 Ritu Barrique Reserve Shiraz 2009 and Ritu Blush 2012 from Four Seasons Wines won a Bronze medal in the Hong Kong International Wine and Spirits Challenge (HKIWSC) held last month. Ritu Barrique Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 also won a Bronze Medal in the Decanter Asia Wine Awards, conducted for the first time-also in Hong Kong.
Ritu Blush 2012 also managed to win a Bronze Medal in the newly introduced Chicken Tikka category in the food and wine pairing award. In this category, the participants send wine samples for different food categories. The individual wine quality is not as important as the matching with the food. The judges take a morsel of the food followed by a generous sip to get the overall feel before spitting out the food and wine.
The rhetorical Indian food with Indian wine notwithstanding, the silver medal and the trophy in the category was bagged by Bodega Sottano for their Sottano Judas Malbec 2009. Curiously, a white wine from Chateau Mercian from Japan bagged a silver medal in this category. Japan has several Indian cuisine restaurants. This could have been a possible motivation for the relatively new Japanese winery to jump in and take a position in the Chicken Tikka category. There were 4 silver medals and 6 bronzes in this category, Ritu Blush being the lone winner from India.
 Interestingly, Ritu Viognier 2012 won a Bronze also in the Pad Thai food-wine category. Ritu is the export label of Four Seasons Wines.
Earlier last month, In Decanter Asia Wine Awards debuting in Hong Kong, Sula won a Silver Medal for its Sauvignon Blanc 2012 and a Bronze for the Estate Bottled Riesling 2012. India thus collected a total of 9 medals in the two competitions. The well-established HKIWSC ( Hong Kong International Wine and Spirits Challenge saw India win 6 medals while we managed 3 awards at the rookie DAWA (Decanter Asia Wine Awards). Interestingly the two Mistresses of Wine from Hong Kong seem to have divided the territory. While Debra Meiburg MW chairs the former, Jeannie Cho Lee MW has co-chaired the DAWA along with well known Decanter columnist, Steven Spurrier.
Sula is a regular winner at such events and in the past has won medals including one Silver in HKIWSC. It is not known if they took part in HKIWSC also or only in DAWA. Four Seasons took part in both the competitions. It is customary in international competitions not to declare details of wines entered but only the ones that win awards are declared. As a policy, delWine does not dig into the details of entries but focuses only on the results.
Cecilia Oldne, Global Brand Ambassador of Sula Vineyards is quite excited about the awards won at DAWA. Taking a dig at the newer entrants in the domestic wine arena she says, ’I believe that this was a well-deserved medal as the 2012 vintage is the best we have had so far. Our Sauvignon Blanc, which is also India’s first, is the most award winning wine in India. Our 2012 Sauvignon Blanc is outstanding and a must- try wine. The original is still the best.”
 Ravi Gurnani of York Winery was beaming with joy as he learnt that York Chenin Blanc 2012 and York Sauvignon Blanc 2012 had won a Bronze medal at HKIWSC as he had entered the wines for the first time. His reasons were not hard to understand- his younger brother Kailash Gurnani who graduated from Adelaide University in Australia had come back as winemaker and this was his first vintage. ‘To be awarded in the very first year of his taking over the winemaking is no mean achievement and we are absolutely thrilled about it,’ says Ravi. He had been very upbeat when a group of Delhi Wine Club members visited the winery earlier this year, because of Kailash joining the family winery as winemaker.
It is encouraging to see the Indian producers slowly realizing the importance of participating in the international competitions. DelWine has been encouraging participation in such competitions as the international judges give not only their impartial views but their comments may be sought by the producers to get an impartial feedback. The venue and selection of the competition may be selected according to the markets in which penetration is sought.
Indian Grape Processing Board (IGPB) needs to play a pro-active role and support such participation financially and administratively but so far has failed to recognize the importance perhaps due to lack of experience in the international marketing and has concentrated instead only on merely participating at wine shows at venues like Hong Kong, Germany and London.
 Arora was a judge and the Panel President at the HKIWSC this year as well. He abstained from marking the Indian wines as a matter of principle. He was also invited to judge at the Decanter Wine Asia Awards but had to regret due to the clash of 200th wine event and 10th anniversary celebratory dinner on September 21 of the Delhi Wine Club of which he is the founder president.
Although the coveted Gold Medal has been eluded so far in international competitions of repute outside, India is slowly but surely inching towards it. Like many firsts, the first Gold Medal for an Indian wine at an international platform ought to be a momentous occasion and will surely be the talk of the world when it happens. In the meanwhile, with the 4 medals won by Four Seasons at the HKIWSC, it has become the first winery in India to have won the highest medal in a single competition.
Subhash Arora
HKIWSC-Chicken Tikka Awards HKIWSC-Indian Winners |