We have more events around the drinks space in the span of a few wintery months than we do the rest of the year. Here is what has been keeping my liver busy.
How does one define Frenchness? A survey long ago listed these as the top three factors: to speak French; to believe in ‘Liberty, Equality & Fraternity’; and, finally, to know how to appreciate good food and wine. Tha
Recently, I was in France, invited by the President. And if it hadn’t been for Brexit, we would have had a fabulous time together. Not holding-hands-and-singing-songs kinda fabulous, but the let’s-drink-and-talk-food-and-
Well—and especially since I’m making a case for Australian wines here today—for a country/continent/island that is many times bigger than western and central Europe combined, it is quite a poor show to club its wines un
For starters, I realised that the western wine courses, which I had been running for more than a decade were a complete waste of time in the Indian context.
The West made us believe that there is an entity called ‘Asian food’. So ridiculous is the idea for this notion to exist even as a collective noun, and yet it reigns on.
Unlike its sibling Carmenere, Malbec grape has managed to retain its identity, even though it was still stuck playing second fiddle to big brother Cabernet.
Other brands, if I may add, have also developed similar glass ranges to address different types of wines (or wines from different grapes) and have their own ritual method to demonstrate it.
The biggest challenge sommeliers face is to come up with a wine list that is unique and yet recognisable, a list that has unknown brands aplenty and, at the same time, is familiar enough for a guest to be tempted to order.
Narendra Bhawan was then the perfect choice of venue for the world’s number one gin, Bombay Sapphire, when they decided to launch their new uber-premium gin variant, Star of Bombay.
But frankly, five-star hotels could take a page out of Balcon’s logbook and stand to gain immensely from it. He takes painstaking measures while putting together his restaurants and then in their daily running.
