The Season of Pink

It used to be white, then it was red wine for health. Now India’s wine drinkers wake up to the pink scent and bouquet of rosés.

Plump prawns grilled to a curl, slivers of ruby-red beetroot tartare, a side of salmon… The list of foods with which you can match pink-tinted rosé wines can run on like an endless smorgasbord. But the single essential ingredient without which you can’t ever capture a rosé wine’s delicate fuchsia glints and crisp fruity notes, is bright sunlight. And without any shortage of sunny days in India, urbanites in Goa, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata are uncorking pink, the wine hue that’s globally in vogue. Capturing an image of this vie en rosé, Nikhil Agarwal, consultant to The Wine Society of India, which has over 2,300 members, says, “The Sunday scenario is complete when you see people eating al fresco, with their glares on and the sun lighting up a pink-hued rosé wine at their table.”

After having sniffed and twirled definitive reds and pale whites in long-stemmed glasses, Indian wine drinkers are tinkering with rosé, in all its ambiguous pink tinges. And this quintessential summer sip of Europe and America is beguiling Indian wine drinkers with its tangerine-lavender tints and orchard-fresh bouquets. These are created by carefully ‘bleeding’ red grapes and nurturing this juice as a white wine. Reflecting this pink trend, fine dining restaurants are now offering red, white and rosé wine by the glass.

Having produced white and red wines for years, Sula and Four Seasons (which belongs to the United Breweries Group) are all bottling pinks, made in Nashik and Baramati. In a reverse integration move, Karishma Grover of Grover Vineyards says: “Almost 50 per cent of the rosé produced by Grovers is exported to France.” And wine experts are confused whether Mumbai or Goa is India’s bigger rosé consumer. Goa, some argue, has too many tourists for the local demand to accurately show up.

Sparkling pink bubbly is the chosen new love potion. Kavita Faiella, master sommelier and cellar master of the ultra-luxe Hotel Aman, that’s recently opened in Delhi, says, “For every 10 bottles of cuvée white champagne, we sell two or three of rosé champagne.” Chef Abhijit Saha, who runs the progressive European eatery (where bold new flavours and cooking methods are applied to old world classics), Caperberry, in Bangalore, says: “Rosé champagne is a more romantic drink, white is more for celebrations.” Priced more than twice the price of white, “Pink champagnes are popular among the moneyed,” says Agarwal. His own favourite is the Veuve Clicquot Rosé Champagne, “with its luminous pink tints, fresh red fruit on the nose and biscuit notes of dried fruit like apricot on the palette”. Sula’s Diwali hampers this year included pink bubbly.

Far from being new to the vineyards, rosés are newly popular… to tables. With Asian food coming centre plate internationally, whites are too weak and reds’ tannins too strong to handle the uneven flavour and spice assault. Rosé provides the steadying balance. “People like it for its fruit forward and refreshing characteristics,” says Agarwal. In terms of real crisp notes, local rosés are priced at about Rs 500 a bottle; the imports veer towards Rs 3,000. The Pommery Cuvée Louise Rose costs Rs 30,500 a pop.

Sommeliers also admit that high summer temperatures also make it unbearable to drink heavy reds. Abroad, longer warmer summers are bringing out the pinks. In Europe, ever since the record-breakingly hot 2003, sales of this summer wine have been spiralling up. Milder winters also extended the pink season. Rosé, in the UK, has now also been added to the basket of goods to compute inflation. In all, rosé consumption is expected to rise by 48 per cent between 2008 and 2012. Even in wine-soaked France, rosé sales have overtaken white in 2009. “I would say that global warming more than any other factor has driven up sales,” says Aman Dhall, executive director, Brindco, one of India largest wine importers.

“Rosé is best enjoyed on a warm day, it’s not a cold weather wine which makes it a natural for India,” says Rajeev Samant of Sula, who make a fresh and fruity Blush Zinfandel. “Blush is one of the most popular wines in our portfolio,” says Abhay Kewadkar, chief winemaker and director of UB’s Four Seasons Wines. He expects: “From 10 per cent of total wine sales, rosé will grow to 15 per cent.” Kewadkar specifies, “Technically India’s climate is ideal for a rosé. It suits our cuisine and it’s one wine which can go with a full thaali, when it is of dry style.”

It’s also a jump-in sort of sip. “For India, where the wine market is young and people haven’t yet acquired a taste for reds, a rosé is an easy first-time experience,” says Laurent Guiraud, general manger of Manré, a progressive eatery in Delhi. This spring at their three course wine pairing dinner, “the Grover Rosé moved well”, says Guiraud. For those who are not accustomed to the clatter of ice cubes sliding down a stemmed glass, listen in… to this. “I like to drink rosé on the rocks,” asserts Samant, “there is nothing sacrosanct about drinking wine.”

With finger foods like tapas and family-friendly Medi-food ruling palates—foods which can be shared without breaking any formal French haute cuisine rules—this pink drink is the appropriately casual accompaniment. “When someone orders a rosé at the next table, every other diner’s curiosity is piqued,” says Faiella. Saha also feels that its alluring colour prompts people to order blush wines. Suppliers are ready to ply. “Today you can try a rosé of any style you like, from bone-dry to dry or semi-sweet to match all palates,” says Agarwal. And oenophiles are drinking deep of good pinks like Rosé d’Anjou and Tavel Rosé. Dhall says the E Guigal Tavel from the Rhone is their highest seller.

Not everyone is entrapped by rosés. “Indian men prefer dark drinks, rum as a spirit and red as a wine,” says Alok Chandra, independent wine consultant whose company Gryphon Brands focuses on wine: knowledge, research, projects and marketing. For men, blush is too effeminate. Besides, with heavy, tongue blanketing foods like dal makhni, rosés are too mild to hold up. However, when he organises the bi-monthly tasting of five wines for the Wine Food Lover’s magazine in Bangalore, he offers a sparkling, a white, a rosé, a red and a late-harvest dessert wine.

The economic meltdown has also made affordable casual rosés a better choice than pricey Burgundies that easily mop up a bank balance. “The luxury market is also moving from glitz and glamour to eco-lodges. People are seeking connectedness and nothing equals the pure luxury of a sunny day than a rosé,” says Faiella. At Hotel Aman’s flagship Spanish restaurant, the Lodhi, and their Tapas Bar, “we have a lot of people asking for rosés and we serve it by the glass”, she says. Speaking about the Catalonian Fish Stew served at The Lodhi, Faiella says, “Pair it with white and you highlight the seafood, rosé brings out the saffron and tomato.”

A few years ago, large California wineries like Echo Falls and Blossom Hill launched pink Zinfandels and white Grenaches, and modishly dubbed these sweet pinks as blush wines. Most Indian vineyards are following the blush path. Taking shelter under the Zinfandel grapevine, Samant says Sula’s Blush is made sweet, true to California style, “with a bit of residual sugar and in refrigerated stainless steel vats”. Faiella explains that it’s easy to go wrong with the making of a rosé: “Sweetness gives you the ability to hide the wine making faults.”

Based on market feedback in recent times, Brindco has added a few pinks. Depending on the growing need of the industry, Dhall says, “We shall increase the shade further.” The Wine Society of India has also, as part of their quarterly shipments, put rosés in their selection to let their members expand their knowledge of this style of wine. But as the days darken and as we head towards winter, north India will see a dip in the sale of these summer pinks. Guiraud declares longingly, “I could eternally drink rosé on a beach in Kerala.” With peninsular India bathed in sunlight, who knows if our wine future will be red, white or pinker?

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