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Tripping Sideways
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EXPERIENCE Wine still brews on in the head as a tour of a winery and a sight of its oaken casks remains a tantalising bit of imagination
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on the grape wine Michel Rolland and Kapil Grover are upbeat about Indian wines
Think vineyards and wineries, images of exotic, chilled French red wines frosting in ice buckets come to mind. Most of the trip leading to the Grover Vineyards in the foothills of the Nandi Hills is hardly impressive, punctuated with small shanties a
nd wide stretches of the barren rural landscape. Many plots have already been sold off to real estate developers and are awaiting their transformation to a concrete jungle. The winery is situated in the midst of an industrial estate.
As the motley group of journalists arrive at the wineries, we are served samples of white wine and taken in groups of 20 on a conducted tour of the winery. We are shown the areas where the grapes are sorted manually from the assembly to ensure better quality, the towering structures where the grape juice is fermented and other processes that go into the making of wine. .
Give me red
Since grape pulp alone does not lend wine its red colour, the reddish colour in red wine is created by crushing the grapes, without skinning, we are told. Unfortunately, it being a Sunday, the winery was closed and we could only imagine the entire assembly line in progress, with the humble fruit turning into something so exotic and treasured the world over.
The main occasion of the afternoon was the inauguration of the barrel room of the winery by Michel Rolland, renowned wine expert from Bordeaux, France, and an adviser at the Grover wineries. After the ‘official’ inauguration of the barrel room and a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Rolland answered a barrage of questions from media persons on wines in general and the fate of the Indian wine industry in particular.
Speaking with a pronounced French accent, Rolland tackled all questions with ease. He was confident that as far as quality was concerned, Indian wines could easily rival the best wines on the planet. “Not many people abroad know about good Indian wine. They are often surprised at tasting good wine from India.”
“Though the wine industry has enormous potential, wine grape cultivation is limited to very small pockets in India. Only when the area under wine grape cultivation is increased can the production grow.” He said the wine kept in oak barrels for nearly six months to a year also manages to impart a taste of the oak that gives the wine a distinct taste.
He adds, “Though most wines are kept in barrels for two to three years, some wine manufacturers do keep some wines for longer, to invoke stronger flavours.” He also talked about wine-grape growing techniques and the climatic conditions best suited for it.
Kapil Grover, the managing director of the wineries said that the project was started nearly 20 years ago.
The trip was rounded off with a sit down lunch at a resort, where an assortment of wines and a variety of grills were served. The visit did provide a layman a great deal of information about wines in general and the stages of wine production in particular, but one wondered if the trip could have been much more experiential if it were on a weekday when the winery was open. One could have actually witnessed the transformation rather than having to visualise it alone.
NIKHIL VARMA
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