February 2014

Those who love their wines will tell you there is no greater joy than meeting around a dinner table, enjoying a convivial glass of wine (or more), and sampling interesting food pairings with the wine. It makes for a memorable evening as it has all the ingredients which go to make one of those: good friends (or new friends), good wine and good food.

The hand-drawn mini skirt on the scandalous Soffocone label

I do attend several of these, and I love ’em. Mostly. On the odd occasion that the food pairings aren’t up to the mark or the wine is comme ci comme ça, well, you just chalk it down to experience. The ones that I really enjoy are the ones where the attending winemaker’s passion for his craft and product comes shining through: he weaves stories and anecdotes about his wine, which stay in your mind for you to re-visit every time in future you open the bottle.

Vishal Kadakia of Wine Park is a Mumbai-based wine importer who is finicky to the max about the wines he puts on his lists. Most often these are from boutique wineries around the world which might or might not be famous, but all of which offer fascinating stories to go with the wine being poured into your glass. Which is why I always look forward to his winemaker dinners. You can be sure the wine will be good, and you are bound to take away that little extra in terms of background tales. The dinner with Bibi Graetz wines was one of these.

Manu Manikandan of the Ritz-Carlton, Vishal Kadakia of Wine Park with Emanuele Graetz at the dinner

I’m no stranger to Bibi’s wines. On a trip to Florence, my husband and I had driven up to visit his winery in Fiesole, that picturesque suburb on the hillsides overlooking the town, and then spent an hour on the narrow, winding roads searching for the winery where he makes his famous 90 pointer wines. With no luck. Even his neighbour didn’t know who Bibi was, or that a winery existed right next door to his villa.

Once we found it, we were amazed. This was a far cry from the elegant, manicured vineyards of Tuscany we had just visited. A beat-up car sat in the driveway to a cottage, and there were a couple of sheds, with a picnic table and kids’ toys strewn around. These sheds, it turned out, were where those precious wines were made and stored. Then we were rescued by his manager who took us around the estate, and lo and behold! Behind the sheds and warehouses was a lovely castle, now the venue of weddings and grand parties. Gazing at the gargoyles on the roof and the sprawling lawns, we were, to put it mildly, dumbfounded. (more…)