Dr Vino's wine blog

Jules, the “twenty-something Wellingtonian” who writes the winewanker blog, guessed in no time flat that the mystery winery is in fact Craggy Range in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand.

I really like the photo since it shows such contrasts between the vineyard and the surrounding area. The photographer, Alastair writes that after visiting the winery, he “drove up one of the most frightening roads I had ever been on and took a photo from the Te Mata Peak facing east.” He snapped the above photo too (click to enlarge; see a satellite image here). See more of Alastair’s photos on his site, 18percentgray.com.

Related: “Grapes on the half shell“

This postcard from India is by Dini Rao, formerly in the wine department at Christie’s New York, and currently finishing her MBA at Harvard Business School. You can read her first postcard here.

Wine pioneers Kapil and Kanwal Grover fell in love with wine after purchasing 1961 Mouton from Christie’s

While you can always drink wine while it’s hot, as Indians are starting to do, how do you make wine in the heat of India?!

India’s climate does not allow grapevines to become dormant, as is typical in winter. With the opportunity for two harvests, growers prune back vines to collect a single harvest per year, allowing for more concentrated fruit. Using the mild, dry winters as the growing season, harvest occurs from February to March as in the Southern Hemisphere. During the forced dormant months of April through September, the heat of summer precedes monsoon rains that nourish the vines.

High altitudes in foothill areas around Nasik and Bangalore create moderate temperatures conducive to wine grape cultivation. Maharashtra state is home to over 40 wineries, with half near the holy city of Nasik, 80 miles northeast of Mumbai. At 2000′ altitude, the wine temperature fluctuations between day and night in Nasik allow for additional flavor development.

Nasik’s viticulture began with excellent table grapes for eating, which garnered high prices due to cool temperatures and excellent water sources. Now contract grape farmers supply the burgeoning wine production with vinifera grapes such as Chenin Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Zinfandel, but Thomson Seedless still finds its way into many bottles. Limits on agricultural land holdings require wineries to rely on farmers who lack proper training and tend to over-irrigate.

While much sweet, high-alcohol wine still exists, modern winemaking has arrived in India with gusto. Large, air conditioned wineries are being built at an alarming rate equipped with French oak barrels, temperature-controlled fermentation tanks, and pneumatic presses. A big mystery is the use of gyropalettes, which substitute capital for labor in a country where labor is so cheap that they pay someone to press the button and give you a ticket number when you enter the Air India office. Instead of having a person come along and “riddle” the bottles of sparkling wine as they mature in the cellars, producers have invested in gyropalettes to do this task automatically (someone talked this winery into buying the bridge…).

Flying winemaker Michel Rolland has consulted for Grover Vineyards in Bangalore since 1995 and other foreign consultants present their solutions to various wineries for hefty fees. Winemakers learn to compensate for varying fruit by acidifying, adding enzymes for color, and making other adjustments with no regulatory controls. As site selection, viticulture and experience improves, Indian wine has both the potential and the market to thrive. The next hurdle will be temperature controlled shipping and storage.

Wines to watch for:

Grover Vineyards: the 2004 “La Reserve” (about $20; find this wine) carries the modern Bordeaux influence of Rolland and pairs nicely with masala lamb chops; I enjoy the dry Shiraz rosé (find this wine) and Cab/Shiraz blend for $10 – $15. (find this wine)

Sula Vineyards: the crisp, fresh and zingy Sauvignon Blanc for $12 is a must try, especially with a Kerala fish curry. Sula is owned by Stanford grad Rajeev Samant who is on his way to making Sula India’s top brand. (find this wine)

Reveilo: gets my vote for most promising winery and will be imported to the US soon; I tasted a great range of Sauvignon Blanc, CS, Shiraz and a late harvest Chenin there.

Mountain View is another up and coming quality producer, yet to be imported to the US.

Finally, if you plan to visit Nasik, I recommend a stay at Renaissance Winery‘s guest house with a European restaurant and wine bar next to the villa-like winery to sip their fresh Chenin Blanc. More photos and captions after the jump. Read more…

This postcard from India is by Dini Rao, formerly in the wine department at Christie’s, and currently finishing her MBA at Harvard Business School.

My wine experience during my stay in India was eye-opening. If you told me five years ago that Indians would put down their bottles of Johnny Walker Black Label for a glass of Shiraz, I would laugh. After spending the first portion of my trip in the southern city of Chennai (formerly Madras), my concept of an Indian wine shop was bleak: a wine stand (see the first photo above) with men standing around in lungis all day, taking shots of “wine” i.e. liquor or port.

Then I arrived in Mumbai where swank hotels and restaurants serve Veuve yellow label for Rs. 2000 or $50 a glass. Top wineries attract Indians eager for tours with beautiful tasting rooms (see the second photo). As if welcoming me to the city, the current issue of Time Out Mumbai featured “Wine: Why we’re all drinking it,” a 12 page spread about wine bars, producers and sommeliers around town. According to a Newsweek International online article, Bollywood, which just graduated to showing its first scandalous on screen kiss on the lips, features stars sipping wine in recent movies.

Wine, while trendy, also seems to have serious takers. A friend publishes the wine magazine Sommelier India that circulates to India’s growing wine enthusiasts. When invited to witness a Wine Society of India tasting, I quickly dropped my previous plans to see Stephen Spurrier speak to 500 assembled Indian guests (see photo).

India’s wine future seems bright. Euromonitor predicts 100% growth from the 9 million bottles currently consumed in India over the next five years. Consumption per capita is low in the billion-person country, but concentrated, as Mumbai drinks 40% of wine by value and will continue as one of the highest growing markets. No wonder the WTO, led by the EU and US, pressures India to change the import duties on foreign wines which currently reach up to 550%.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of India’s wine culture is its own wine production. More on this in Wine in India, Part 2.

