For your Diwali
THE WINE CLUB
| So what wines should one buy and try this festive season? |
| Well, there are not a great many new wines out in the market right now, and in any case the excise authorities in places like Delhi and Hyderabad make it impossible to introduce anything in the "middle" of the year "" a self-serving restriction that merely deprives consumers of wider choice. |
| Also, the prohibitively high taxes in Andhra Pradesh ensure that only the most basic wines are available in Hyderabad "" another case where the authorities have buckled-in to the liquor lobby and not allowed wines to be sold at reasonable prices. |
| Also forget Chennai, where state control over both distribution and retailing means that nothing apart from Golconda (which is wine only in theory) is available to anyone. |
| And in Mumbai no imported wines have been available ever since the excise authorities (in their infinite wisdom) decreed a 150 per cent duty in July. |
| However, at least the denizens of Delhi, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Bangalore and Goa have a wide choice "" three cheers for sensible policies! |
| What you should buy depends both upon how much you want to spend, as well as how good a wine you want to offer your buddies. I think the starting point should be the dry Indian whites like Grover or Sula Sauvignon Blanc "" perfectly acceptable wines at Rs 400-450, some typical grassy aromas there. |
| I also have no quarrel with reds like Satori Merlot or Grover's Cabernet Shiraz "" both in the same price bracket, both good for casual quaffing. Grover's La Reserve is not what it used to be, so unless you have a few bottles from '04 or '05 in your cellar, I wouldn't really inflict this on my friends. |
| Consumers in Bangalore and Goa have been delighted with the Big Banyan range of wines (Rs 450-475) launched recently: all the well-known varietals, well-packaged, with wines that are soft and yet full of flavours "" definitely worth a try. |
| You think that your friends deserve something better? Move up to the Sula Dindori Reserve Shiraz (Rs 595-700) or the Reveilo range of wines (only available in Mumbai and Bangalore) (Chenin Blanc, Rs 505, Syrah, Rs 545, Chardonnay at Rs 645 and Cabernet Sauvignon at Rs 745 "" add 20 per cent in Mumbai). |
| The lot are of a decidedly better quality, with loads of complexity and bouquet and long finishes "" and while the prices are no longer low, you're not getting monkeys either. |
| Lastly, if you're in the mood to splurge on imported wines, remember to go for wines closer to Rs 1,000 per bottle simply because below that the Indian wines last quoted provide far better value. |
| Try the Howling Wolves Small Batch (Australia, Rs 1,350 in Bangalore), the Nobilo Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc (New Zealand, Rs 1,066), the Montes wines (Chile, Rs 912) or the Peppoli Chianti Classico Antinori (Italy, Rs 1,800) "" indeed, any wine with "Antinori" on the label will give you great drinking. |
| Here's wishing a Happy Diwali to one and all! |