Spruce up your Easter with Wine

Easter Sunday is that special time of the year when friends and family gather to celebrate and enjoy a fancy meal together. Traditional Easter menus comprise glazed ham or roasted lamb, spring veggies and chocolate bunnies. We have a wine pairing for each of these food items.

Appetizers or Salads

Start with a white wine that is light and whets your appetite. If you are starting your dinner with salads or light sea food dishes, Sauvignon Blanc is an ideal choice. The pale golden nectar of Nine Hills Sauvignon Blanc with pronounced aromas of passion fruit, pineapple and fresh lime will evoke the pleasures of a balmy summer.

 

Main Course

Glazed ham has sweet topping while the actual meat is salty. Hence, the best wine to complement it should have sweet fruity notes to match the saltiness of the ham and enough acidity to support the combination of both sweet and salty flavors of the ham. You can keep sipping the Nine Hills Wine Sauvignon Blanc which you took at the start of the meal. If you are partial to red wine, Nine Hills Shiraz is the perfect pick.

 

For the roasted lamb, stick to Cabernet Sauvignon. Nine Hills Wine’s Cabernet Sauvignon has enough fruit and tannins to handle the complex meaty flavors of the lamb.

 

For a dish of stuffed chicken breast, Pinot Noir or a local white Zinfandel, which is a pink wine, is the best choice.

 

Dessert

As traditional Easter desserts make the maximum use of coconut, pair it with a Nine Hills Chenin Blanc. Nibble on chocolate cupcakes or bunnies with a classic port. For Indian desserts that are particularly rich with ghee and sugar, Nine Hills Wine’s Viognier is the best recommendation.

 

Wine pairing is an art of discovering your palate and preference. No food is off-limit to wines. Try out different wines with Easter meal to find out your taste. A sumptuous meal shared with friends and family over good wines is all you need to add festivity to any holiday.

 

Happy Easter Day!

Wine and Music. Nay, Music and Wine.

“Madder Music, Stronger Wine”

Simple words and yet so true. It is believed that music influences the way wine tastes. That must be the reason why professional wine tastings are done in absolute silence. Like with food and glassware, music pairing is also gaining popularity as wine lovers believe that playing a certain type of music can enhance the way wine tastes.

Listen to Mozart while drinking your favourite Nine Hills Wine Cabernet. And then switch to Metallica with the same wine. Does the wine taste different? It is not that we notice new flavors when the music changes. The flavors are there all along, but the music makes us change the way we perceive them. Some music makes us pay more attention to astringency present in the wine while with other music; we tend to ignore the strong flavors and tannins in the wine.

Nine Hills Wine’s Cabernet Sauvignon is most affected by “powerful and heavy” music and Chardonnay by “zingy and refreshing” sounds. Pinot noir tastes amazing with Mozart.

Open a bottle of your heavy and full-bodied red and you will feel like listening to soulful and melancholic music.Experiment it yourself; invite a few friends, open your favorite red wine while listening to soulful ghazals and take a trip down the memory lane. There is something about red wine and ghazals that makes you feel nostalgic and makes those old forgotten memories resurface.

And why is it that on listening to jazzy upbeat numbers while drinking champagne pulls out more and more layers of creamy nuttiness and fresh flavors of luscious, ripe grapes from the champagne.

Feel like having white wine? Put some country and western music. Simple chords and country instruments like guitars, banjos and harmonicas will make your wine drinking a memorable affair.

So what are you waiting for? Fill a glass of wine as per your mood and put on some music accordingly and unwind after a long day. Life’s good!

Say it with Wine this Valentine’s

Chocolates, flowers, stuffed toys are passé! Celebrate the Valentine’s Day this year with your sweetheart in style.  And what better way to ignite romance than with wine. Yes, surprise your loved one by gifting him/her a bottle of wine and see the expression change on his/her face.

