High spirits

After tasting success last year, the festival will again have you swirling the wines in your glass to taste it just the right way. But that is not all that the festival is about. Apart from the whole ritual of wine tasting and pairing which-wine-with-what-food custom, the festival will make people indulge in a tantalising experience with its gourmet stalls. Making wine shed its restrictive elitist tag, the festival will bring out in the open the drink that once was confined to the domain of sophisticated social gatherings. 8220;A formal atmosphere is what people associate wine with. We want to break that myth and that is why we have come forward to promote Indian wines, which are affordable and taste great as well,8221; says B Shakarnarayan, founder, Pune Gourmet Club PGC.

For the lovers of fabulous wine accompanied by fine cuisine, this is the place to be as the festival will have gourmet stalls that will have people craving for more. 8220;This time, we are having four food stalls for different cuisines. People can enjoy the right wines with the right food,8221; says Shankarnarayan.

The festival will flaunt sushi, Cajun and chicken and Indian starters stalls, apart from a European cuisine stall. 8220;We concentrate mainly on making people aware of how to pair Indian wines well with typical Indian cuisine bringing in the complete Indian flavour to this very international drink,8221; he says. The festival will also witness some virgin products of the wineries being showcased. 8220;Vintage wine will have its reserve wine Chardonnay at the festival. Also, Seagram8217;s Nine Hills will showcase Chiraz and Cabarnet Sauvignon. Both these have not hit the market as yet,8221; says Shankarnarayan.

While last year the festival had wine technology students from Nashik accompanying visitors to make them aware of the nitty-gritty of wine tasting, this time the PGC has come up with a 56-page guide to inform and educate people about the drink.

For those who love brunch, the festival will dish out an effervescent morning of fried mayhem and sunny shenanigans featuring the event8217;s most brilliant, offbeat and somewhat bizarre offering 8211; Tapas bar. 8221; We are having talks with people and most probably the bar will also be one of the features in the festival,8221; informs Shankarnarayan

Gourmet meals, wine education, a unique consumer wine tasting and a wide variety of culinary activities, these to name a few, the festival has a lot more to highlight its jovial spirit. It features a stall where people can get their T-shirts made with pictures of them. Also, to make you feel like a perfect wine connoisseur, the stall will have aprons that one can use when at the festival.

The weekend event is expected to draw around 3,000 visitors and feature well-known Indian wineries, award winning wines, cheese sampling and interaction with winemakers from Australia and experts and wine appreciation seminars. Based on voting by registered visitors, the PGC will declare the most popular wines of the festival in three categories 8212; White, Red and Rose.

The festival will take place at Rohi Villa Palace, Lane -7, Koregaon Park, on Dec 13 and 14