Make Your Own Bordeaux Wine
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For Indians around the world who enjoy wine and the good life Volume 11, Issue 2, April-May 2016 `200 INDIA SommelierTHE WINE MAGAZINE MAKE YOUR OWN SOMMELIER INDIA WINE MAGAZINE Volume 11, Issue 2, April-May 2016 11, Issue 2, April-May Volume WINE MAGAZINE SOMMELIER INDIA BORDEAUX WINE SURESH BHALLA DID SO CAN YOU page 17 The Judgement of Paris REVISITING THE FAMOUS TASTING page 56 Gem of a grape EMBRACING CHENIN BLANC page 48 Biodynamics A WORLDWIDE TREND THAT HAS CAUGHT ON page 72 INDIA’S PREMIER WINE MAGAZINE. FOR RESTRICTED CIRCULATION ONLY WINEEVENT Toast to the Capital Rieslingfeier Delhi 2016 was a rare experience for Delhi’s wine lovers, with five top producers of German Rieslings presenting their exceptional wines at a wine dinner in the capital. By Rajiv Kehr he English translation of the German word feier is celebration or party. Hotel Leela, Gurgaon, with the support of Lufthansa and the German Wine TInstitute recently played host to the very first Riesling Festival in India, celebrating German Riesling, the acknowledged king of German wines and one of the six noble grape varieties. Riesling is considered by many to be among the finest white wine grapes in the world, a view shared by Jancis Robinson MW, wine writer for the Financial Times of London and Sommelier India columnist. Toasting German Rieslings and the Some of us may have first noticed Riesling great winemakers as one of the more affordable white wines on who came to Delhi with their wines to hotel wine lists. And the very first glass of participate in the German wine for wine enthusiasts belonging Riesling Festival 24 Sommelier INDIA APRIL-MAY 2016 APRIL-MAY 2016 Sommelier INDIA 25 to my generation, may well have been of its worth. Its twin peaks are intense perfume Liebfraumilch by Blue Nun, a very popular and a piercing crisp acidity, which it manages brand at the time, targeting the international to retain even at extremely ripe levels. Riesling mass market. produces delicate, racy, nervy and stylish wines So, was an introduction to German wine that cover a wide spectrum of flavours – from via the semi-sweet Liebfraumilch or Blue Nun steely and bone dry, with beautifully scented such a bad thing? Not really. We all have to start notes of apples, apricots, and sometimes peaches, somewhere. How can one appreciate greatness to exotically sweet flavours of the great sweet if you have not known and experienced wines wines. The wines are technically correct, but how at both ends of the spectrum? Many people does one convey the emotion you experience at might only think of Riesling as the cheap wine the sight and smell of an aged BA or TBA , a on a hotel list, but there is another world of wine that has been transformed over time, by “haute couture” Rieslings that attract the most the hand of nature from a pale greenish, golden frenzied bids at an auction. hue to a rich brown colour that can shimmer and These collectible bottles fetch record prices. dance in the candlelight. Thanks to its aromatic The 2003 Trockenbeerenauslese (TBA) from profile and acidity, Riesling makes for a perfect Egon Müller, for instance, was auctioned at the pairing with spicy Asian cuisine including annual Trier Mosel Wine Auction in 2015 for Indian food. I very much wanted wine lovers in €12,000, making it the most expensive bottle India to experience the rich diversity of styles of white wine ever, while a double magnum that the best bottlings, from the top producers, (three-litre bottle) of G Max 2009 from have to offer. From this an idea was born which Weingut Keller was bought for a record €4,000 eventually blossomed into a Riesling festival, to the fact that Spätlese (late harvest) wines in 2010, which was the highest price ever paid with five producers representing Rheingau, first originated there. Producers like Theresa in auction for a young dry Riesling, according Mosel and Mosel Saar showcasing their wines. today see Rheingau as the home of some of the to Hans Jürgen Podzun, head of the Koblenz Theresa Breuer of Georg Breuer, which has best dry Riesling. Chamber of Commerce. been specialising in dry Rieslings from their I met with a similar response from Numerous records prove that at one time great terroir since 1980, was enthusiastic about Barbara Engerer of Weingüter Geheimrat J Rajiv Kehr and Riesling commanded prices as great as the top the “Wine Queen coming to India even though she produces a Wegeler. Wegeler, with holdings in some of First Growths from Bordeaux and was highly of Rheinhessen” minuscule 6,000 bottles of her Rüdesheim the best plots in Rheingau and Mosel, were flanked by Tridib regarded. The wine served at Queen Elizabeth’s Sarkar and Parag Berg