Two New Yorkers spend six months 18 months!?! in Bangalore and other places in India.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Wine Time 5: Vinsura Cabernet-Syrah Red Wine

This is another wine made in the Nashik Valley, about 230 km (150 miles) northeast of Mumbai. The label calls it a "complex deeply colored wine with good body, tannins, and aromas. The taste and flavours may be reminiscent of dried fruit, juicy black-current, savoury spice and gamy meat [!]. The wine can be best enjoyed with roasted pork, turkey, lamb, venison, and Indian Chinese cuisine."

I love how Indian Chinese just gets thrown in at the end as an afterthought. Instead the list starts with an animal that very few people in Indians eat, even if they are non-vegetarian, and then a bird that's also pretty rare (except for expat holidays), lamb (not unknown, but not that common either), and then Bambi. Don thinks that whoever wrote the copy just tried to come up with unlikely and fancy-sounding meats for the list. But why not caviar? Or the finest ham from Spain? Or that party gimmick dish the turducken?

But back to the wine. The good news is that we did NOT taste any gamy meat. But the bad news is that this wine is just OK. It was fairly oaky and somewhat astringent. Don thought it had a bitter aftertaste. Overall, just kind of boring and one-dimensional. It's a 5. The The Complete Indian Wine Guide doesn't say anything about this particular wine (it probably wasn't out yet), but the author is pretty bullish on the winery's future. This one still needs a little work, we think.


Finally, here's a sexy photo. It's from Vinsura's site, next to the statement that "We ensure Competitive Pricing, Reliable service and deliveries." Has this lady just finished dropping off a case, perhaps via water? Or has just perhaps just finished drinking a glass? Our wine label said the wine was best served around 18 C (64 F), and it does look as if it might be kind of chilly wherever this picture was taken.

3 comments:

Scout said...

wow u boys are verrry condescending... i hope the attitude stretches across borders!

Tripp Hall said...

Hi Scout,

Well, certainly wine labels and wine talk in general is usually funny the world over. I don't want to be too harsh, but I do think that for 400+ rupees (let along 250 or so), folks ought to be able to get a good bottle of wine.

We have so many more ones to check out, and the great thing is that there are new kinds almost every day. That's part of what makes drinking all this Indian wine fun and interesting, even when a particular bottle isn't to our liking.

--John

Scout said...

Grovers, Sula, Chantilli and Riviera are pretty good I think... I agree about the pricing bit though. But methinks you do get a good bottle for around 400 rupees... But that's me!