Friday, January 06, 2012

Git the water, Gunga Din!

And quickly, even if it is 'arf-a-pint o' water green - anything would taste better than this, the first wine that I have ever had from India.  
A gift from Vinomaker's friend, Sky King, this bottle of Sula Vineyards 2008 Shiraz (hailing from the red hills of Nashik) was extraordinary, but not in a good way.  I have to admit that the nose was very fruity, but the fruit proved to be rather unidentifiable which is always a bad starting point when tasting a wine.  On the palate this wine was borderline undrinkable, it was almost like there was ground up, charred-wood in the mix and I just couldn't get past that.  Laughably, maybe, the label on the back of the bottle describes the wine as having "nuances of oak".
Would some people find this wine palatable?  Of course.  Just as some dogs like to quaff out of toilet bowls, conceivably somebody might find this wine drinkable - everyone's tastes are different.  But this wine is most definitely flawed.  I sometimes wonder why wineries would bother to bottle something this undrinkable in the first place.  Perhaps it is simply a bad bottle, but I don't think so. Vintage is not even an issue: I can't see this wine as having been any better right out of the barrel, and it certainly is not going to improve with age.    
The back label also states that the wine is 'For Overseas Export Only'.  Aren't we lucky?

9 comments:

About Last Weekend said...

Hilarious! The funniest wine review I've ever read. Think write-ups of bad wines are always more interesting than the good ones...

Vinogirl said...

ALW: I'm not trying to be overly negative. And it's not like I am even trying to save you from buying a bottle of this for yourself (the money spent would be worth the laugh alone). It's just that I sometimes wonder what on earth some wineries are thinking when they release such pigswill...surely when they drink something even half decent they might perhaps realise that their wine is not up to par. Or, is it like having children in that no mother thinks her own child ugly?

Thud said...

You obviously are not aware that our day is over, the brics will rule the work and their wine is just one step on their road to world domination...didn't you get the memo?

Vinogirl said...

I've heard and read that Chinese wine is not very good either. Methinks that Brazil is the only country you mentioned that has a shot at getting one over on the US, in the wine department that is.

Affer said...

I saw some Indian wine in Waitrose in the summer.....haven't seen it again though! I think Vijay Mallya owns a couple of brands; perhaps they'll be as successful as his Kingfisher Airlines!!

Thomas said...

Ha! For export only. Must be a Weapon of Mass Destruction they can't contain any longer.

Speaking of Chinese wines: A few years ago I was a judge in a competition of wines that are served on airlines. The wine served on the Chinese airlines, which was a Chinese wine,certainly must have made passengers perk up--and then regurgitate.

Vinogirl said...

Affer: Well, if he pours this wine on his airliners he won't have any repeat passengers.

Thomas: It may very well have been a WMD, I think I have fewer taste buds now!

Eat. Live. Laugh. and sometimes shop! said...

Love hearing someone admit that some wine is just simply bad. So funny!

Vinogirl said...

ELLS: Welcome to Vinsanity. If I can't say something nice in life, I try not to say anything at all. But this wine was truly awful, couldn't help myself.