Interviews

Star Interview: Alberto Antonini of Poggiotondo Winery in Tuscany

Alberto Antonini is a well-known winemaker with long, valuable experience in top Tuscan wineries, who is fast gaining popularity globally as a consultant winemaker and who believes in traditional winemaking with modern approach and organic farming and different terroirs of Chianti region and owning Poggiotondo winery in Tuscany and another in Mendoza, bringing in new approach to winemaking, writes Subhash Arora who visited his winery near Florence recently and interacted with him at length.

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Robert Joseph: India could produce Great Wines one Day – Part 1

Robert Joseph, the UK wine journalist, critic and author of global repute and a successful French wine producer and an important player in the world of wines, feels that Indian wine quality is a lot better than in the 1990s when he first visited Mumbai, and believes India could produce great wines one day though he would not guess in how many years; and also shared his views about the current global market, writes Subhash Arora who had an exclusive chat with him on the sidelines of MundusVini 2023 of which he is a Director and a fellow judge.

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Mattia Antonio Cianca DipWSET at Vinexpo Mumbai

Mattia Antonio Cianca DipWSET is the Best Italian Sommelier 2019, who is participating at Vinexpo Mumbai with his business partner Amrita Singh from Bordeaux, and also conducting a Masterclass on 18th August where he will present top docg Appellations of Italian wines and presenting wines from 10 Italian wineries at their Stand ‘Selezione Vini Italiani’, writes Subhash Arora who interviewed him to present him to the wine aficionados across the world

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Indians drinking buckets of Rosé says Pioneer Sula

Sula Vineyards which pioneered Rosé in India in 2001 using Zinfandel grapes and went on to add The upper end Source Grenache Rosé in early 2018, and also a couple of bubble variants, has seen an unprecedented boom in the last 5 years, making Sula the biggest Rosé producer with 9-10% of its total product mix, and temporary shortage expected of The Source Rosé this year, says Rajeev Samant, Founder CEO of Sula in an exclusive chat with Subhash Arora

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Fratelli Wines: Sekhri Family carries on the Legacy of Kapil Sekhri

Nine months after the death of Kapil Sekhri, the co-founder director and face of Fratelli wines, the family helped steady the rocking ship with his elder brother and Director Gaurav Sekhri and nephew Aditya Sekhri joining full-time, and his wife Pooja Sekhri, who had started learning the ropes working part- time and now heading marketing department, writes Subhash Arora who met them recently but missed meeting the Italian Director Alessio Secci who has also been a rock support and was in Delhi for a couple of days on his way to the winery in Akluj for his routine visit

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Rosy Bounce-back from Pandemic, says Samant of Sula

After braving the initial months of Covid-19 pandemic, which were more stressful with no sales than the global meltdown in 2008-10, Sula Vineyards has bounced back magnificently, despite negligible on-trade sales, and Rajeev Samant, Founder CEO sees a sales drop of only around 10% in 2020-21 with Rose segment showing even a growth of 25%, with Seco Rose even clocking a 40% increase, writes Subhash Arora who had an exclusive interview with Samant who presented a rosy picture of Sula with good future

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Sula Sun Shines brightly again after weathering Covid Storm

After passing through the disastrous period of April-June 2020 like all other Indian wine producers and importers, Sula has not only weathered the current Covid storm magnificently, but it has managed to come out ahead with a gain in market share and the brand stronger than ever, writes Subhash Arora who had a long telecom with Rajeev Samant, Founder CEO of Sula Vineyards, who has been in Nashik since March and enjoying the prolonged stay and the hands-on working, with a big hand in blending wines of vintage 2020

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Jancis Robinson wishes Lower Wine Import Duties in India

India might not become a significant wine exporting nation for years, but is making reasonably good wines and has a huge potential in the domestic market but the government policies are terrible and the import taxes must come down for wine culture to be popular, said Jancis Robinson, MW in a rare one-hour Zoom chat yesterday with Sonal Holland MW, despite her heavy schedule because she wants wine culture in India to flourish, writes Subhash Arora who attended the webinar as he had been charmed by her down-to-earth attitude when he met her at Taj Falaknuma in April 2017

