From left: Shiladitya Mukhopadhyaya, Aneesh Bhasin, Ravi Gurnani and Kailash Gurnani
“Weddings are great places to meet potential life partners”, they say. Apparently they’re also great places to meet business partners. Well technically speaking, the partners in our story didn’t meet at a wedding but a wedding was what it took to turn a friendship into a business partnership. The people we’re talking about are photographer-cum-wine connoisseur Aneesh Bhasin, entrepreneur Shiladitya Mukhopadhyaya, and winemakers Ravi and Kailash Gurnani at the York winery.
So what happened at that wedding?
Instead of opening regular bottles of wine from their cellars, the Gurnanis created a special blend for the occasion. It was well appreciated and was dubbed “The Wedding Blend” whenever they spoke of it. It was this blend that made Bhasin, Mukhopadhyaya and the Gurnanis decide on introducing “The Four Wise Men” as a limited edition boutique wine label to the Indian Market.
The idea was simple. Create a limited edition blended wine from two select barrels of York wine. This would create approximately 500 bottles of wine. Selecting the barrels of wine isn’t as simple as pointing to two random barrels in the cellar. While talking to Bhasin we learnt that, “flavour of the wine in each barrel was affected by not only the crushed grape but also by the ‘fill’ of the barrel and the wood it was made from. The most common barrels are the American Oak and the French Oak barrels.” For the uninitiated, the ‘fill’ refers to the number of times the barrel had been previously used to make wine. The first fill produces wine with the hardest tannins and it is the second fill that makes the most ideal wines.
Wine in India is still at a very nascent stage. Though almost all of us have patronised the local wine shops, it’s rarely been for what the name suggests. For a variety of reasons, we’re still vary about wines. The higher price bracket is one reason for this. Another more important one is the lack of knowledge about wines and how to enjoy them. In order to dispel the ignorance, last year Bhasin and Mukhopadhyaya decided to do away with the snob tag attached to wine and created a smartphone app called the Indian Wine List. The app allows users to pair foods correctly with wines, gives wine recommendations and also has a vast catalogue of wines with tasting notes on each. “Four Wise Men” was a happy step two for both of them. For the York winery, this is a limited edition wine that adds to their brand value without competing with their existing range.
“Four Wise Men” will be launched soon in Mumbai with their first red wine blend. The wine makers promise it to be a full bodied, robust wine with fruity and woody taste. We learnt that the restaurants that will be serving “Four Wise Men” have been chosen with great care as the creators didn’t want it to be ‘just another name on the wine list’. Le Pain Quotidien, J.W. Marriot and Shangrila are among the restaurants that will serve this boutique wine in Mumbai. It will also be available on the shelves of Nature’s Basket and Juben Wines. Wine lovers in Delhi and Bangalore will have to wait a year before the wine reaches them. Currently, “Four Wise Men” doing rounds at the annual wine fair, Vinexpo 2013 at Bordeaux courtesy of Indian Wine List.
Pricewise, “Four Wise Men” is priced below Rs 1000. This would make it an ideal wine for you to gift your Thursday night dinner host.
- To know more about Four Wise Men, click here to visit the website.
