Bandra Wine Tasting Festival - A newbie post

In this post I will not be telling you what I drank, which one I liked better but what we did mostly.

I am not a wine drinker but I am not biased on what I drink. Wine is said to be the drink for the classes. And when I saw Wine Tasting festival organized by Pune Gourmet Club aka PGC in Bandra Gymkhana, I had set my heart out and the deal given by PGC was awesome taste 20 glasses wines for Rs. 500 only which by a marwadi calculation is a super deal (I know I am being cheap here but month end you need to check your wallet, right?)

We 3 eager people reached the location around 1:45 pm all excited and with a promise to ourselves that we will finish off the coupons, yes all 20 of them. We entered and found ourselves a shady place to sit away from the sun and relax. Opened our bags which was given by PGC which contained Wine Glass by Pause, Booklet by PGC where all about wine and wine making was written, Pen, coupons and menu card of the food stall.

10 minutes after soaking in the whole atmosphere we all naive wine drinkers headed off to the first stall Four Seasons and upon greeting they asked what would we like to have. As naive as we are about not knowing the names, how to pronounce them we just said in simple English "What do you suggest?" Then the lady behind the counter courteous enough told us, "I suggest you white wine" we nod, she added "do you like it sweet or dry?" We had no clue what dry meant we went for sweet. Ohh! yes we did sniff, we did swirl, we did roll the wine in our tongue but did not get exactly what they meant by fruity flavor.

So first few drinks were all white or at times Rose we did sip in slowly, talked, watched, read the booklet. As it was afternoon time we were suggested to have white chilled wine and as a good listener we obeyed them and drank them slowly.

Around 5 pm we had around total of 11 glasses of white wine, rose and red wine. But mostly it was white wine with the sweet tasting one. Well the dry white wine makes your tongue go dry when you swirl the Wine around a bit in your mouth and gulp it down.

The festival also had some interesting food counters Cafe Arabia for Lebanese food which was great. PGC Sea Food barbeque which had fishes and pastas, we tried Chicken Pasta which was just OK. And Chicken Curry South Indian style again average.

We novice people wanted to try cheese as well and after having some horrific cheese forgot the name (do not want to remember about it at all) we decided we are happy with our Amul Cheese.

There was a live food counter made by a famous Chef of a famous hotel, he made Ravioli and Risotto, If I had ordered them, I would have promptly sent them away. One of the worst I have ever tasted and an Italian female duly agreed with me.

Around 7:30 PM when I had another appointment to keep had to rush off after around 16 glasses and we did not finish our promise.



Heard it on a TV Channel "Wine Making and drinking is a serious business and beer making is a fun business" which I understood when I was at the tasting festival, guys behind the counter in smart white, very serious looking, jazz playing and everyone sitting in their own table talking in a low voice.