Schlossberg. Rheingau proudly lays claim perfect examples of house style over terroir. coronation in 1952 was a Riesling from Nierstein, Tripathi In 1992, Wegeler formed a team together with Hipping, one of the prime plots owned by Klaus the estates of Breuer, Hans Lang and Robert Peter. Indeed, in many instances, Riesling was Weil that pioneered the introduction of Erste the preferred choice of wine at official dinners. Gewächse (comparable to France’s Grand From top to bottom: A selection of snapshots of top German winemakers Wineries like Robert Weil in Rheingau display Cru designation) to the market in a concerted and guests at the dinner held at the Hotel Leela Gurgaon for Rieslingfeir Delhi old menus with Rieslings on the list for State effort to re-establish the character of a site as 2016, the first Riesling Festival staged in India and curated by Rajiv Kehr Dinners in Europe. the sole criterion of quality. Next to sign up, were Klaus Peter and o what happened? How did Riesling lose Julia Keller from Rheinhessen. Klaus Peter’s its way? In the 1980s producers lost focus wines fetch record prices and critical acclaim Sand began to produce more and more is deservedly heaped upon them by scores of wine for the mass market, diluting the great wine writers and critics. In 2012 they had the ability of Riesling to faithfully express its terroir, honour of supplying the wine for the 60th which is precisely what a wine connoisseur seeks Anniversary of the coronation of Queen in a top bottle. For without emotion there can Elizabeth II. In 2013 they produced the baby be no great bottle, nor can there be appreciation wine for little Prince George from the steep 26 Sommelier INDIA APRIL-MAY 2016 APRIL-MAY 2016 Sommelier INDIA 27 Hipping vineyard in Nierstein. e were now set to organise WINESOFGERMANY to reach its full ripeness. It does well even in Lovers of Indian food, Klaus Peter and the festival on January 27, rocky soil and, when young, produces wines Julia reached deep into their cellar to present Wshowcasing a broad range of the with aromas of rose, cashew, peach and green an auction bottle from Nierstein, the famous greatest wines from Germany at a dinner with RENOWNED apples. Capable of producing age-worthy wine-growing town in Rheinhessen, along with the support of the German Wine Institute wines, Rieslings acquire complexity with age their Westhofen, Abts E, Grosses Gewächs, who sent along Sabrina Becker, Rheinhessen and are a treat for the palate. 2007. We were already on a roll. Wein Konigin (Wine Queen of Rheinhessen) RIESLINGS Given below is a list of the wines The Mosel which is the quintessential 2015/2016, to represent all the wine regions presented at the Master Class. Because Riesling region for many was represented by in Germany. The chefs at Diya, the Indian Gurjit Barry’s firsthand account of an of space constraints, instead of providing Nik Weis of St Urbans-Hof. Mosel Rieslings restaurant at the Leela, rose to the occasion exclusive Master Class presented by individual tasting notes I describe the house are bright, fruity and fresh with acidity by coming up with an Indian menu to pair some of the top winemakers in Germany and the wine styles in general. Five prestigious and sugar to give them an ageing potential, with the wines over several flights. houses present – Georg Breuer, Wegeler, Egon second to none. Weingut St Urbans-Hof was Now that it’s all over, I sometimes Müller, St Urbans-Hof and Keller. Each house first established in 1947 by Nicolaus Weis wonder how it happened. After all, per capita represented and showcased a style different who was awarded the prestigious title of consumption of wine in India according to anuary 29, 2016 will go down in the from the other, yet each is steeped in history “Oekonomierat” (Chancellor of Agriculture) the latest statistics published by the German diaries of a few chosen wine lovers in the and tradition. in 1969 for his dedication to German Wine Institute is a mere 0.01 litre. Another Jcity as a most memorable day. This was viticultural traditions and his name and title way to look at that statistic is the fact that the the day when the rarest of the rare Rieslings GEORG BREUER became part of the winery name, “St Urbans- total consumption of wine in India is 15,000 from Germany were presented to a select The wines of Georg Breuer impressed Hof Oekonomierat Nic”. kl and in the tiny state of Singapore it’s 17,300 audience at a Master Class held at the Leela everyone with their elegance. Founded in All that remained now was to sign up Egon kl. In comparison, India ranks 50th globally Gurgaon hotel by accomplished international 1880, the estate specialises in producing dry, Müller whose Scharzhofberg vineyard is one of in consumption of beer.