Indian wine

Last night, we dined at the hotel buffet restaurant. The food was Southern Indian in style, though it also featured Sri Lankan and, of all things, Chinese (?). I stuck with the Indian dishes, and even those that were supposed to be spicy were not over the top. Instead, they were layered with amazing aromas, flavors and textures. I tried some kind of a rice noodle pudding infused with saffron that was stunning.

A definite highlight was the wine. I've enjoyed wines from the Near East (the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon and the Golan Heights in Israel), but this was my first wine from the Subcontinent.

The label said, "Chateau Indage Riviera Red Wine." No vintage, but its "manufacturing date" was August 2007. It turned out to be Pinot Noir from the Sahyadri Valley in Maharashtra, which is a state on the west coast of India, about two-thirds the way up and in the same state as Mumbai I believe.

Have I discovered the next great location for Pinot Noir? Hardly. Was it enjoyable? Undoubtedly. This was a youthful wine that was a bit on the grapy side, and it was hardly the proper pairing for the explosion of flavors going on with the food on my plate. However, as I got into it after the plates were cleared, I began to appreciate it for what it had to offer: dark-toned cherries, a whisper of rosemary and some underlying exoticness. Only Degs will likely get this, but it was more Eola-Amity Hills or McMinnville than Dundee Hills.

A homework assignment for Vanessa: The winery is in Narayangaon, Maharashtra. See what you might be able to dig up on it, since your Internet connection isn't being charged by the half-hour.

The restaurant had two other wines from the same producer, a Chardonnay and a white blend that included Chardonnay and Ugni Blanc. I think I might want to try the latter tonight if we eat in the same place.

The restaurant staff was quite interested in what we thought of the wine. My guess is that most Westerners aren't quite so interested in the regional wines as we were. They brought over a map to show us where Maharashtra is located and fussed over us, seeing if we thought the wine was properly served. To our horror, they wanted to drop in an ice cube to get it chilled slightly. No ice cubes, please (don't want to water down the wine, nor do we really want to drink the local water if it didn't come out of a sealed bottle, thank you very much).