For the longest time—as I have always maintained—wine lists have reflected not the taste of clients or the vast knowledge of their F&B managers, but the shrew buying business acumen of purchase managers, who have controlled pretty much what was sold and consumed in even the biggest hotel chains around the country. How else can one explain that the biggest and most reputed hotel chains of India have similar wine lists with literally the same wines and vintages?
For a true sommelier, this is worse than being an artist who is instructed to paint with only one colour or a sculptor who is told that all his pieces must be round.
And yet, this is the wine world in India and, in spite of this, we pat ourselves on the back for year-on-year growth. Hotels like The Imperial and The Lodhi used to import their own wines and they made commendable cellars doing so, showcasing the best wine lists in the country. By contrast, the Taj and the ITC group experimented with a few exclusive (largely Indian and somewhat pedestrian) labels (Taj had some good Saint Clair and Penfolds), while The Oberoi had the very average Chinkara as the pride of their list at one point. But beyond that, they have always been decades behind of anything that the rest of the world would call a well-selected wine list.
Now, a breath of fresh air has come in the form of two proper sommeliers, Charles at The Lalit and Judith at The Claridges, both in NCR, who have invested their experience and palate in sourcing proper wines exclusively for their hotels. I say ‘proper sommeliers’ because they aren’t just foreigners with an Indian visa, which was the way earlier ‘sommeliers’ have been recruited. And I say ‘proper wines’ because these aren’t a sorry excuse of a corporate exercise in acquiring a personalised label for the sake of respectability.
These are wines that you would happily pick off a list in a restaurant in southern France or Rome or anywhere in Europe for that matter. They taste fresh, drink well and don’t need you to break a fixed deposit to afford. Charles has an array of simple yet quaffable French wines. Judith has biodynamic wines, from Cahors to Languedoc (again French), which makes them a special category into themselves.
And then, one most laudable set of surprise wines have come from the duo of Randip and Simran Dhingra, the couple behind Twist, an eatery in that melée called Cyber Hub. They have imported (solely Italian for now) wines to put all hotels to shame—Brunello, Barbaresco, Organic Amarone. I am yet to try better wines at a better price in any hotel or standalone, including the ones where even I have helped with the wine lists! Why they deserve a special mention is because they don’t have a wine background, they just enjoy sharing a good wine with friends. And this sensibility has helped them import a selection that corporate chains with their smug purchase teams can only fantasise about.
All in all, chapeau to all these people bringing the much-needed variety to the wine stage. With more options, there is more curiosity and that leads to more education and awareness, which then fuels consumption. Else we can keep hawking shoddy wines at exorbitant prices and call it a luxury experience. But that is not how a wine culture will be established. For the rest of you, there is much reason to get out there and try some fun wines.
The writer is a sommelier
