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No one's whining

With the domestic and export wine market expanding, it's heady times for companies such as Grover who have vineyards near Bangalore. The vast vineyards make good tourism spots too

Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.

HEADY HARVEST Ajay Kewadkar: `Sixty per cent of winemaking actually happens in the vineyard'

The per capita wine consumption in France is 60 litres. And it's .07 litres in India. That's the kind of statistics that would drive Indian wine makers to drown their sorrows in sachets of local arrack. But Ajay Kewadkar, the Vice-President of Grover Vineyards, will tell you that they are actually on a high like never before.

One of the leading wine companies of India, Grover has been making the kind of wine that has even the French — the badshahs of wine making and drinking — thirsting for more. The most recent proof of success being that the company's La Reserva has been adjudged the "Best New World Red Wine" by the prestigious wine magazine Decanter, beating entriesfrom Australia, Chile New Zealand and Argentina.

Even as the export market is growing, Grover and other wine manufacturers in India are also tapping the domestic market that's growing slowly but steadily — with Bangalore, predictably, leading the pack.

With vast vineyards and the process of wine making being as exotic as the final product itself, the wine makers are also eyeing the vineyards' tourism potential. Grover, for one, is doing wine trails in collaboration with Tulleeho Portals.

As you drive down the vineyard not too far from Bangalore — at the foot of the Nandi Hills, off Doddaballapur town — Ajay fills you in on a bit of Grover's history. The company discovered that the place near Bangalore has the most ideal weather — 970 metres above sea level and heat that does not exceed 36 degrees Celsius even in summer. "It is very important that maturation progresses at just the right pace. If the sugar build up is too fast, the aroma and texture won't be right," he says. As you go around the vineyard where harvesting is on, Ajay explains that they use what's called the "root-stalk grafting" method of cultivation to ensure that the plants have resistance to soil-born diseases. This means that the winemaking variety of grape vines actually stand on the roots of a wild and sturdy variety, a technique developed in Europe after acres of vineyards were destroyed by a disease called phylloxera.

They also make sure that the yield of grapes does not exceed five tonnes per acre. The extra output is, literally, nipped in the bud, since too much dilution leads to lack of aroma. They also ensure that more than 75 per cent of the manure used is organic. And no pesticide is sprayed for two months before the harvesting season, since it might leave residue in wine. "Sixty per cent of winemaking actually happens in the vineyard. Only 40 per cent depends on processing," says Ajay.

At the winery located close to the vineyard, an equally stringent process — from crushing to bottling of the finished product — is in place to make the kind of wine the fussy French love. Michael Rolland, a wine consultant to nearly 100 wineries around the world, helps fine-tune the blends.

After this long trip around the vineyard and winery comes a bit of pleasurable education. Ajay, also a master wine taster, lines up the many varieties of wines Grover makes and tells you how to go about drinking each. Pick up the slim glass, smell it, swirl it, smell it again, and then slowly take the first sip. He asks you to note how the aroma grows stronger as you swirl it. "And what does the smell remind you of?" he asks. And then he helpfully explains it himself: "Sauvignon Blanc, our white wine, has about it the feel of tropical climates. So it reminds you of gooseberries and guavas."

He goes on to explain what variety of wine goes with what food. The basic principle is that white meat goes with white wine, and red meat with red wine. Dismissing the belief that wines go with only Western and Mediterranean cuisines, Ajay says they go well with many Indian foods. Sauvignon Blanc, for instance, goes excellently with palak paneer. Rose, on the other hand, goes with tandoor items. The international trend, though, is to drink Rose with Chinese foods.

But wouldn't all this emphasis on etiquette put an Indian, or anyone for whom wine drinking isn't part of the culture, off the drink itself? "There was no wine culture because there was no good wine around to begin with so far!" says Ajay. With that changing, things are bound to change in the wine drinking scene in India. In fact, it already is. Women, particularly, are taking to it like never before. "A woman is more comfortable with a wine glass than one of rum or whisky," says Ajay.

Ajay has a piece of purely hedonistic advice to every Indian who is hesitantly eyeing the wine goblet: just pick it up and enjoy it, and don't think too much about etiquette.

Countries such as Argentina, Chile and Australia have already shown the way. "It may shock a Frenchman to see an American drink wine with a burger. But so what?"

Visit www.tulleeho.com for details on the wine trail.

Desi mix

In one forum on the Net dedicated to wine drinking, a true blue International Indian offers a recipe that, he claims, goes perfectly with red wine: "Try Andhra style avakkai and rice mixed with two spoons of olive oil (virgin preferred for better experience) with red wine (optionally mixed with one-sixth Puerto Rican rum). Alternative is Hyderabadi bagara baingan with naan or basmati rice."

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