FANCY AN INDIAN? TIM Kitchener-smith FINDS INDIAN WINES ARE HOT
Tim Kitchener-Smith is the founder and company director of Kitchener-Smith Wines. Having spent his entire working life involved with wine, previously with Oddbins, and then a successful stint at La Cave in Mayfair, Tim left the UK to set-up a wine shop/bar in the French ski resort of Les Arcs 1950, a brand new, mostly Brit owned, Canadian built mini Disney-World, but covered in snow. 
New for 2008 – Indian wines
It seems that everyone is talking about India at the moment - one of the fastest growing economies in the world with over 100 million very affluent consumers. In fact, there are more millionaires in India than any other country, and it’s now one of the trendiest places to visit with some of the most exciting and sophisticated cuisines to enjoy whilst you’re there. Until recently little was said about it’s small but growing wine industry simply because there was really nothing much to report. Until now!
A few weeks ago, I trotted along to what eventually turned out to be a very exclusive tasting of Indian wines (there were just the three of us). I had originally intended to go for a chat with the agents who import some of the chicest and perhaps most brilliant wines into the UK, but within five minutes of sitting around a large table with a cup of tea, I was informed that the new vintage of some pretty cool wines from India had literally just turned up, downstairs in the warehouse, and would I like to sample them. Is the Pope catholic?
Being a relatively tiny set up, compared with some of the bigger boys available to buy from in London nowadays, the importer in question deals only with small international wineries that never make it onto the shelves of super markets and high street wine merchants simply because the quantities that make it over here are too low, and that’s exactly what I’m always looking out for. So, we sat around for a few hours, tasted them at leisure, chatted about them for a while, and then, the one’s I liked, we brokered a deal, and I left on my merry way!
Sula produce modern wines of international standard. They are based 120 miles inland from Mumbai in the Nashik highlands and now have their wines served not only in the best restaurants in India, but also New York, San Francisco, Paris, Milan and London - Benares, The Vineyard at Stockcross, The Cinnamon Club, Bombay Brasserie, and Zayka, to name but a few. The region has always been a premium fruit growing area. The vineyards are pruned hard throughout the summer to induce a dormant period. The vines are then allowed to grow through the winter. Sula are currently looking towards totally organic farming. In 2006 existing Californian consultant Kerry Darnsky was joined by Australian winemakers Linda Domas and Steve Brunato who make the brilliantly named ‘Our Souls’ range in the Mclaren Vale region of South Australia.
So, I hear you cry, what do they taste like? Well, I sampled four, and here’s what I jotted down…
Sula Sauvignon Blanc, 2007
An almost Chilean climate, 25 degrees during the day and 7 degrees at night. Tasted blind, your first instincts would be that this derives from either the Loire or South Africa. A nose reminiscent of shell peas with natural acidity softening the finish…
Sula Chenin Blanc, 2007
A demi-sec with added residual sugar. Don’t be put off though because this is so clean and pure. A wine that would compliment spicy Indian cuisine perfectly…
Sula Zinfandel, 2006
The Californian wine consultant explains the choice of grape he planted! With the growing season after the monsoon and an element of vine stress, the overall effect is that of abundant smoky-ness . Think of the crisps – ‘Frazzles’?! Good texture and balance. Medium weight. Tasted at cellar temperature so this would normally be a lot softer and even more rounded.
Sula Shiraz, 2007
Refined and elegant but very brooding. Give it an extra 6 months to settle and this will be gorgeous. Not too much spice on the palate.
So, an eye-opener as far as I’m concerned. OK, they’re not very expensive. You’re looking at roughly £8 a bottle, which does sound a lot, but these really are your new kinda cool wines, that, given a bit of press (there’s a write-up in the Telegraph due out in the next few weeks) and more exposure in the right sort of restaurants and independent wine merchants like mine, will enjoy a very successful future.
Kitchener-Smith Wines Ltd has just released tutored tasting dates for the forthcoming months in London. Linda Domas from South Australia, as mentioned above, is with us on the evening of Tuesday 29th January in Mayfair. If you would like to know more, please fell free to drop me a line at: tim.ks.wines@googlemail.com
