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What would be the most popular cuisine for a wedding
party where the simple majority were the PIO variety?
You guessed it- Indian food still remains the top priority
even though you may be an American and only your father
was born in India.
It was therefore a befitting start to the wedding where
the number of guests was 678 when the celebrations started
a couple of days before wedding at this Indian Restaurant
on the Strip, called Tamba (which means copper).
Plenty of Indian snacks were going around with equal
number of lilting tunes and songs belted out by one
Patel from Kenya- a real discovery for old Hindi music
lovers. But the protagonist of our article was, yes,
wine.
Mondavi Woodbridge cabernet was being savoured by the
red wine lovers. An equivalent white Chardonnay was
also doing the rounds. My hosts ( Indian-born US citizens
who live in the US and perhaps voted for George Bush)
invited me to the wine bar behind the counter, let me
loose inside and invited me to select any label I wanted
to uncork.
Rocca delle Macie in an Indian Restaurant in
Vegas
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Agriturismo of Rocca delle Macie |
As recent Tuscany- returned, I was pleasantly surprised
to find two of my favourite Chianti Classico- a 2002
from Rocca delle Macie and a Riserva Ducale from Ruffino
2001.
The former is imported into India by Kiara and I had
the pleasure of not only visiting the winery and their
agriturismo- an ideal honeymoon destination, but also
had been a guest for a delicious Tuscan lunch prepared
by Daniela Zingarelli, the charming wife of the partner
President , Sergio Zingarelli and his mamma Maria Laura
who told us stories about his father Italo who was a
movie producer in the sixties ( imagine Daboo running
a winery set up by Raj Kapoor in the eighties, on a
tract of land near Narayangaon or Nashik!) and who set
up the winery in early seventies.
Maria also told us anecdotes about how there was no
electricity and water when Italo had bought the 14 th
century village Macie and the land nearby in Castellina
in Chianti to set up a winery. She told us how the local
grape farmers always considered them 'foreigners' from
Rome where Sergio had grown up. They used to snigger
and wonder how Italo- the celebrity film producer, a
city person would make quality Chianti Classico when
the local growers had been doing it for centuries.
Italo did prove them wrong. His Classico and other wines have been winning several awards, the latest being their Super Tuscan Ser Gioveto 2003 (named after Sergio) made from Sangiovese
(85%), Cabernet (10%) and Merlot(10%) which won the
MundusVini 2007 Gold medal.
The 2002 Chianti Classico in stock at the Tamba
was not a great year for the Classico region and even
for the Rocca though it was adequate as we found out
soon enough when everyone shifted to the Rocca from
Woodbridge though many wine drinkers in the US are as
avidly faithful to the California wines as they are
to their State football team in the NFL matches.
Chianti Classico Ducale Riserva Ruffino
Talking of the vintage variation, 2001 was an excellent
vintage in Tuscany and the Ducale from Ruffino reflected
its superiority in the glass. I am not sure if Sula,
the importer of Ruffino in India imports Ducale but
this is a wine all Tuscan-wine lovers can proudly serve
it to their special guests- rich, spicy and with an
excellent mouthfeel.
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