UB City hosted a one-of-its-kind wine festival 2 weeks back. Held across 2 days, July 9^th and 10^th saw the UB Piazza transformed into mélange of wine and cheese. There were tasting workshops, wine pairing sessions, live performances, grape stomping and a host of stalls from various vineyards. This festival was conceptualized by Brainstrustdf and organized in partnership with various brands like Frateli Vineyards, Grover Zampa Vineyards, Sula Vineyards, Four Seasons, Big Banyan, Chandon, Enoteca, Kerry Gold Cheese, Himalayan Products, Go Cheese, Breadworks, Fava and more. I attended the festival on the second day, and I did my research on what to expect, but I was definitely impressed. Can wine ever go out of fashion – not a chance – the Lannisters ensure that, don’t they?

We reached the venue just after lunch, and it wasn’t a very sunny afternoon. We went around to the various wine stalls sampling their wines. Sula had a pretty good collection of domestic and international wines, loved their dessert wine, in fact picked up a bottle too! Kumala and Mudhouse wines were available in their booth as well. Chandon had a pretty neat booth with their sparkling spirits, which I love. The Chandon Brut and Rose are perfect for any gathering, and of course for celebrations – their party packs were up for sale. Big Banyan had a very pretty stall setup – they had a lovely collection. The cheese stalls were really different from the pedestrian varieties that we usually see. Kerry Gold had a good collection of their produce, aged and reserve and red cheddar as well as gouda cheese were the ones I tried. And later attended an Enotica session by Gaurav Thapar on the wine and cheese pairing as well.

I attended two of the workshops that were conducted both conducted by Gaurav Thapar of Enotica by Madhuloka in Fava – the first on wine appreciation. That tasting had a lineup of Reserva Chardonnay, Sula Rose, KRSMA K2, Sula Late Harvest and Chandon Brut. The workshop lasted a little under an hour, and was a good discussion on the various stages of understanding wine – legs of a wine, body of a wine, aromas of a wine – well Gaurav was quite the presenter, making the session quite interesting and interactive. In the second session, about wine and cheese pairing, was more interesting to me. I recall Gaurav saying – Wine and cheese are complementary because what grows together goes together! Heavy cheese usually goes with the oldest wines, and pungent and salty cheese with sweet wines – always complementing and balancing. There was camembert, cheddar, gouda and blue cheese in the sampling with Chandon Brut, Sula, KRSMA Cabernet Sauvignon and a few more wines.

The event was a great platform to interact with winemakers, and understand about wine from connoisseurs. And purchase some of the wines at discounts as well. In the evening, there was Soundarya performing with her band – her amazing performance kept the crowd engaged and entertained amidst the wine. The main focus of the event was to share and spread the awareness for wine appreciation, wine is such a social drink, as well as those with the discerning taste, and this is a great platform to experience world wines in one place. I loved the event, and ended up heading to Toscano for some wine and dinner after!

 

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