Gold Wine

They say wine is liquid gold and voila we now have a white wine called Gold Wine imported in India by Chennai based Wine Legend India Pvt Ltd. The CEO of the indian branch of Wine Legend ( based in New Jersey area USA ) Mr D K Raju has been trying to make a lot of efforts to distribute his wines in some main Indian Cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and ofcourse Chennai. Gold Wine is a wine from the famous Jayson Woodbridge wines based in Napa.

GOLD wine is basically un-oaked, non-malolactic Chardonnay blended with other varietals like Viognier and Gewurstraminer with pure 24 carat gold flecks added in to the bottle. Woodbridge bottles and releases the Gold Wine twice a year which happens to be a new concept in the world of wines. The wine released in July is apparently from Australian grapes and the wine released in November is from californian grapes. The attractive glass bottles which are sourced from France is fired with 24 karat gold labels.

When i first tasted Gold Wine a few months back, was quite surprised that i couldnt feel the gold flecks inside my mouth. Its so fine and you dont realise you are having them inside. I did a few guided tasting sessions of a few wines including the Gold Wine for Wine Legend India at a few chennai hotels like Le Meridien and Courtyard Marriot. Mr D K Raju requested me to help them train a few hotel staff and let them know the basic wine making process and do a guided tasting of a few wines like Gold Wine, Pink Gold Wine and other Australian wines.

Gold Wine considered a good marketing idea for a wine. The wine comes in an attractive bottle and just shake the bottle against some bright light, you will see the gold flecks everywhere inside the bottle.

The company is branding it as a Celabration wine! Indians love gold and lets see if Gold Wine tries to capture the celebration market! Why not celebrate Diwali with Gold Wine ? It will also be an ideal gifting option for corporate houses or even big jewellery shops in Chennai to gift it to its best customers! I am imagining a chennai mami with her kanchivaram with pure gold zari borders adorned with gold jewellery holding a glass of Gold wine, gold flecks glittering ...

Champagne was a great marketing success story even a few hundred years back! A perfect celebration drink in any part of the world!


Gold wine is available in many hotels in Chennai like GRT Grand, GRT temple bay, Hotel Ceebros Raintree, Le meridien, Courtyard marriot etc and prices are between Rs 2500 and Rs 4000 per bottle depending upon the restaurant and hotel! Few restaurants have been giving Gold Wine as a welcome drink for some occasions.

Madras wine experience

Madras wine scene

The city of Madras / Chennai is a traditional city compared to Bangalore, Bombay or Delhi. Its a difficult city for a Wine lover. Its such a difficult task to find good wines here, even the good Indian Wines like Grover's or Sula or Chateau Indage wines. We get only bad quality wines like Golkonda and Port wines made in India by manufacturers who themselves don't know what wine is all about. TASMAC shops all over Tamil Nadu stock only Beers and other IMFL bottles. Recently they have started distributing an imported French wine bottled in Pondicherry called The Warehouse. The quality is better than the indian made Golkonda wines but nothing else can be said about this wine too. I have given details of this wine in another Post in my blog.

I wish the TN Govt at least allows TASMAC shops to sell good Indian made wines produced in the neighbouring state of Karnataka and Maharashtra. These wines can be much better than the imported wines which are exported from the country of production as low quality wines and sold in the importing country as Premium wine. This is another case of importers trying to fool the consumer in the absence of laws regulating the quality of wine ( both imported as well as produced in India )

Clos des Lambrays - My first Grand Cru experience in Burgundy

Went for a long drive with Bruno through the Route des Grands Crus of the Cote de Nuits sub region of Burgundy on the 14th Oct. Its not easy to meet the winemakers and visit the domaines in the first 2 weeks of October as the grape harvest just got over in the last week of september and people are either busy with the initial winemaking process or taking a break after a hectic schedule. We passed through all the vineyards of famous villages like Gevrey -Chambertin and Morey Saint Denis. We thought we will try our luck and went to Clos des Lambrays, one of the very famous domaines of the region and producer of a great grand crus red wine considered to be one of the 100 best red wines of the world. The Domaine has history dating back to the 14th Century.