What’s your caption for this photo? Have your say in the comments below.

Thanks, Maureen!

5/2 UPDATE: Details now posted in the comments about the spa’s location–including two accounts from people who have been!

With 44 million tourists expected in the Big Apple this year, not everybody can fit into the Met or go up the Empire State Building. Some might just want to do some wine tourism. So here is a suggested itinerary for 36 hours in…New York City for wine lovers!

You arrive from the airport late Friday afternoon. Because few hotels offer us wine lovers anything distinctive, you can roll the dice with Priceline. In this scenario, our home for two nights will be…The Pod on E. 51st Street. Remodeled recently, it now targets the “stylish and spendthrifty traveler” so sounds good. And thanks to Priceline, you scored it for under $200–more to deploy on the wine budget!

Drop off your bags and head up or down. The rooftop area has a bar; on the ground floor is Le Bateau Ivre, a good little bistro/bar to get your evening started on a wine note.

Then head down to 20th street to dinner at a vaunted wine destination, Veritas. If you want to keep the vino flowing before getting there, drop by Moore Brothers wine shop on the same side of the street. With the store constantly cooled to 60-some degrees, and bottles always open for free sampling in the rear of the store.

Then it’s off to dinner at Veritas. Ask one of the sommeliers to help you navigate the wine list and choose from one of the 100,000 bottle inventory. Prix-fixe menu of New American cuisine is $76–how much you spend on wine is up to you.

If you aren’t too weary from your encounter with the TSA on this travel day, an optional stop afterward is Flute champagne bar across the street.

Saturday morning: no rest for the winey! It’s up bright and early to pick up your paddle and start bidding at auction! Acker, Merrall regularly holds auctions on Saturday mornings at the venerable wine restaurant Cru (190 page wine list). You can browse the catalogue and bid or just soak up the 70-lot-an-hour pace and enjoy the yummy (free) coffee.

Next up, lunch at Fatty Crab in the West Village. Try some of the excellent noodles, crispy pork, skate panggang skate with the well-crafted, concise wine list.

Then it’s down to pick up some wines for dinner in Tribeca. Chambers Street Wines is a great neighborhood wine shop that specializes in the Loire, Champagne and other wines from boutique producers. The staff will help walk you through some great options for your dinner.

All right, you said you want some rest? Well stroll over to Delluva day spa and soak up the wine with their “vinotherapy.” If there’s one thing us wine lovers like besides drinking wine, it’s bathing in it–right?!? Well, maybe not. But you probably need to put your feet up so why not let someone rub grape waste into you while your doing it.

Then it’s back uptown to Read more…

Downing at Churchill Downs
What are the odds? Good-bye mint julep, hello chardonnay? [BusinessWeek]

Vino Volare
Vino Volo, the wine bar behind security at Dulles airport (IAD), is now opening an outpost at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI). Southwest passengers can rejoice! Vino Volo also operates at Sacramento and Seattle airports. Next up: JFK. [via Upgrade: Travel Better]

Seeing green
Fetzer announces a $1 million marketing campaign trumpeting their high-volume organic wines. But are they doing it to be green or make green? Or both? [Courier-Journal]

Wine diet
Want to bulk up? Forget Weight Gainer 2000. Try wine. Such is the logic of a new diet for the size zero Victoria Beckham, fka Posh Spice. Wine “gives her the munchies.” According to Closer magazine, “It’s the reason she has a drink. If she has a wine or two then she’ll have an appetite like everyone gets when they’re on a night out and drinking.” Um, OK. Maybe her diminutive size has to do with the fact that she only eats one meal a day? [via NZ Herald]

Gold medal
Congratulations to Jonathan Gold, restaurant critic of LA Weekly, for winning the Pulitizer Prize for criticism!

Interest in wine in America is rapidly expanding, there’s no doubt about that. According to a story in today’s WSJ [$ link], Walt Disney Co. is considering wine in a new line of niche offerings including pirate themed resorts, a cruise line, and “family casinos”–without gambling. Cut to the wine part:

In the near term, the company is using the Disney name to expand in other areas of the travel business. For example, it is ramping up an operation called “Adventures by Disney,” in which travelers pay for guided Disney tours to popular destinations including Italy and Ireland…”It’s not Mickey Mouse goes to the mountains,” says Ed Baklor, who heads the Adventures business. “Instead we’re telling a local story with local characters…” The trips also try to entertain both adults and kids: On the Tuscany trip, adults go on a wine tasting while kids do a gelato tasting.

Hmm, sounds plausible–perhaps even fun. But the details are, of course, in the execution. And if the casinos without gambling are a sign, this might just be an ersatz wine experience in the heart of the rolling hills of Tuscany. Will Disney lead their guests to only big producers who pay to be included on the itinerary? Will the local guides talk about the internationalization of Chianti wines and the Super Tuscan phenomenon? Will they lead guests to the many exciting, off-the-beaten-path regions of Italy? Doubtful. And, finally, will the kids have sangiovese gelato?

tags: wine | wine tours | walt disney

This just in from the St. Thomas bureau:

The Customs rules for visitors returning from the US Virgin Islands (a American protectorate, mind you, so why Customs is involved is anyone’s guess) are infused with some misplaced patriotism. Each passenger can bring home 5 liters of alcohol–six if that haul includes one liter of booze from the Virgin Islands. That’s maybe good for some local jobs at the Cruzan rum distillery in St. Croix.

But ironically it’s not so good for patriotic profits: a couple of years ago, in March 2006, the brand and distillery were purchased by Vin & Spirits (V&S), the Swedish company behind Absolut vodka.

tags: wine | rum | usvi