Friday, August 26, 2016

La Réserve- India's Favourite Wine Relaunched in a New Avatar

"Old wine in new bottle"- is the common refrain to denote cosmetic changes to an existing product. But there’s a subtle variability in its interpretation. If the concerned product is nothing to write home about, cosmetic changes appear unnecessary and maybe a desperate means to ameliorate product consumption. But what if the product is already in the hall of fame? It leads to another proverbial description- “cherry on the icing”.

The latter interpretation was on full display as one of India’s leading wine producers Grover Zampa Vineyards (GZV) relaunched their flagship wine La Réserve innovatively, pairing it with a customized barbeque menu by hotel JW Marriott,New Delhi. Titled “La Réserve Barbeques” the Delhi launch was last in series of similar events in Mumbai and Bangalore.

An infographic from Grover Zampa Vineyards to depict the change

About La Réserve


Those familiar with Indian wines would probably agree that La Réserve Red from GZV has attained cult status on the Indian wine front ever since it  was launched in 1998 . After having developed a distinctive French  inclined ‘house style’, courtesy their  active collaboration with famed wine consultant Michel Rolland and French winemaker Mathias Pellisard, GZV have been successfully able to place this wine as their “prestige cuvée”. The wine is the result of hand-picked selection of GZVs oldest Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz vines vinified and matured in French oak barrels. 
Completing the ensemble offering, La Réserve White is a barrel fermented Viognier which according to GZV, is elaborated vintage after vintage with the same zeal as La Réserve Red.

Apart from the refined disposition of La Réserve wines , my personal opinion  finds their utmost USP as being in their consistent quality- which is a difficult ballgame in a non standardized wine industry like India. This prompted me to ask their CEO Sumedh Singh Mandla “ How are you able to ensure a consistent taste more so when you are producing these wines in two distinct geographical locations (Nandi hills in Karnataka and Nashik Valley in Maharashtra) with different terroir elements ?  Sumedh’s reply was quite plausible, as he highlighted that the cuvée blends are carefully managed to incorporate a minimum percentage of common inputs from their oldest vineyards. Though they do not maintain a stock of Réserve wines for blending, it is the quality of produce that is ensured through sound viticultural practices and oenological expertise at hand.

The New Avatar


The new packaging of La Réserve is not restricted to the label alone. A chunkier broad shouldered bottle similar to the Super Tuscans, is weightier and power inducing. While the older ‘white-gold-black’  label was minimalistic and appeared Victorian, the newer one is big, bold and flamboyantly sophisticated keeping pace with the current times. The embossed graphics in dark grey, wine red and gold/silver (for red/white wines respectively) are a pleasing combination complemented with  a pleasant tactile feel.  Another layer of differentiation is rendered by the capsules- gold for red, and silver for white - which makes the variants' identification easy even from a distance. The price of both these wines ex Delhi retail is  ₹ 1050.00.



The Launch event


Anticipative guests comprising of trade professionals and media witnessed unveiling of the new labels by  Sumedh Singh Mandla, CEO GZV and Antony Page, GM JWM, New Delhi even as they savoured the same wines. Though the organizers had envisaged an outdoor setting, the Indian monsoon dictated otherwise, resulting in the last minute shift to the crystal ballroom at JWM. The contingent venue (and the JWM team) did well to spaciously accommodate the gathering as well as the bar/ live barbeque stations.

Sumedh Singh Mandla (L) and Antony Page (R) unveiling the new bottles

As mentioned above, JWM Delhi has evolved a special barbeque menu for the La Réserve wines. It is common knowledge that a robust red wine invariably goes well with rustic barbeque preparations, however with a white wine included, more planning is necessitated than meets the eye.  JWM handled this aspect well by incorporating white wine centric  canapés and cheeses as pass arounds, well recognizing that most guests would  prefer to sample the white wine first. However for those not meeting this assumption, the main spread too had ample options to support their preference. The respective food stations were made interesting with witty chalkboard graffiti which fired the imagination further.



Hit Pairings at the Launch


With La Réserve Red

New Zealand lamb chop.
Pork Finochiona sausage
Moroccan lamb merguez with red wine jus
Fettucini pasta with thyme infused mushroom ragout

With La Réserve White

Norwegian smoked salmon, Sevruga Caviar, Dill sour cream blinis
Prawns with spicy garlic lemon marinade
Fromage de chevre with crisps
Salad- poached chicken, French beans and prunes with honey mustard vinaigrette




Monday, August 8, 2016

The Riddle of Riedel

It was one of those rare  occasions when the 'lead artist' took a backseat in favour of the 'supporting cast'. As Alexander Zorin, Vice President Sales from Riedel, one of the most respected wine glass companies, unpacked the last of  tasting sets for the ensuing session on varietal specific glassware, anticipation ran high. We were all eager to experience the difference in perceiving wine from optimized Vs. generic glassware. For a change, it was the glass to do the talking rather than wine. The session was conducted at Akira Back- the much talked about Japanese-Korean restaurant at hotel JW Marriott Aerocity New Delhi.   I was in attendance at the invitation of my good friend Ankur Chawla, Director of Beverages at the hotel who also plays a larger role in Marriott's Beverages Committee for Asia-Pacific.


