Bangalore seems to be hotting up to be the next Maha wine state with suddenly a flurry of activities taking place. Our panellist from Bangalore Maureen Kerleau reports a few small snippets from the hectic wine weekend wine happenings.
Yet Another Launch of Four Seasons
On Friday UB held a mega launch of Four Seasons in Bangalore at the ITC Windsor at which over 150 guests from the Bangalore society and wine World were present.
They have already done so many launch dinners already that I was expecting their 'Reserve' range to be the object of the launch, but unfortunately that was not to be. I stuck to the Blush all evening myself as it really is delicious. Of course all of Bangalore's celebs were there- Consuls, the 'in' Chefs, page 3 personalities and the like.
On Saturday evening I saw the local Hindu article regarding the wine challenges and about how the contraversial film 'Bottle Shock' with Steven Spurrier about the Judgement of Paris is being shown to India's main wine clubs. As a French wine specialist I found this to be mildly irritating, to say the least. One French guest attending felt so insulted that he almost left.
WSI and French Wines
The Wine Society of India is widely publicising this monumental highlight of Steven's career to illustrate just how important a figure he is in the international wine trade, but they seem to ignore the fact that in doing so they are badly slamming the French wines; yet ironically, after projecting the film the wines being tasted included a lot of UB's Bouchard French portfolio. As we well know, most of the members of the clubs listen religiously to all wine info they can pick up and I'm sure that this makes a lot of them feel uneasy about the old world wines, particularly French, after hearing it repeated over and over.
Inauguration of Naka Wines winery
On Sunday afternoon the not very well known but locally well-connected winery, Naka Wines whose winery is located in Bijapur, northern Karnataka, inaugurated the construction of their new winery in Nandi Hills. The only person I knew there apart from the owners was Ravish Ahuja from Mumbai. The Chief Minister had meant to attend, which meant more cops than guests, not to mention the dozens that were lining the route out from Bangalore, (making signboards redundant). Unfortunately, the CM couldn't make it due to some unforeseen situation.
It's a shame as I already had my idea for an article about the wind of change of blowing in Karnataka, but I was compensated by being introduced to some of the State's prominent excise and wine board officials. I had an interesting discussion with a top man of the KSBCL, who took me under his wing all through lunch.
Another Mela in the offing
We spoke about last month's wine mela and he said he is planning an 'International Wine Festival' for October. One of the high spots of the afternoon was also the wine family being presented officially with their different licenses, to retail wine directly and to produce.
You have to go a long way, Baby
During lunch my husband and I went to get a glass of rosé to accompany the meal (what could be more natural!), but we were the only ones. I asked one of the officials why nobody was drinking and he said that 'with the Chief Minister likely to turn up it would not be the proper thing to do'.
Karnataka really does have a hell of a long way to go yet with wine culture - the contrast between the celebrity UB mega show and this more political inauguration was so eye-opening.
Maureen Kerleau
 Maureen Kerleau of Britain has been actively involved with the wine scene in India for the past 3 years. She now lives in Bangalore with her French husband. She is a wine trainer, producers' rep and consultant and writes about the Bangalore happenings for delWine-editor
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