Here are a few ways to win your sweetheart all over again. Be it a romantic date at a restaurant or a candlelight dinner in the comfort of your home, wine is the perfect way to say “I Love You”. If you have never done it before then this is the golden opportunity to commence your tryst with wine, the manna from heaven. Be it red, white or rosé, wine tingles the taste buds, liberates the mind, heightens the senses and sets the mood.

 

 

A declaration of undying love or a rekindling of passion in your relationship, a glass of champagne is the ideal choice. The effervescence of the sparkling wine puts you in high spirits. Moreover, it pairs well with a whole range of romantic and gourmet foods.

If you are planning to take your valentine for a romantic candle light dinner, make sure to take a reservation well in advance at a restaurant where they serve good country wines. Select your cuisine and then consult the restaurant’s Sommelier (if they have one) or the manager (who should have a good knowledge of wine pairing) for the perfect bottle of wine to go with your food. Now celebrate an amazing Valentine’s Day with your date over good food and some even better wine.It is the perfect formula for love.

If eating out is not your style, then rest assured, this is just the way to invite romance. You can surprise your valentine by cooking up an intimate dinner for two in the cozy warmth of your home. Buy a bottle or two of good wine; our Nine Hills Sauvignon Blanc or Shiraz Rosé should do the trick. Now pop the cork, share the wine over your favorite love songs and leave the rest to cupid.

Valentine Tip:As red is the color of Valentine, impress your date with a red wine. Nine Hills’ award winning reds Shiraz or Cabernet Sauvignon will do the honors quite nicely.

Say it in style, say it with wine. Cheers!

Organizing a Wine Dinner

As the wine culture in India is rapidly taking momentum, more and more people have started taking their wines seriously. You will find wines being served not only at big lavish parties but also at casual home dinners. You can organize your own wine dinner and make a success of it by following a few guidelines.

The first rule of thumb is to pair your wine well with the kind of food you are serving as the subtle taste of wine can bring out the fine flavors of the food. If you are serving more than one kind of wine with the meal, the general theory is to serve white wines before reds, light wines before heavier and bolder ones, and dry wines prior to sweeter ones.

Every wine lover knows the rule of pairing the meat with red wine and fishes with white wine but when it comes to multi-course Indian cuisine, with its complex flavors of spices and sauces, it becomes a different ballgame altogether. In here, it would be better to consider the manner in which the dish is cooked, which part of the country the dish belongs to, what the key ingredients are and which spices have been used. And finally the key is to trust your own sense of taste and what you think you enjoy the most.

For the aperitifs, serve your guests some dry and refreshing wines. A glass of bubbly (champagne) and sparkling wines with delicate hors d’oeuvres should be ideal to start with. They cleanse the palate and their neat acidity helps in working up the salivary glands. Our Nine Hills Shiraz Rose with its fruity aromas is perfect for appetizers and light entrées.

Red wine is a good match for red meat, barbeques and chicken. Our feisty red wines, Nine Hills Shiraz and Nine Hills Cabernet Sauvignon can stand up to fiery and intense food favoring chilly, garlic and spices.

For lightly spiced vegetarian dishes or sea food, you will do amazingly well by choosing a crisp and delicate white wine like our own Nine Hills Sauvignon Blanc.

And finally, to satiate your sweet tooth, you can serve sweet wines also called dessert wines (as the late harvests have a generous amount of residue sugar in it) as an accompaniment to a dessert or as the dessert itself.

If you are ever in doubt, then champagne is your savior as you can never go wrong with serving champagne. The bubbly sparkling wine pairs tremendously well with most Indian dishes.

Now make a child’s play out of your wine dinner. Bon Appétit!

Say Cheese. Say Cheers.

A recent post on our Facebook page, “Cheese and Grapes – Divine Combination” with a matching photograph, garnered quite a few ‘likes’ and ‘shares’. This prompted us to do a complete blog-post on how superbly cheese compliments wine, their specific pairing.

