Happy Wine Year

It’s a two-way street,points out Hemant Mehta,executive chef,Hyatt Regency Pune. The Indian Wine Academy presented a Master Class on Sicily Wines in association with the Istituto Regionale Della Vite E Del Vino in Sicily at this hotel recently. From March 1-10,a wine and food pairing festival will be held at the Italian restaurant La Terrazza. “Our intention is to promote the restaurant while the participating wineries seek to establish themselves in the city,” he says. The combined aim is to educate people about the happy couple: ‘wine and food’. This mantra has been adopted by restaurants across the city. On Friday,Chef Shailendra of Stone Water Grill had a cook-out session. On the menu was Classic fillet mignon steak Diane with Dijon mushroom sauce and Exotic wild mushroom and grilled aubergine over Swiss roestii potatoes and thyme cream. Chief winemaker of Four Season Wines – Abhay Kewadkar – paired the dishes with wines from the winery’s portfolio. The foodies lapped it up.

Today,boutique winery – Vallonne Vineyard – along with Malaka Spice will highlight the fun side of wine drinking at the restaurant. This is the second such wine fest. “Pune is a growing market and we see a huge potential. In fact,since we launched here last year,we’ve made a quantum jump – almost 120 per cent,” says founder of Vallonne Vineyard,Shailendra Pai. The event which heralds the harvest season is aimed at promoting wine in a non-traditional manner. No serious commentary on grapes or soil or seasons,and no restrictions on pairings. Praful Chandawarkar,owner,Malaka Spice,says,“Promote it as fun and people will come. Good wines,good food,grape stomping – that’s what it’s about. It’s also to do away with the elitist tag that��s usually attached to wines. We have a wafer-thin margin as we get wineries to pass on subsidies to people. It’s a way of getting wine into people’s thought processes.” And,it has worked.

Such events create a brand name. If you like a wine,you are going to remember it. You may not distinguish its subtle flavours but you understand that you like it. As Michele Shah,wine critic and consultant to the Italian wine trade,aptly said on her visit to the city,“It’s like sowing the seeds of what will grow later.” Sommelier Nikhil Agarwal and director of Mumbai-based All Things Nice which organised the York Live Festival,says,“The aim of such festivals is three-fold – promote Nasik,create a wine culture and celebrate the harvest season. The fact that we had 650 people from Mumbai and Pune proves that this is working.” It creates a buzz and a promise of business for the wineries. “This period is also more like saying ‘thank-you’ to the wine year that was and Happy New Year to the one ahead,” says Agarwal.