Did you know that your glass of wine can smell of green pepper or your favorite aunt’s Christmas pudding? Well, I didn’t until I attended a Wine Appreciation Program at Le Pain Quotidien, a cosy Belgian Boulangerie and cafe in South Mumbai. A result of the efforts of All Things Nice, a website that has to be your favorite destination if you like to live the good times, the wine tasting session was powered by Nature’s Basket.There was a select audience of wine lovers and Nikhil Agarwal, a sommelier and the man behind All Things Nice put everyone at ease instantly. He took us through a thoroughly researched and well-illustrated slide show of the evolution of the classification of wine and processes that bring about wines that the world loves.
I learned some interesting stuff about the major characteristics of wine and was surprised to discover how different the flavors, styles and quality of wine can be across the globe. Nikhil was superb in his explanation of what to look for in your wine and how to describe it giving us different categories like Aroma, Tannin, Finish, Appearance under which each wine is categorized.
And then the fun began. We tasted seven different wines ranging from an Italian Brut to a Sauvignon Blanc from York’s Winery in Nasik. My favorites were the Two in the Bush Australian Shiraz ( so fruity) and the 2008 Domaine Paul Mas La Forge Estate Chardonnay from France. Truly heavenly! There was also an interesting Good Earth Basso which is really their best wine ever and a 2006 Le Bonheur Prima wine from South Africa which my friend was totally in love with. And the finale with York Winery’s Late Harvest Chenin Blanc 2010 was truly the icing on the cake coz its the perfect dessert wine which can paired with Indian spicy food as well.
We learnt about the different parameters to watch out for as we penned mini tasting notes. So, I began with adjectives like nice and bitter ( not in the least bit appropriate) and by the end of our experience me and my friends graduated to describe minute details about our wine. The guessing game with each of us trying to figure out what our wine smells like produced some hilarious responses with people saying stuff ‘ Mine smells like paint’.
Le Pain Quotidien happens to be kinda like my happy place as this bakery-café has the most delightful tartines and desserts and sinful breakfast ever. They even have a new menu coming up soon! Nikhil is truly a super sommelier as he helped us in pairing the wines with some of Le Pain Quotidien’s delectable freshly baked breads and cheese ranging from Brie and Camembert to Gruyere and gooey Gorgonzola which is explosive with Shiraz. As we indulged ourselves, we exchanged fun facts about some interesting wines each of us loved. What was really awesome about the whole tasting was the kind of interaction we had with each other and with Nikhil especially as everyone was totally into learning more and asking a whole lot of questions.
Nikhil on his part spoke tirelessly, cracked a few jokes to break the monotony and really made an effort to make us see why he was so passionate about this stuff. The whole thing was a brilliant way to delve deeper into the wine tasting experience, which can actually be totally heavenly if done in the right way.
I’d totally recommend Wine Appreciation and other such exciting events from All Things Nice for people like me who enjoy their wine and can’t wait to rediscover our love for it.
For more on their gourmet experiences check out The All Things Nice Website