Alexander Zorin demonstrating the uniqueness of each 'varietal specific' glass 

A Wine Tool


The Riedel philosophy unabashedly announces a wine glass as a ‘tool’ that facilitates appreciating the bouquet, texture, taste and finish of a particular wine. To come to this conclusion, they cite their decades of research to arrive at optimum shapes and sizes of the respective glasses. Though Riedel have a history of producing glass dating back to 1756, it was only in the 1950’s that they started producing wine-friendly stemware.  It all began when at a casual gathering, guests were called upon to fetch their glasses from a nearby cabinet and Claus Riedel, their 9th generation helmsman discovered that the same wine tasted differently in the melee of  resulting assortment. He narrowed down on the best glass for the particular wine and  the foundation for grape varietal glassware was laid.

The Premise


Most of us probably know that human tongue has distinct sensory regions related to different taste
Pic: www.rudyard.org
profiles. Over time, the demarcation of these regions has evolved as a ‘tongue map’ (see image alongside). The theory has been challenged though, in the form of subsequent research confirming that all taste qualities are found in all areas of the tongue. But in the wine context, the tongue map theory has been largely corroborated and glassmakers like Riedel have emphatically proved its relevance.

The taste of wine is largely defined by it’s ‘initial attack’ (how it is perceived immediately on sipping) and the ‘finish’ (the lingering taste after you have gulped it down). ‘Varietal specific’ glassware looks at fine tuning the drinking experience by channeling the wine onto desirable places- taking the tongue map as a guide. Level of acidity, fullness of body, vigorousness of tannins are some of the wine traits sought to be accentuated/subdued using the ‘right’ kind of glass. On the aroma front too, the shape of glass determines how focused or dissipative the bouquet of a wine can get.

Alexander informed us that in the initial years, some reputed Bordeaux producers complained to Claus Riedel of their wines not tasting appreciably well in his red wine glass.  The observation compelled him to do further research, only to realise that the glasses in question were designed with Piemontese wines in mind. This egged him further to come up with specific glasses for Bordeaux wines, followed by several others. Today Riedel glasses have a range of approximately 450   different shapes that cater to the whims and fancies of their finicky ‘occupants’.

The Technicalities

Image courtesy: Riedel

So how does the fluid mechanics of wine get affected   in such specialized glassware? The Riedel philosophy looks at three parameters:


  • Shape of the bowl
  • Size of the bowl
  • Rim diameter of the bowl


Apart from the above, the stem and base of the glass form an important part of its architecture, to promote stability.

These  parameters determine how much wine is contained in the bowl, how it moves within, and how it gets directed in your mouth. Sounds too technical? Imagine yourself puckering your lips to sip from a narrow mouthed glass vis-a-vis a broad mouthed one. The wine in the former case will tend to flow towards centre of the palate rather than filling it up instantly as in the latter.

The Validation


The proof of a pudding is in its eating, hence we took our places at the neatly arranged table that had five glasses each, precisely arranged on printed mats on their respective places. 4 glasses from Riedel’s Veritas (their grape varietal specific range) completed the ensemble with a water tumbler as the ‘joker’.

The tasting setup

Alexander started the experience by urging the participants to pour some water in all the glasses, to sip from each and feel how differently it flowed inside the mouth. The initial point was made and well received.

The wines followed, with each of them sampled from the respective varietal specific as well as the other glasses. The comparisons stood out starkly with each wine blossoming optimally only from its respective glass while appearing comparatively lackluster from others. 

For example, the aromatic Sauvignon Blanc (SB) was subdued in expression in the Oaked Chardonnay glass and the Chardonnay returned the favour by appearing too limp from the SB glass. Similarly the Cabernet blend demonstrated good balance from the Cabernet Sauvignon glass while it appeared too tannic from the SB glass.

The constant juggling of glasses during this exercise did feel like a musical chairs of sorts but achieved what we were there for- experiencing first hand the relevance of varietal specific glassware.

The Bottomline


Does all this mean that we junk our ‘average Joe’ red and white wine glasses and start buying new glassware? Not exactly. Even Riedel have a generic glass recommendation from their range (Vinum XL Shiraz for red wine and Ouverture Magnum/Riesling Grand Cru/Chianti Classico for white wine ). However for obvious reasons, they would  recommend people buying the varietal specific stuff. In my opinion, buying such specialized glassware would be good idea if you satisfy all of the following conditions:
  • You regularly drink high pedigree wines at home.
  • You have the moolah to spare (specialisation always comes at a cost).
  • Storage space is not a constraint.
  • You have the inclination of going that extra mile to maximize your wine experience.
The last point is most important as I realized when a multi millionaire wine connoisseur friend once told me- “I would rather spend more on wine than fussing over glasses”. But then, there was also this regular wine lover friend who couldn’t stop raving about his newly acquired Riedel's Vinum tasting set .

As for me, the Veritas tasting set gifted by Alexander will keep me occupied for days to come.