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Photos By:: Adil Arora
 Prosecco has taken the Indian wine market by storm and is the fastest growing segment of the imported wine market. Until 5 years ago most importers were reluctant to add it to their portfolio. Today, there are at least two importers who represent two wineries (Brindco, Aspri) and one importer (Hi Spirits) who brings in 3 variants of Prosecco and Spumante Rose (Mionetto).
Tasting them blind
Indian Wine Academy tasted 12 samples with 19 members of the Delhi Wine Club and a few professionals from the hotel industry. The objective was to taste all of them blind. Results of the Top Five are listed below. Two of the Top Five were Rose Spumante, even though there were only 3 wines in this category. Other 3 were Brut/Extra Dry out of 9 sampled. The scores are based on 100-points system followed by the vast majority of international wine competitions.
Results
Here are the results of the Top Five- Three are
1. Sartori di Verona Ti Amo (Brindco)- 90.29
2. Il Concerto San Simone Spumante Rose Brut (Hema)– 87. 0
3 Zonin Extra Dry Prosecco NV (Aspri) 86.64
4-Carpene Malvolti (Aspri)- 86.57
5 Foss Marai Roos (Ace Beveragez) Spumante Rose- 86.14
It is interesting to know that the top two labels are also the cheapest in the market, indicative of the preference of wine drinkers of simple wines at the present time.
Methodology
 Since the aim of the tasting was not only to give a fair opportunity to all the wines, as well as educate the members of the Delhi Wine Club who were interested in blind tasting, the tasting was kept strictly professional. The bottles were given a rate sheet with all the 12 random sample numbers which were known only to the hotel staff and not even to me. Each bottle of course, was covered so one could not possibly guess the label.
Based on my experience of judging at 40 international wine competitions including Vinitaly, MundusVini, Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, Cathay Pacific HKIWSC and Decanter Asia Awards I used the 100- point system with similar markings but with a bit of a twist, keeping the wines totally blind. The tasters were told only whether the wines were Brut or Extra Dry to make them understand the difference of sweetness only. To keep the scoring uniformity, the concept of 80 and above (Commended), 85+ (Bronze), 90+ (Silver) and 95+ (Gold) was explained to all. The group was divided into two groups-one had hoteliers, WSET qualified and me. The other group comprised enthusiastic members who were keen to take part and learn about the tasting. Naturally, each of the variations- Colour, effervescence, aromas, flavours and after-taste were explained.
Wine, including sparkling, has to enhance the dining experience, even if taken with appetizers. In order to take that into account, a set of anti-pasti including pizzas was served on the square table around which 19 people were seated and served wine at about 10 deg C, in a clockwise direction. There were 10 points assigned exclusively for the food and wine match as were 10 for the general experience of the taster with a particular wine.
 In order to keep the scores as fair as possible, we chose to ignore only the lowest score in each of the category for all the wines-the logic being to weed off any extra-ordinary low score due to a particularly tight scorer. We did not remove the top score as is done in Vinitaly. After discussing the scores for the first wine in order to help the calibration also, the scores were kept intact. For the following wines, we discussed the wine and the characteristics but I did not encourage changing of the scores because of the possibility of some amateurs simply adjusting their scores to match one of the more experienced tasters.
The results may not be authentic in that most were not professional tasters. But they were definitely keen drinkers and were willing to learn from the experience. In fact the response was so positive that we shall conduct another blind tasting at our next wine event on February 11 at the Amreli Restaurant where I shall add a couple of other twists to make it more interesting and challenging.
For the Proseccos and Spumante Rosés that were tasted, please click here. The scores of other wines have been conveyed individually to the importers who had kindly provided the samples for tasting.
For earlier article Click Masterclass: Prosecco with Pizza and Pasta in Amalfi
Tasting Video: Part A Part B
Part C
Subhash Arora |