Though we visited the domaine without any prior appointment, we were given a very warm welcome by Mr Thierry Brouin, the Managing Director and Oenologist. He requested a trainee to show us around the estate and give a brief about the vinification of the Clos. The estate and the whole area around the stainless steel vats etc were being cleaned by spraying water and it looked extremely clean. The trainee took both of us around the estate and then to the wine cellar. The oldest part of the cellar dates back to the 17th century. We were then joined by Mr Brouin whom i found extremely humble and frank. He apologised for the delay in joining us as he was with some german buyers. The Domaine is owned by a german named Gunter Freund which he purchased in the year 1996. Mr Gunter Freund recently became Commandeur at the Chevalier du Tastevin.

We all spoke about the vintage of the year and the recent grape harvest and problems with the weather and pests in Burgundy. Clos des Lambrays produces only around 30,000 to 35,000 bottles of the Grand Cru and its all reserved in advance and he doesnt have wine to sell. But he said he is interested to sell a few bottles of his wine to countries like India to expand his markets.

We then proceeded to the tasting and to be frank i never tasted such exciting red Burgundy wines before. He made us taste grand cru red wines of 2 vintages 2007 and 2006 from the barrels. The wine was very supple and elegant with fresh aromas of red fruits and rich tannins and one of the best burgundy red wines i ever had (with my little experience ).

(Photo on the right - Bruno on my right and Mr Thierry Brouin on my left at the Cellar)

I was not bothered about the tasting terminology and the tannins and aromas and aftertastes. I simply just liked the wine i was drinking! I decided that very moment that i need to earn money to drink only the Grand Crus of Burgundy! They are all soooo costly ! But one has to taste the best wines to know the difference!

I was a very happy man that day sipping that wonderfull red wine at the right temperature and at the right place with natural cellar temperature, just next to the vineyard where these Pinot grapes were grown. Temperature and climate is absolutely important for wine. It also improves the tasting sensation. And when you taste the best wine at its own cellar and with the company of the oenologist who made the wine talking about his wine, thats the best you can ask for!

Burgundy wines tastes best in Burgundy! Thanks to Bruno for having taken me to Clos des Lambrays!

SIAL Fair in Paris

I attended the SIAL 2008 in Oct 2008 - one of the world's biggest Food fair held in Paris once in 2 years. This was my 3rd SIAL fair which was different from the previous 2 SIAL fairs which i attended because this time i was a visitor and not the Exhibitor. All our African clients generally come to this fair in Paris.

Though its a food fair, there are always a lot of beverages stalls mostly dedicated to juices and energy drinks but a few stalls are invariably wine and liquor stalls. I make it a point to visit all the wine stalls as much as i can in the general halls as well as the country specific halls where you get to taste wines from different countries like Italy, Hungary, Spain, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Bulgaria and other eastern european countries. Indian wine maker Grover, had their stall in SIAL 2004 if i am not mistaken or may be it was 2006 in the Indian section full of basmati rice, spices, nuts, pulses and cereals stalls.

Tasted quite a few Italian wines made with italian grape varieties apart from wines from Bordeaux like Pessac Leognan which is one of my favourite wine regions of Bordeaux and other east european wines.

They also have a innovation prizes for food , packaging as well as wine packaging and innovative labels and ideas.

This time the fair had organised interesting lectures and seminars about wine by some prominent people from the wine world. Will give a brief of many such lectures shortly.

Visit to Bouvet Ladubay in Saumur - Vijay Mallya's French Wine House

I was at the Bouvet Ladubay in the small city of Saumur in the Centre Region of France in October last. This is the one which Dr Vijay Mallya purchased in the year 2006.

I visited Bouvet along with 2 elderly couple friends from a city called Tours in France.
Will continue the rest shortly...

Traditional French Family & Wine Culture