Cheese and Wine

My laptop was down with flu. Now it is feeling better, so now I can update my blogs. So here we go...

The British ruled India for a very long time. We got things like railways, food, tea, coffee, fashion, education and even the legal system from the British. But there are a few things which the English never brought here. Cheese and Wine is one of them. The British never developed the skills required either for cheese or for wine. We did our share of alcohol like whiskey (malt and scotch), rum, gin, vodka (some of the fine alcohol I could think of from the top of my head) but they we never got wine.

When we think of wine, the finest wines come from France, Italy, Germany, South Africa and even Australia. There are many similarities between cheese and wine. The best cheese comes from France, Swiss and some Scandinavian countries which I cannot spell. The English have their own selection of both Cheese and Wine. The infamous blue cheese and some port wines are indigenous to the English. But for some reason, they did not develop any vineyard or dairy skills required to make cheese. And that too at a time when they came to India to trade.

There are many similarities between cheese and wine. You have cheese masters and wine masters. Both have to be prepared by a particular process, have to be matured and nurtured to develop a great taste. May be that is why cheese and wine compliment each other so well. The Europeans are experts in making both. What could be the reason that it took so long for these skills and products to reach India. The oldest vineyard here (according to Ivy Cafe @ Indage House, Worli) was established in 1980. And we still do not have any takers for the variety of cheese. Please excuse Amul and Britannia who have recently started making cheese other than process cheese. So wine making in India is still very young and by the taste of most wines, very raw. So after liberalisation and WTO, it has become easier to import wines. A visit to any big supermarket, you will find a nice collection form almost every corner of the world. There is still need to education as some salesman cannot differentiate between a Shiraz and a Cabernet. In fact in recently when I asked a salesman about wines, he promptly offered me fruit wines.

So people reading this blog, I would strongly suggest you try a nice bottle of wine along with some fine cheese. And for those who do not consume alcohol, you can try non-alcoholic version of sparkling wine popularly known as champagne. I am sure you will enjoy it.