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And what better gesture to show how much you care for
your spouse or partner than opening a bottle of pink Champagne on February
14, the Valentine's Day?
Pink Champagne is made from macerating the red grapes-
Pinot Noir or Pinot Meunier for a short period or mixing the juices with
the white Chardonnay, the third grape allowed in champagne. The pink Champagne
has usually been rated a notch lower than the golden bubbly in seriousness
but during the last four years, it has started racing harder in the UK
and US markets making me predict, incorrectly, that we shall follow the
'leaders' and its consumption would go up.
However, due to the light tannins and bigger body, pink
can be a better accompaniment with food, especially Chinese cuisine. In
fact, at a Cunard Duchêne Champagne tasting at the then newly opened
China Kitchen at Hyatt Regency a few months ago, I found the pink version
a perfect match for the chicken, lamb, fish and crabs and everything else
we had at the table-except the dessert. So I was not surprised when the
Sunday brunch initiated a couple of weeks afterwards with unlimited Champagne
had on offer- the pink Champagne. The only change was that instead of
the Cunard Duchêne there was Moet Chandon Imperial Brut Rosé.
After celebrating the Valentine Day at the JW Marriott
in Mumbai, Team Moet Hennessey was at Senate lawns of the Hyatt, a few
meters away from where we had tasted TCK-CD Rose combo, last Sunday. After
a couple of days of really cold and windy weather that told heavily on
the ongoing India Masters at the Delhi Golf Club, the sunshine was as
welcome here as it would be to the champagne wine growers at the harvest
time- a perfect weather to sip the bubbly with loads of food being served
at different live stations.
There was plenty of champagne, snacks, food and fashion
designers making me wonder if pink was the preferred choice of the designers
too.
A TV anchor was coaxing the fashion guru, Rohit Bal
to give him (change to her) a few bytes, 'How can my story be
complete without a few bytes from you? She said. Acting a bit coy, he
said, 'Why don't you go and interview Ashwin instead?' 'Who is Ashwin?'
she asked him.
Ashwin that Bal was referring to was the Ashwin
Deo, MD of Moet Hennessey, who has done more for promoting Champagne in
India than anyone else- sorry, correction- Moet Chandon and Dom Perignon.
While talking to delWine, he would not comment on the
amount of Moet Champagne being imported into India. But he did put the
figure of total champagne cases at 25,000. For Champagne alone, that figure
does appear a trifle high but with the amount of free champagne flowing
at the Sunday brunches in Delhi and Mumbai restaurants (ok, perhaps not
after the excise duty went up in Maharashtra to 200%), it might soon reach
this figure soon. (Although it occurred to me much later that he was perhaps
referring to the 6-bottle case, while we refer to 12-bottle cases for
our estimation).
Ashwin did venture to guess that 15% of their Champagne
sold was Rosé. With an annual growth of 25-30%, MC is in tandem
with the growth in the market of imported wines.
My faith in Rosé Champagne- food match remains
intact after this brunch at the Hyatt. Risotto was perhaps the only dish
that would have gone better with the sparkling golden. Actually Risotto
is one of the easiest dishes to pair with wine and by tweaking the recipe
slightly, the Chef could have made it a perfect match with the Brut Rosé
(Rose and pink are interchangeable words to describe the same wine, though
pink is more commonly used with the sparkler-perhaps that's why the popular
rock band named itself Pink Champagne and not Rosé.
And the Rose was too dry for the delicious desserts-
a testimony to the fact that the pink colour has nothing to do with the
sweetness of a wine or bubbly.
Have a nice Valentine's Day. And if you find it cumbersome
to locate the Pink Champagne, open any decent bottle of wine with food
and tell the person you love, 'Happy Valentine's Day'
Subhash Arora
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