Wine & Food Travel

K.I.S.S. Georgia: Visiting Winery Khareba- Part 2

Winery Khareba is a family owned winery founded in 1995 by three Kharebava brothers. I had the privilege of meeting Alexander Kharebava and his Deputy Vladimer Kublashvili, a modern and well-qualified winemaker with an excellent international background in winemaking and viticulture, at their corporate headquarters in Tbilisi last month, writes Subhash Arora who visited Georgia and amongst many places of interest, visited two of their four wineries and two tasting centers and found the company very progressive

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K.I.S.S. Georgia- the Cradle of Wine in Europe

Georgia, an East European country, known to be the oldest wine producer in the world with 7000-8000 year of wine history is truly a country where wine is tradition, religion, culture and is de facto a quintessential part of their cuisine. Subhash Arora re-visited the country last month and shares his experience visiting the Capital Tbilisi and Winery Khareba in two of the regions and found it an excellent wine destination, especially for Indian travelers who would savour their wines and find them affordable, and blows them a K.I.S.S. – Keep It Simple Subhash

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Wine Future 2023: Dr. Catena optimistic about Health Benefits of Wine in Moderation

Dr. Lara Catena, the fourth generation Argentine vintner, physician and author and the Managing Director of Bodega Catena Zapata, who graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1988 and has a Medical Doctor degree from Stanford University, was the Keynote Speaker at the Wine Future held in Coimbra, Portugal on 7-9 November, 2023 where she spoke at length about the possible negative effects and health benefits of wine as a doctor and a winemaker, if taken in moderation, writes Subhash Arora

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4th Edition of Wine Future in Coimbra Portugal deliberates on Future of Wine

Coimbra, a historical university town between Porto and Lisbon became the world capital of wine on 7-9 November 2023 with the 4th edition of Wine Future Conference organized at the Convento de São Francisco, attended by visitors and speakers from 40 countries and showcasing several Keynote speakers, panel discussions, 3 Guided Tastings attended by a full house and ample wine from all regions of Portugal to sample, writes Subhash Arora who was the sole delegate from India attending

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CMB2023: Memorable Wine Tasting Trip of Croatia (Part 2)

A group of 20 international journalists (G-20) attending Concours Mondial di Bruxelles (CMB) in Porec left the hotel on the morning of 15 May for an incredibly interesting 3-day experiential tour through parts of North Croatia and Dalmatia to get an exposure to their land, climate and wineries before being dropped off at Zagreb after an exciting trip that gave the group an opportunity to taste wines from several autochthonous gems some grown only in a small area, writes Cav. Subhash Arora who was a part of the trip organised by Vinistra in collaboration with CMB and describes visit on Day 2 and 3

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CMB 2023: Casa Santos Lima most Awarded Winery in 30 Years at CMB

Casa Santos Lima, the well-known winery near Lisbon in Portugal was awarded Recognition for the maximum number of medals won cumulatively at 30 editions of Concours Mondial de Bruxelles (CMB) since the inception of the competition in 1994, bagging over 300 medals in 1994-2023, writes Subhash Arora who has been judging regularly at the Competition since 2009, has twice visited the winery in Alenquer and has always believed the wines were a good quality great value for money wines from India.

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Vinitaly 2023: The Italian Wine Show as enchanting as ever

Over 93,000 visitors from across the world came to Veronafiere in Verona to attend the 55th edition of Vinitaly From 2 to 5 April, with about a third of them being foreign visitors from 143 countries including India, writes Subhash Arora who attended the Show again and was impressed by the vigor and energy at the Show that he found 21 years ago though he was slightly surprised by the lower response from the consumers on the last day but the exhibitors were as excited and full of energy as ever before

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Cocchi: Move over Champagne-Alta Langa DOCG is here from Piemonte

Italy is well-known for Prosecco, Franciacorta, Trento DOC wines and even Moscato d’Asti and Lambrusco bubbles which are generally sweeter but an Appellation that produces amazing sparkling wines due to higher altitudes and lower temperatures is Alta Langa in Piemonte as Subhash Arora discovered on his recent visit to Bava Winery in Cocconato in Asti Piemonte, after attending Grandi Langhe event, when he tasted a range of Cocchi Alta Langa DOCG wines and also Piemonte Brut DOC wines and found them really good and challenging for Champagne and Prosecco

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Robert Joseph : India could produce Great Wines one Day - Part 2

Whereas in the previous Part-1 we focused on Robert Joseph’s views on the Indian market, I also asked him wine related questions like wine and Food, wine and health and wine competitions and ratings and global wine trends, writes Subhash Arora who tried to found out how he used decades of his wine knowledge to make best business medal for Le Grand Noir wines and make it a very successful venture in the highly competitive world of wines.

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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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Grandi Langhe 2023: The Two-Day wine event in Torino hugely Successful

The two days wine event in Piemonte christened as ‘Grandi Langhe 2023’ organized at the OGR Turin (Torino) was very successful with 240 Barolo, Barbaresco, Barbera, Dolcetto and Nebbiolo producers presenting their wines to the attending 3300 visitors from over 30 countries including Italy and India, writes Subhash Arora who attended the Tasting held on 30-31 January, 2023 and also visited a few of the participating wineries during the following 3 days

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Indian Wine Day 2022 Celebrated in Chennai and Pondicherry in Style

The Indian Wine Day falls on 16 November and it was celebrated in many parts of India including Gurgaon, Durgapur and Bangalore, but a total of seven events were organised in Chennai and Pondicherry by the wine enthusiast, educator and Indian wine lover Chinmaya Arjun Raja, three of them being wine dinners with different Indian wines. Subhash Arora attended two of these events, as shared by Chinmaya

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Champagne clocks record sales in value in 2021

Despite the pandemic and the growing competition with Cava and Prosecco which sells over 500 million cases annually, Champagne sales in 2021 reached almost 320 million cases showing a 30% growth over 2020 and clocking a record value of €5,7 billion, remaining globally the largest selling sparkling wine, according to Charles Goemaere, Managing Director of Le Comité Interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne (CIVC), in an interview last week by Concours Mondial de Bruxelles (CMB). Subhash Arora reports on the secret of Champagne’s continues success and what the future hold for them

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Concours Mondial de Bruxelles (CMB) into 4 phases starting in Calabria

Concours Mondial de Bruxelles (CMB) has split the competition into 4 different sessions with the most predominant Red and White Wine section tasted in Rende-Cosenza in Calabria on May 20-22, 2022 with the other 3 sections tasted in different countries, writes Subhash Arora who rated about 140 of the 7400 wines offered at the competition, for the 12th time since he started tasting in Valencia in 2009 and hopes to be at the next edition in Porec in the Istrian region of Croatia on 12-14 May, 2023

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Masterclass: Vranec Wines from Macedonia of Alexander the Great

Of the many benefits of judging at Mundusvini International Wine Competition is an exclusive evening for the judges to attend a Masterclass with Tasting and Dinner that gives an insight into one country/region, and the Spring Tasting 2020 saw Wines of Macedonia organise a Masterclass attended by Subhash Arora who loved the Vranec Wines presented and believes that in a Utopian world, knowledgeable Indian wine lovers would have an opportunity to enjoy these low-cost wines from this small Balkan country winning 41 Gold and Silver medals

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