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ShareI don't know but we seem to believe that only wine is to be tasted, judged and criticised. I am not clear as to who it was who first passed such a monotonous decree but he must have been mighty strong for we all seem to stick to it. The only time we judge our food or drink otherwise is when we find a hair floating in it. Three things I recently tasted merit a serious tactile appreciation and, in order of potency, here they are.
Fruit wines are not exactly everyone's cup of well, er, wine but they do exist. Like the Indian hockey team, they play second fiddle to the more prominent and popular grape-based variants. A wine house called Vin de Roisin changed that for me recently. They make wines with fruits as diverse as cherries, quince and raspberries and even rhubarb. Don't scoff, I did that already, and a few sips of the wines later I realised how misplaced my 'scoff' was. The wines were dry, terse, acid, fruity(!), and if I hadn't been told I would have thought of them as grape wines with a certain je-ne-sais-quoi! They were different in their aromas and taste but not in a way that made them appear odd. They were more than just an amusing gimmick and we had very distinct tasting notes for each of them. Even better they could take oak-ageing and even age in a bottle like grape wines, perhaps even longer in some cases.
Next was beer. To discuss beer is to delay getting to the better part -- drinking it. So here's a quick run through. Beer is not only the stuff that is the cheapest on the menu and comes in large glasses.
Beer, like wine, is a ferment and when made properly, it can display all the tactile acrobatics we usually expect of wine. From coriander to dry spices, nuttiness, maltiness, bitterness, lemon and other citrus fruits... all these are notes you can find in beer. Mind you this may not be as easy to detect in a pint of your local favourite (or an expensive foreign one); for this stuff you need to head to that little country called Belgium (or to Germany). The term "Trappist beer" refers to beers which were made in monasteries by monks using traditional and closely guarded secret recipes. Only seven breweries in the world are allowed to use the "Authentic Trappist Product" seal and six are in Belgium! The alcohol can often be high but then so is the balance and taste with dark fruits and rich malt notes. Chimay is a popular Trappist beer from Belgium but it isn't here yet.
Look out instead for Rochefort No. 6, 8 and 10 (the numbers denoting the degree of alcohol in each).
Finally, I tasted honey. I know it is not potent on the alcoholic scale but on the yummy scale this stuff is explosive. The brand Millé Fiorii specialises in multi and mono floral honeys. How they ensure that the bees only collect pollen from one and only one flower is the stuff genius is made of. Gone are the days when honey was only meant to sweeten tea. From the floral (Indian Borage) on to the fruitier (Babul Acacia), the spicy (Wild Thyme) and finally the deeply wood-scented (Honeydew) the range is exhaustive. I am thinking of planning a dinner with different honeys as side sauces paired with food and wine, fish and some Indian Borage, Chicken skewers with the Babul Acacia, rich meat on the Wild Thyme and finishing with a hint of the lovely Honeydew and some Port and, for those who do, cigars.
So a fulfiling fortnight of sensorial work-outs. I learnt so much and I imbibed equally. Sometimes I do wonder what I did so right in a previous life.
The writer is a sommelier