The globe-trotting Indians need not depend on foreign tours or duty-free stores in airports for their regular stock of good cheese. Several high-end super-marts across our cities now stock a wide range of cheese from the best brands around the world. Be it the softer varieties like Feta, Mozarella, goat cheese or the hard ones like cheddar, Edam, Provolone from the choicest of hamlets in Europe, you get them all in our country.

But just as wine-drinking is new in India, so is the appreciation for cheese. We therefore bring to you a feature which does not delve into an exotic and uber discussion on cheese and wine. For ‘starters’ let’s take the cheese that are easily available in the market and see how well we can pair them with our Nine Hills wines.

• Cheddar:   Hails from England, is semi-hard and can be mild or sharp. The mild cheddar goes well with Sauvignon Blanc while you will love the sharp one with our Shiraz Reserve.
•  Edam: Belongs to the Dutch country and is a hard cheese. Once again, you will simply love it with Nine Hills Shiraz Reserve.
• Feta: This soft cheese comes from the currently financially-troubled country in Europe, Greece. Drink it with Nine Hills Sauvignon Blanc and see how it opens up the taste buds in your tongue.
• Goat Cheese: Primarily a product from France, a number of other European countries excel in it too. It belongs to the soft cheese category and blends most beautifully with Nine Hills Chenin Blanc.
• Mozarella: The country which gave the world Michaelangelo, gave Mozarella cheese too. A widely used cheese in pizza, pasta dishes and lasagna, mozzarella can be Mozzarella di Bufala (buffalo mozzarella) or mozzarella fior di latte (made from cow’s milk). Both are the soft variety and blend well with light red wines and the white wines. Nine Hills’ Sauvignon Blanc is the best match.
• Parmesan: Named after an area in Italy, Parmesan is one of the world’s most popular and widely-enjoyed cheeses. It is usually grated and is used to make spaghetti and pasta dishes. Pairs exceedingly well with Nine Hills’ Shiraz Reserve.
• Provolone: Once again from Italy, this cheese belongs to the semi-hard category. Provolone can be both piquant in taste (Provolone Piccante) as well as mild and sweet, Provolone Dolce. Both the types go well with Nine Hills Cabernet Sauvigyon.

Finally, there is no final word on ‘which cheese for which wine’. But remember, at the outset, the cheese you choose is dependent upon the type of wine you choose. Stronger cheeses should be paired with stronger wines, such as Cabernet. Lighter cheeses are best paired with delicate wines such as a Sauvignon Blanc.

Lastly, experiment with your own pairings and see if you can come up with a new ‘divine’ combination.

Cheese. And Cheers!!

Destination Vineyards

Rolling hills. Château. Stylish villas. Gourmet delights. Divine wines. Romantic walks. Holidays in wine countries give you all this and more. So which are the best? Let’s take a whirlwind tour of the best vineyards around the world…

• Bordeaux, France: How can Bordeaux not top the list? It is the most important wine producing region in France and in the world. They have about 7000 chateaux there!!! Imagine that. Near the Atlantic Coast, the wines that take the prize are the reds — Staint Emilion , Medoc, Margaux.

• Napa Valley, California: Napa Valley has long been synonymous with superb wine and striking scenery, making it one of the most popular wine destinations in the world. Home to nearly 400 unique wineries, the valley is situated north of the San Francisco Bay area and enjoys a Mediterranean climate. The top wines are Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Zinfandel.

• Tuscany, Italy: Off the Mediterranean Sea coast, this region of Italy has everything that dreams are made of. Reds like Chianti and Montalcino have attained iconic status in Tuscany.

• Stellenbosch, South Africa: Home to one of South Africa’s most visited wine routes, Stellenbosch is located east of Cape Town, with more than 100 wine cellars to visit. The region produces high-quality wines, mostly reds — Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot, Pinotage and Shiraz. Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc are the prominent whites.

• Barossa Valley, South Australia: This scenic region is highly regarded for its Shiraz and its other robust varieties of red wine. Characterized by its visibly rich German heritage, along with its rolling, vine-covered hills, Barossa Valley is a beautiful destination for sightseers and wine connoisseurs alike.

So where are you headed now?