I am not the kind to compare wine to other spirits. But the spirited point I am trying to make is that to compare malt and wine is wrong and should never be encouraged. If anything, you will be refusing a drink and that is to be shunned by every form of life, everywhere.
Speaking of everywhere, I was recently in Barcelona where the people behind the world?s biggest rum brand (hint: Bacardi) got together to invite the best bartenders in the world to come and mix their concoctive best. The top ten barmen represented different countries (even India had an entry) and each was given seven minutes to step forth and present his cocktail. The only condition: it was to be a rum-based (hint again: Bacardi) cocktail.
Now it is one thing to step behind the bar after a few drinks (or onto it after a few more) and shake it all, jigger and you are a money-maker. But it is no monkey business when the prize involves a trip around the world to promote the cocktail and also to have it included in the list of classics, alongside renowned recipes like Mojito, Cuba Libre and Daiquiri. Each contestant had been practising for a long time and the cocktails were bound to be as near-perfect as possible.
And this is where my wine connect comes in. The essence of balance in a cocktail is no different from the essence of balance in a wine. I am not trying to hitch my wagon to the faster engine; I am merely trying to highlight how taste is a commonality that runs through all things poured. A cocktail too sweet or sour with no fizz to balance either will not fly, just as a wine with lack of acidity will seem to weigh down the palate. A sharp cocktail, like an unripe white, would sting and leave us gasping for breath. Something creamy?coconut extract to egg white? could curb this in a cocktail. In wines, it is called malo-lactic fermentation. A cocktail with high alcohol and no balancing ingredients would burn as it passes down our gullets, just like a wine with a similar imbalance.
The difference is this: in the case of cocktails, we consumers have an immediate possibility of rectifying that which hinders ?adding soda?and viola! the drink stands corrected, and enjoyable!
In wine, what the winemaker bottles is all we get to taste. At best, we can change temperature, but no more. As a result, wine can appear a tad constricting. Although, if I may hint, scoff as certain may, nobody will send the men in uniform to arrest you if you were to use wine in cocktails just so for your drinking pleasure. Sangria wasn?t mixed in a day, you know.
And then, here was the biggest thing that I picked up at this cocktail fest?awareness. It is something that can never be considered as enough established. Spirits like rum have been around for so long, (especially in our country) and yet so little do we know about enjoying them. For example, did you know that Bacardi, although transparent in colour is nevertheless oak-aged!? It came as a surprise to me, but then it explained why I could find those explicable hints of fresh grapefruit (as common to light rums) in the front, backed up by notes of vanilla (vanillin is a compound that comes from wood, often found in oaked wines, too) and light caramel. All this was part of the exercise. Cocktail making wasn?t just about ice and shaker, it was about tracing the origin of the spirit to the very founder (in the small Spanish seaside town of Sitges) so that one could understand the constituting cultural elements behind the product. Wine, with all its terroir needs similar exposure.
Finally, as a parting gift, I found a cute little French shaker in my room, as if a soft nudge of encouragement to go home and be inspired to mix something of my own. I can?t, but admit that I can?t wait to get home, gather up some friends and get cracking.
A wine competition then, too, would help improve wine awareness; informing and educating people about the different styles that exist and thence, what constitutes a good one. A good judging can do more than tell others what is good; she/he imparts the principles of judging in a manner that others stand enriched and better placed to decide for themselves whether the drink in front of them is worthy of applaud or not.
All in all, I had an intoxicating time and I learned a lot from the collective knowledge of the best in the trade. Bacardi put on a spectacle of a show, what with the finals under the imposing dome of the Catalan National Museum of Barcelona, it was quite the setting for an international challenge of such potent measures. I enjoyed my break from wines. It was like leaving one fair friend for the comely company of another. And with that ponderous thought even as I apologise for the odd pun employed during the course of this article, I wish you a shaken and stirred mix of a week ahead?
The writer is a sommelier