It is a long time that Members of Hyderabad Wine Club could not cherish the thrills of wine tasting.  Partly due to members hectic schedules and my own commitments at work.  Finally the day came, where in we could have a session with French wines.

The wines for the evening were:   Domaine Laroche Chablis 2001 ,   Georgeous Deubeuf Maulina Vent Beaujolious 2003 ;    Hegel & Fills Gentil, 2001. Alsasce ,    Michel Laroche Chardonnay 2002   ,    Muscadet Serve et Maine 2001 with Marquise de Pompedore and IVY Brut from Chateau Indage for starting

It may be interesting to note that the vintage of these wines are rather ‘old’.    Fortunately these wines were kept under good cellar conditions at 10-12 deg.C.  Wine specialists suggest that except for Beaujolais Moulin au Vent 2003, the other wines are meant to be consumed within 2-3 years of vintage, with good condition cellaring.  Fortunately most of the wines could retain their freshness and members could enjoy the wines. 

Even though the strength of the club is small, it is growing slowly and steadily with wine loving couple being invited or introduced by existing members.  It is earning a good name for itself as a cozy and decent family club.  We are not in a rush for any membership drive and want it to grow steadily.   After all ours is not a wine drinking country and a ‘culture change in life style’ certainly needs time to take place. Unfortunately, all liquor shops naming themselves in a decently sounding ‘wine shops’ do give a wrong impression about ‘real wines’ and there is no legislation to curb the misuse of name of such a celestial beverage.

In the meantime, we had one more wine loving couple joining us.   We welcome Mr. Chris Mitchell and Ms. Nilah Pandian to our club fold.  Chris is basically from a ‘Wine Family’ of Napa valley and was ready to share his experience with wines.    He made a brief speech covering the - Appreciation of the palate and the ability to develop and appreciate sense of taste,  An almost endless variety of wines to try and discuss; A delicious and fun way to "travel" the world while staying at home and Significant health benefits of wine.  We express our sincere thanks for sharing his knowledge with our fellow members.

.  Here the Gentil is floral and slightly sweet.  The wine worked well with the hotter dishes and even with spice.  May be this is the easiest wine to work with and coming from Alsace. 

The menu looked after by F&B Manger Mr. Laurenze Lever and prepared by Mr.  Srivastav is just to complement the wines of the evening.   Most of these wines for the evening worked well with spice and chilli.  The Muscadet’s best affinity with fresh lightly spiced seafood and shellfish, Chardonnay handling full flavored spiced curries including chicken and lamb,   Gentil with its floral and slightly sweetish tinge is good for slightly hotter dishes and even with spice,  is the easiest wine to work with and coming from Alsace.  The  Maulina Vent the soft wine with Plum and Cherry flavors,  and even with some oak flavors provided additional red fruit flavor to the main dinner course.  The other three white wines, Muscadet, Chablis and Chardonnay are from driest to least dry and could complement most of the curried dishes. 

For starters it was Fish Finger with Tatare Sauce,  Chicken Drums Sticks,  Crumb Fried mushrooms,  Veg.Shanghi Rolls  with salads Russian Salad / Green Salad / Aloo Papdi Chaat.  The main course is with Veg.Manchow Soup,  Pan Seared *** of Chicken,  Achari Gosht,  Veg.Steak ( Sauted vegetables with Mushrooms and mashed potato),  Kadai Paneer,  Dall Makhani,    Veg.Fried Rice / Plain Rice,  Kulcha /Naan / Roti / Curd ,  Followed by desserts  Chocolate Mousse Vanilla ice cream

Members of wine club still stick to the old fashioned cocktail circuits, where in drinks go round with the starters,  most of the evening going through the wine drinking with informal talk,  members moving around exchanging opinions.  Once in a while there will be wine related questions, from an enthusiastic wine lover.  Of course, time is not yet ripe, to guide the wine lovers to a formal sit down wine dinners.   What I feel is let them get the feel of good wine evening, and let them take their own pace to shift to wine culture.  There is some significant progress in the way of our member’s attitude.  Mr. Anjanadri and Ms. Vijayalaxmi spent some time for picking up good wine stemware during their recent shopping sojourn abroad.   Mr.  NVV Prasad proudly declaring that he can choose correct wine while shopping.   There we are, slowly but steadily shifting our preference to wines and wine related items.

Please click here to see the event pictures

Cheers

Balaji Rao BK

President, Hyderabad Wine Club