Chamonix is the Mecca for winter sports but it is much more than a ski station
This article comes hot off the cool slopes of Chamonix where I have had some very interesting parallels drawn up and I am not just talking slalom skills. Chamonix, to the uninitiated, is the Mecca for winter sports and has plenty of activities involving mountains (with or without snow). Skiing may be the top draw but it surely isn?t the only one. With luxury hotels and designer boutiques, Chamonix is anything but a place for austere existence.
The lovely hotel Hameau Albert Premier (premier as in the first king and not as part of a budget hotel chain) houses a two-star Michelin restaurant. Not too far is the Auberge de Bon Prin and Le Bistort, both one-star places. There are other places with marked culinary prowess. For a town of 10,000 people, that is more than a fair share of gastronomic stars.
And not just Chamonix, even San Sebastian, Lyon, Bruges, Bath, Courchevel, Annecy?all small towns?have a considerable bevy of starred eateries. It baffled me to no ends that the chefs had chosen such remote places, sometimes almost inaccessible, to open such lavish restaurants. It was mockery of the most, well, mocking kind in the face of all the principles of logistics and marketing. And yet, more often than not, they had all received resounding reviews and grow in strength each day.
The presence of such places in obscure locations lights up the entire region like a lamp. Employment, tourism, trade, agriculture, and all other related commerce can come forth and establish themselves with much success. Chamonix, for example, started as a sport-centric town and is today a major vacation destination, both for families and the unmarried, something much larger than its originally intended role of a ski station.
Imagine if we could do the same in India: converting Nashik (or/and Pune) into a mini wine hub and then encouraging top chefs to open tables there. Or imagine choosing a location that is cheap by virtue of its inaccessibility and then running a restaurant that plays on the history and novelty of inaugurating such a concept.
The wine industry in India needs more than a shot in the arm; it needs the learning wheels of a bicycle to aide it along till the momentum is strong enough to let it ride freely and independently.
For the time I spent in Chamonix, I was surprised to find not only great food at every top, but also a plethora of some very lovely local wines. Mondeuse, when made well, can be a lovely light red sip, the kind that can be enjoyed even in summers. Wine fests are a step in that direction: they promote wine and help built cognisance. Sula fest is a major annual feature and the Zampa people are following suite.
Another thing that perhaps conditions us to the point of curiosity is the newness of a concept. The opening of the new Taj Vivanta in Gurgaon is another landmark addition to the whole food and wine phenomenon and stands to fuel a whole new generation of free-spirited and smart-thinking professionals.
Rajasthan has latched on to the benefits of this phenomenon that I call ?boutique marketing? and the number of small haveli hotels are already multiplying. They are all catering to the high-end hotels and stock a wine list that may not be entirely enviable but is still pretty commendable for a town that served no more than five wines about a decade ago.
The sum-up being, wine is never tough a subject. The price that often hotels expect us to pay and the price it costs to produce a bottle of wine are substantially lower. If somehow accessibility could be solved, or be made less simpler to understand, wine could take off in India too. Till then we shall have lovely places like Chamonix to take in our meals.
The writer is a sommelier