Buying and drinking wine in India

Quirky anecdotes, essential facts and figures and invaluable advice, this book packs it all.

WINE Wisdom
By Magandeep Singh
Penguin Books
Rs. 250
Pages: 233
Paperback
ISBN: 0-14-400065-2

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In Wine Wisdom, certified sommelier Magandeep Singh takes wine off the snob table and puts it in a handy brown bag for all to relish.

This indispensable book also includes:
• The history of wine drinking and changing trends in India and across the world.
• A comprehensive list of the major wine brands currently available in India, as well as the ones to look out for if you're shopping abroad.
• The basic rules of serving wine – temperatures, glassware and perfect pairings of Indian cuisine and wine – and storing it.
• A reference list of wine-related terms and their definitions.

Here is an excerpt from "Chapter 7: Labels and Lists":

What the label tells us
• The winemaker's name: The name of the house which makes the wine. In many cases (like Bordeaux) this is also the name of the wine.

• Region of provenance: The concept of terroir is strongly rooted in the winemaking philosophy of the Old World. When they talk about the wines of any given region, they assume that one will, by default, know the grapes used to make that wine. There is nothing that stops them from putting the name of the grape on the label (Alsace does it), but perhaps it is their belief that by mentioning the region they have already 'given away the secret of the grapes'.

• Grape varietal: Mentioning the grape on a label is an American improvisation to boost sales. It soon became, and still is, the French wine industry's worst nightmare. Mentioning the grape is essentially a New World practice, though the French are beginning to relent and mention grapes on their labels as well. More and more wine drinkers are moving towards such bottles as it is more comforting to know what one is drinking rather than play Twenty Questions with the sommelier to figure out what grape was used to make the wine they just drank!

• A quality indicator: This comprises terms like Qualitatswein (German), Appellation Origine Contrôlé (French), Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (Italian), Deniminacione de Origem Calificada (Spanish), Denominacíon de Origem Controlada (Portuguese). These are the different systems of wine classification. Not the best yardsticks to measure quality but the countries are so strict about them that in spite of coming together and being 'unified' in various aspects, a common wine classification is still to be discussed! French labels carry terms like Grand Cru and Premier Cru which are also classifications but are more exclusive and not a part of the above-mentioned system.

• Percentage of alcohol: This one tells us how many parts of alcohol there are in any given wine bottle. It is important from a technical point of view. What is of utmost importance from a taster's perspective is the idea of balance: whether the alcohol contained in the wine supports its structure or is harsh and untamed, causing a deep burning sensation as it slides down the throat. A wine may be irritant with only 9 per cent alcohol whereas another may seem like mother's milk at 15 per cent alcoholic strength.

• Millésime/Vintage/Year: The year the grapes are harvested, irrespective of when the wine may be bottled. Normally, wines are made from grapes harvested in the same harvest season and that is the year which goes on the label, irrespective of when the wine is put into the market. This is the case with most wines apart from non-vintage champagne and port. Each year, these two are made from a blend of wines from various years and the resulting wine therefore cannot carry one vintage on the label. Ten years ago, we would have dismissed any wine with no vintage as cheap stuff, but not any more. Some very good wines in the market today are blends of grapes from different years and fetch high prices. Another reason for mentioning the vintage is that in the case of expensive wines the price can vary from vintage to vintage as wines from a certain year may hold and evolve better than another bottle of the same wine from the same winemaker from a different year.

• Bottled quantity: Useful to know; a bottle marked with an inordinately low price may actually be just a half-bottle.

• Country of produce: Few restaurants overlook this one as they normally classify wines country-wise. That's all right as long as it is indicated somewhere.

• Price

• Other country-specific obligatory mentions: Lot/Batch No., presence of sulphur dioxide, etc.