Catch 'em Young!
"Youth is a blunder; manhood a struggle; old age a regret," said British PM Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881). And he would know. As a young man he was ruined when he sank his fortune in a South American mining scheme that went bust : blunder. His adult career was a see-saw battle for control of the English government against William Gladstone : struggle. In his dotage his big regret must have been that he didn’t have much of an old age, dying just weeks after his retirement. While these ...
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Looking for a Good Bottle of Wine
Since my arrival in Kolkata, Saturday afternoons have been defined by my pilgrimage to Spencer’s in South City Mall to stock up on my weekly supplies. Spencer’s has the distinction of not only being my go to place for difficult to find food items and treats but, even more importantly, the one place in the city that consistently carries a reasonable selection of wine.
Since our dinner ritual has always included the opening of a bottle of wine to accompany whatever was on the plate ...
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It Takes Two to Tango
South American wines are on a roll and it’s Malbec and Cabernet are the two grapes that have own international accolades for the out of the world wine they produce.South American wines are a big deal these days. The Malbecs from Argentina and Cabernet Sauvignons from Chile seem to be winning more medals in worldwide competitions than all of Napoleon’s marshals. Perhaps due to all this prize winning and high points in the trade magazines, South American wines are increas ...
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Wine and Climate Change: A Leap in the Unknown
Bring on the bold is usually what I say! Anything saucy, strong and intense tends to win me over, except when we’re talking about California Zinfandel or the weather. Last year weather hit extremes all around. 2010 tied with 2005 as the warmest year on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the US. Winter storms snarled travel in parts of Europe and North America, record flooding in Pakistan displaced ...
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To Blend or Not To Blend?
By opting to participate in one of the many contentious debates in the world of wine one must either be stark raving mad or be operating from a position of strength. This means one is armed not only with useful, poignant facts but one also possess a passion for their point of view bordering on mania. One such wine debate that has been raging for some time stems from this question: Which types of wines have a better pedigree or better represent a place or a vintage? Single variety wines like, for ...
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Where Wow comes from -- A Visit to the Douro River Valley
In the world of wine there are a few vineyard sites that produce an out-loud, this-is-incredible reaction. One of these places is the hillside vineyards of the Douro Valley. This wine region is upriver from the city Oporto, Portugal and is the home of port wine. Here the hills are steep. Very steep. And high. They are so steep and high that they appear not only impossible to tend but make a person wonder, what might have possessed someone to plant a vineyard in such a difficult location in the f ...
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An Indian Marriage Made in Heaven
Pairing wine with Indian food has to be one of the most exciting and tempting propositions for any culinary enthusiast. The possibilities are endless. Take the food first. Indian cuisine, taking into account all that's cooking across the length and breadth of this vast land, is the most varied and fascinating cuisine in the world, although much of it remains unknown beyond our borders and what I have just said may strike some as an exaggeration, but it is not.And then the wine. Over the years, I ...
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Savour the Wine Flavour
I always say when you cook do so with a smile. Food turns out to be tastier! But as gourmet chefs look for more and more intriguing ingredients to improvise their cooking, they do reach out for those little known herbs and those little known ethnic spices. That way, Indian cooking is always an enriching experience as it is a masterful blend of regional spices and ingredients.
Wine as an ingredient
When I travel out of the country, I carry the word that Indian cui ...
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Just chill!
A while ago I wrote an article for a wine magazine on the question whether or not to chill. I was talking about red wine, of course, because it doesn't take an advanced degree in oenology to figure out that white wine always tastes best when chilled, and that after opening it should be placed in an ice bucket, which even posh restaurants seem to reserve only for champagne, but not for other whites (highly paid sommeliers need to wake up to this omission).
To get back to the reds, I had construc ...
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You've Come a Long way Baby
Ten years ago it was not possible for most wine drinkers to consider the words ‘decent wine’ and ‘screw cap’ in the same sentence. Screw cap was by nature bad. Same for tins, tetra packs, pouches, plastic bottles, bag in box, tubes and any kind of wine that came without the necessary 12 degrees alcohol.
Smart Tetra Packs have Replaced The Romance of Glass
Last month visitors to the latest Vinexpo - the world’s largest wine show held in June eve ...
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