December 2023

How a bunch of top-notch wine professionals from around the world came to Prowine Mumbai and discovered the city and their sense of adventure. Read on.

The Cast

Founders of Cellar 33: Amrita Singh and Mattia Antonio Cianca

Producers present: Lydia & Claude Bourguignon (Laroque D’Antan, Cahors, Sud Ouest, France), Nicolas Revolte (Champagne Gaston Revolte, Champagne, France), Yulia Zhdanova and Aleksei Tretiakov (Chateau de Birazel, Bordeaux, France), Alfonso and Fernando Nunez Arenas Blat (Heredad de Atencia, La Mancha, Spain), Ivan Saldana (Murviedro, Penedes, Spain), Daniel Kiowski (Weingut Markus Molitor, Mosel, Germany), Cristiano Pighi (Orione, Valpolicella, Italy), Michele Ciani (Aquila del Torre, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy)

Sommeliers pouring at Cellar33: Salvatore Castano, Lukas Wiegman, Thibaut Broussier, Rianne Ogink, Marie Corbelle, Anel Alibayeva

Take a handful of European wine producers and top-notch international sommeliers, put them on a flight to India, and let them loose in India’s maximum city – Mumbai, of course – for a few days spent with wine and a sense of adventure. What do you get?

An unforgettable roller-coaster of a ride.

That is what Amrita Singh and Mattia Antonio Cianca, (aka the Founders) discovered as they put together an ambitious list of producers (21 producers with 90 wines among them, six of whom were in person) and a bunch of six super-somms from across Europe to represent their brand, Cellar 33 at Prowine in Mumbai.

(So, what is Cellar 33? For the uninitiated, it is a Bordeaux-based wine marketing and import-export agency working with a unique model for India. The ultimate goal: to help develop the market with excellent wines at affordable prices.)

And who are Amrita and Mattia, the names behind Cellar 33? Besides being among the most highly qualified wine entrepreneurs to set foot in India (Amrita is an MW candidate of Indian origin, Mattia is an Italian sommelier on his last-mile journey to his MS pin), they brought a practical sense and an admirable can-do attitude that served them well in the structured chaos that India’s wine industry works in (to a large extent dictated by policies and red tape).

It was clearly going to be an action-packed four days. So, I decided to put on my journalist hat and observe the high-octane prep first hand.

Meet the pros

When I walked into the hotel restaurant for breakfast two days before Prowine, I had had a full night’s sleep. Not so the sleepy faces that I encountered. Bloodshot eyes and yawns (they were straight off red-eye flights) from the somms and producers (including the famous soil microbiologist-winemakers Lydia and Claude Bourguignon) were just sorting themselves out for their whistle-stop visit to Mumbai.

But a few hours later, it was as if a magic wand had been waved. At the day-long session of masterclasses at Mumbai’s JW Marriott, the atmosphere turned completely professional. Formal clothes were donned, ties fixed, and hair in place, this was a new set of wine professionals I met.

And it was so every morning. At 8.30, they would assemble in the lobby, dressed in their best dark suits (“We decided as a team before we came here that we would dress formally for Prowine,” Marie told me). Ubers were flagged (few actually arrived, but that is another story) and off everyone took themselves to Jio World Convention Centre, the venue for Prowine 2023.

I was curious: why get the super-somms across to pour their wines? I asked Mattia. “Some producers came in person this time and they presented their wines directly. For those who couldn’t attend Prowine, we wanted to have the best people presenting their wines. This was also a great opportunity to bring international award-winning professionals closer to the Indian sommelier community.” he said.

Chaos Theory in practice

I rode with a few of them on several occasions. Clearly, Mumbai traffic is an experience few of them would recover from. There were mid-sentence pauses, gasps, and ashen faces as we careened down the roads at top speed towards BKC. “Very interesting,” said one to me weakly, perspiring. “Shut your eyes,” was my advice, “We will get there in one piece.” And we did.

Producer Michele Ciani of Friuli-Venezia-Giula’s noted organic Aquila del Torre lives in pristine surroundings in Savorgnano del Torre a tiny town of 800 people in Friuli Venezia Giulia. Here, the sky is blue and silence is all-pervading. So, Mumbai was a shock, he admitted. “I have never seen so many people in one place, making quite so much noise.” To him, the atmosphere at Prowine India was more like a wine festival where people were very enthusiastic about tasting wines and asking questions. A huge contrast to the massive size and businesslike atmosphere of Prowein Dusseldorf that he is more familiar with.

For sommelier Salvatore Castano, Mumbai was ‘captivating with its eclectic charm.’ He confessed that Mumbai’s buzz was far more akin to a bustling metropolis than even London, his home: “Mumbai is at a different level!” For sommelier Thibaut Broussier, Mumbai was the city that never sleeps. The traffic did require “a bit of an adjustment – it seemed like there was telepathy between drivers rushing on the roads, never mind the rules! Getting from one place to another took time, but I was surprised at how everyone is so relaxed and cool about it.” But he admired the energy, the intensity of the work day: “The city never seems to switch off, and there’s clearly a very entrepreneurial way of doing things – much faster than what we Europeans, are used to.”

But oh, the food of India!

I could not help but notice the enthusiasm with which the team of sommeliers and producers viewed the different types of Indian food they tried during their short stay. At the JW Marriot Sahar, they first encountered India’s street food – every form of chaat – when we went to lunch. Despite being a little nervous ordering food for them, the papdis and puris vanished off the plates faster than you could pop a champagne cork. Masala bhindi, ditto. Dal makhni? Yes, please! They wanted to experience it all.

But the all-around favourite was the butter chicken, which they enjoyed mopping up with hot buttered naan. “The Indian food we tasted was a delight, bursting with flavour in every dish – I anticipated a touch more spiciness!” exclaimed Salvatore. I asked him for an expert view of the wine that would pair best with these flavours. “A German Riesling with a touch of residual sugar would be a wonderful complement to most dishes,” he said. Michele quickly ‘recalibrated his personal level of spice tolerance’ after his first couple of days in Mumbai. “Maybe the level of spiciness is connected to the level of positive attitudes of the Indian people I met during my visit,” he mused. “Enthusiasm is a keyword I would take back home…” Thibaut admitted he was initially concerned at his ability to handle the spice levels, but as the days went by, he adjusted well. “I wanted to taste every dish!” he exclaimed. His favourite? “Not easy to decide…I have so many favourites now, but perhaps it was a prawn curry I had in Goa!” (where they visited for a bit of post-Prowine R and R.)

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