All Things Nice raises a toast to India’s finest wines this weekend. We caught up with sommelier Nikhil Agarwal for tips and more
On March 9, All Things Nice will celebrate India’s finest at a club where over 250 wine enthusiasts will gather to taste the winning wines. The event in its seventh edition, will bring together fellow wine enthusiasts, a selection of fine cheese and a continuous flow of India’s best wines. We caught up with sommelier Nikhil Agarwal of All Things Nice for a quick chat.
A red wine from Pinot Noir is included in the competition for the first time this year. Tell us more.
This is the first time we have had Pinot Noir as a straight red wine and not part of sparkling wine in the competition. India is comparatively a baby when it comes to wine with literally no more than a few decades of experience. It’s exciting to see wineries experiment with grape varieties too see how they do in India. In the competition, for the first time we had a couple of Pinot Noirs, a Grenache rose in addition to the other and now more common grape varietals.
Five terms associated with wine drinking that everyone should know about...
- Bouquet A collection of aromas that one can smell in their wine.
- Full bodied, light bodied, medium bodied It’s used to describe the weight of the wine on your tongue.
- Dry, off dry, medium dry and sweet It refers to the wine’s sweetness.
- Balance A good wine will be balanced, which means that each of the aroma and flavour characteristics will be in harmony.
- Tannin In red wine, the astringent, sort of bitter taste comes from tannins. Some grape varietals result in wines with more tannins.
- Length How long the taste of the wine lingers in your mouth.
Sommelier Nikhil Agarwal
What has changed in the last few years?
From an Indian context, we think there are many levels of wine drinkers. Serious wine enthusiasts know and appreciate wine and want to drink the best. People who are interested and drink wine frequently. We see that this lot is making a shift from fruity wines to more complex ones. We also see the introduction of dry rosé or even barrel aged Sauvignon Blanc or Chenin Blanc to cater to this audience.
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