Which Wines Go With Indian Food?

What are your recommendations for the novice?
Assume nothing, expect even less. Forget about brands and prices; just listen to your senses. If you feel like another sip, the wine is good; if not, change it.

Wine tastes different when paired with food ... how do tasters get a sense of that?
‘Hit and trial’ is as precise as the science of wine and food pairing can ever get. This is more a personal journey of discoveries rather than a collective statistical consensus. To me, it is always wine and mood first. If you like both, the wine and the dish, then you will enjoy them together. Just so long as the enjoyment of one doesn’t distract from the enjoyment of the other. Wine and food then is not as much a marriage as it is perhaps a flat-sharing relationship.

After opening a bottle of wine, how soon should you finish it?
An open bottle is a depreciating asset, a mounting liability. Drink as soon as possible, allowing for no more than three days. Once opened, always keep wines covered with appropriate storage like Pulltex wine closures and always store bottles in a fridge, even reds!

Are there different types of glasses for different wines?
Although the concept has been widely propagated, a recent MIT study debunked this belief.
However I do believe that the glass does have a feel-good factor and this placebo effect cannot be discounted. In wine, as in art, if the frame sells the painting; who are we to critique the artist?

Which wines go with greasy Indian food?
Given the heat and spice content of most Indian cuisines, I prefer rich whites or soft reds. So, an oaked Chardonnay from Australia or South America. Else a Burgundy or Kiwi Pinot Noir work very well.

Do wines get better the more we preserve them or do they lose their taste?
Wines are like relationships: Not all are meant to be long term. Always consult the winemakers’ philosophy (online, site, book, Me!) to know what s/he intended to make. Often people age a wine when the winemaker wanted it to be drunk immediately upon release and vice versa. That is the cruelest way to squander wine.

Do you ever get drunk? Do you ever get to take some home?  
A wine taster should always ‘taste’, never ‘drink’. A lot of ‘tasting’ then can obviously lead to “hazardous working conditions”….OK, who am I fooling, sure we can get more than just a bit of redness on our cheeks from drinking wine. With wine, the best bit is taking your ‘work’ home. In fact, I always prefer to drink at home because (a) I am seriously against ‘drunk driving’ and (b) hotel margins take all the joy and romance out of a good wine.

Is wine tasted in a particular atmosphere or ambience where there is no other odour, smell, fragrance?
Absolutely. Never drink a good wine after a fight. Drink any wine in good company.

Since you’re paid by wine companies, can you really be objective? (like rating agencies and investment banks)
My work model is a bit different. I charge hotels and restaurants (or consumers) for events that I conduct but I ensure that I never unleash bad wine on them. When I write about the events I have to adapt a stance that might sometimes be caustic or acerbic. Normally, if I have a bad wine experience I choose to ignore it in my writings, or mention it softly without much noise. Luckily there are enough good wines out there to work with, thereby eliminating the need to sell my soul.

What wines (brands) do you drink at home?
I drink a lot of anything from everywhere, except Indian wines. I also avoid mass-produced preservative-choked industrial plonk. I prefer boutique creations from anywhere — from Czech to California, Austria to Australia. Gruner features strongly, as also do Sherries. I like soft reds like Barbera and Pinot Noir although I do enjoy my oak-rich whites and reds from the Southern hemisphere in adequate intermittent doses. Monogamy should be limited to the person you choose to live with and annoy for the rest of your life. .

Do you have an established vocabulary of adjectives?
To describe wine, my philosophy is to use adjectives that I use to describe people. That way I give wines a stronger sense of personality and they also become easier to remember and relate with. Hence not uncommon to find words like ‘sexy’, ‘charming’, ‘elegant’, ‘suave’, ‘dandy’, ‘reserved’, ‘shy’, and ‘flirtatious’ in my tasting notes.  

Which wine is the best produced from the Indian stable?
Grover’s do a good red. Sula whites are decent but other newer winemakers are catching up. Chateau de Banyan has a lovely Moscato on their hands as also the Reveilo Late  Harvest.

Magandeep Singh is India’s first French-certified sommelier and host of the TV show ‘Around the world in 85 Plates’ on NDTV Good Times.

(As told to Elizabeth Flock)