Why bother with the 4 Ss of wine tasting?
It’s been a while since I did a wine post for beginners and so here we are, back tracking a bit to see what the art or science, if you want to call it that, of wine tasting is all…
A toast to Port Wine Day
Long before Bordeaux was a demarcated entity, or before the first vine had even been planned in Australia or California, the region of Douro in Portugal was already a clearly defined appellation! The year was 1756 and Marquis de Pombal,…
Nebbiolo Prima Musings
2014 was a big year for me, especially when it came to exploring wine regions. And my trip to the lovely city of Alba (famous for the truffles) in Northern Italy involved a tasting exercise like never before. I don’t…
New in the market: Myra Reserve Wines
It is always a treat to taste a wine for the first time. (Well, almost always.) There is suspense, apprehensions, expectations, and most of all, curiosity. I must admit that I’ve had my share of times when tasting Indian wines…
Revisiting the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles
This year marked my second appearance at the reputed international wine competition – Concours Mondial de Bruxelles. (Read all about the jitters I felt and my experience at the 2013 edition here and here) One of the largest competitions of…
The Legend of Château Angélus
The time I tasted one of the most prestigious wines in the world He picks up the bottle, refills their wine glasses and sets it back on the table. If it were any other man in any other film it…
World Malbec Day
So it’s World Malbec Day today and I asked Sommelier Magandeep Singh for a quick introduction to the purple grape. Here it is: Malbec is one of my favourite grapes and I sincerely believe that it needs to find its…
La Batalla del Vino
June 29, 2012. In India and in most other parts of the world today is just another Friday that began when you rolled over in your bed, cursed the alarm and hoped you could skip ahead to the weekend. Let…
Weekend Vineyard Getaway
I had the most amazing weekend. I was one of the lucky few bloggers to be invited to the Fratelli estate in Akluj. We set out from Bandra at 7am, and after a seven hour journey and a few hiccups…
Uncork your luck
Happy New Year! 😀 I’m looking forward to starting this year on a high. So here’s announcing the first contest on GiggleWater411. I’m super excited about this and all the other cool things that are lined up for the blog in…
The story of Fratelli Wines
In the Sholapur district of Maharashtra, near the town of Akluj, lies a 240-acre vineyard. This sprawling vineyard belongs to three sets of brothers – Alessio and Andrea Secci, Kapil and Gaurav Sekhri and Ranjit and Arjun Mohite – Patil,…
Hétreau’s Art Deco Wine Maps
If you liked my last post about The Metro Wine Map of France, you’ll enjoy mulling over these ones too. These maps were made by a celebrated French artist, printmaker, illustrator and designer called Remy Hétreau. Drawn up sometime in…
World’s most influential wine book – a Manga comic?
I’m a great fan of all things that take the implied ‘snootiness’ out of wine drinking. So when I heard that a manga series is now the most influential wine text in the world, I just had to read it….