One sip at a time
Sonal Holland is not just the first Indian to become a Master of Wine. She’s also a hugely talented showperson, one who kept an audience of wine experts spellbound — and in splits — as she recounted the rituals and pitfalls of judging wines for the 2018 edition of the India Wine Awards at the Leela Hotel Mumbai last week.
We were a motley bunch of 14 invited by Sonal to participate in a two-day session to taste and rate wines submitted by both Indian wineries and importers. This was the second such exercise, the first having been held last year at the Sofitel.
The group of experts included Rahul Akerkar (of Indigo fame, soon to launch the much-anticipated Qualia), Subhash Arora (editor of the widely circulated delWine newsletter and international wine judge), Ajit Balgi (sommelier and mixologist), Ruma Singh (wine writer and expert), Parveen Chander (Taj Hotels), Vaniitha Jaiin (The Perfect Pour), Suneeta Kanga (corporate trainer), Gauri Devidayal (owner of The Table) and Pratik Angre (Sommelier). The group sat at five tables to do a blind tasting of some 207 wines on Day 1, and repeated the exercise on Day 2 but with selected Indian dishes and a smaller number of wines.
Tasting, as you may know, involves sniffing, sipping and spitting out the wines, which are served “blind” — the bottle is covered with a bag. Spitting the wine out is essential since one could well end up under the table (or dancing on top of it!) in short order, given the large number of wines involved. I myself tasted 56 wines on Day 1 and 31 on Day 2.
Wine tasting is actually quite a lot of work: after the first few samples, both the nose and the palate start showing fatigue and it’s not easy to continue to differentiate between wines. You’ve got to rest and refresh the palate with a coffee/lunch break every 10-12 wines, and guard against “tasting euphoria” — when at the end of the day a slightly inebriated state results in giving high scores to every wine.
The results of the tastings are being declared at a glittering function at the Leela Mumbai tonight, so I’m afraid you’ll have to wait for these to be announced in my next article. Wines having been sent in by most domestic producers and importers (with the exception of Brindco, India’s largest wine importer), guests at the prize-giving should be able to taste the award-winning wines that will represent “the best wines in India” today.
Wine competitions are vital for providing third-party validation of quality claims by producers. There are so many wines available today that many consumers welcome some direction, and surely a bunch of wines endorsed by Sonal and her merry gang of tasters has credibility.
Wines I’ve been drinking
Sonal had delved into her personal stash for the post-tasting dinner with some wines that just blew us away: a Champagne Dom Perignon 2006 ( WS 95 points, $165) was followed by a 2014 Tignanello Super-Tuscan ( WS 93 points, $110)and lastly the 2011 Chateau Lynch Bages Grand Cru Classe ( WS 92 points, $105) from Pauillac, Bordeaux. Compensation in kind was accepted with alacrity!