kababs we were having . I enjoyed the wine.
Chateau d’ori Merlot 2007 the colour of the wine was ruby and at an angle opaque and no variations. The rim had tinges of brown. The aroma was of berries, vegetal medium bodied, light, slightly tannic and acidic, after some breathing it was refreshing and complemented the chiken tandoori and the tikkas . we had a nice time with the wine and food.
Vinsura Brut sparkling white : The bottle looked good and the label impressive, the colour pale straw with somegreen tinge, aroma was fruity, green apples, green mango, fizzy, astringent, crisp. The bubbles were small and were continuos. This sparkling white can be recommended.
For indianwine.com
Nitin Rao