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Lenz Moser- Winemaker of Chateau Changyu Moser XV Ningxia China

China and Austria may be in lockdown but Chateau Changyu Moser XV wine estate near Yinchuan in Ningxia in Northwest China, in which Austrian winemaker Lenz Moser has been involved from the very beginning in the viticulture, winemaking and overseeing of sales in Europe, is open and producing wine though Lenz has been managing to operate from his home in Frauenkirchen in Burgenland and continues the dialogue between the buyers as well as the winery, writes Subhash Arora who had a long chat with him a couple of weeks ago

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SAM Conversations with Subhash Arora on Wine Cluture

In a candid interview styled chat in which Tarun Basu, President of Society for Policy Studies posed several questions about the growing wine culture in India including the known government impediments and how China has come along so much and so fast, Subhash Arora cleared several misgivings as a part of Sam Conversations organised by South Asia Monitor to be broadcast in South Asian countries and a group of viewers in the US, with the objective of disseminating the current status of wine industry in India

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TV Celebrity Chef Varun Inamdar at Hill Zill Winery Resort

For the dinner organised by the Hill Zill Winery Resort where a 2-day Conference was organized on fruit wines by Priyanka Save and her husband Nagesh Pai, TV Chef Varun Inamdar came especially from Mumbai to curate a meal that was perhaps once-in a-life time opportunity for most, writes Subhash Arora who loved the forest to table Menu using local ingredients and each dish matched with wines from Sula/Fruzzante that inspired him to chat with the Chef at length the next day about his journey to becoming a Celebrity TV Chef

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Raj Parr-Super Sommelier and Winemaker Extraordinaire

Rajat Parashar, a Kolkata born American Sommelier with the adopted name of Raj Parr, is the most accomplished Indian wine persona with years of experience as a Top Sommelier and now a cult winemaker, making Burgundy styled wines in California and Oregon. He was in Delhi on 16 November where he conducted a Masterclass with a Tasting of 3 entry level wines that charmed the full house at Le Cirque, Delhi, writes Subhash Arora who has been following his career graph for the last 12 years, and attended the session, despite the Indian Wine Day dinner he was hosting in the evening

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Ian Harris, the dynamic CEO of WSET visits India

WSET is undoubtedly the most popular wine course, though nor recognised by any university, in India with about 1200 students opting for at least one of the streams in 2019, a jump of 20 times in 10 years, and this has come about thanks to the rock-steady CEO Ian Harris who I met on the sidelines of India Wine Awards at the Leela in Mumbai and had the opportunity to interview him at length, writes Subhash Arora, congratulating WSET for the 50th anniversary celebration on October 17, 2019

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Liber Pater 2015: World’s Most Expensive Wine at €30,000

You might expect a Vin de France for as low as €2 (Rs.150) but a bottle of Liber Pater 2015 in that classification will set you back by €30,000 (over Rs. 2.3 million) and only 550 bottles of this pure Bordeaux wine from ungrafted vines with indigenous grapes used in 1855 made in Italian amphoras will be available in September from its owner Loic Pasquet who was a special guest at the delWine Excellence Awards organised by the Indian Wine Academy and delWine at Pullman New Delhi Aerocity on April 21 this year

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Gerard Basset Sommelier Restaurateur Extraordinaire

Gerard Basset, MS, MW, MBA, OBE, World’s Best Sommelier (2010), a Sommelier, Restaurateur and Human Being Extraordinaire is no more. He lost the battle with cancer yesterday. An introvert who became alive on stage while talking about wine looked very frail when I met him last at the MUST wine conference at Cascais Portugal where he was a Speaker. Cancer had gotten to him but he did not let it show on his face. He also joined us on an exclusive trip to Madeira and was cheerful and we shared many interesting anecdote of his usual visits to Madeira with his family and restructuring his restaurant business. I also learnt that the cheapest way to visit Madeira was by taking special packaged trips from UK and not from Lisbon.

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