We love wine. Fact. Our favourites normally involve either French or Portuguese offerings (less food miles and all that). Neither country may be known for its understanding of vegan but by god (whatever god that fits your spiritual needs) they make good wine, and both countries do indeed indulge the vegan if you do your research enough.
However, we are always open to new frontiers. One such frontier opened up to us recently in the form of an Indian wine. Yes, you did indeed hear that right; an Indian wine! We bumped into this particular offering in an infrequent visit to Marks and Spencer's (not a regular haunt of ours I might add but they do appear to be particularly thoughtful at labelling up the vegan stuff they do offer).
Well, what a peculiar, interesting and intriguing offering this Indian wine turned out to be. Any vegan/veggie- centric 'locals' will be familiar with a certain amazing Indian vegetarian establishment called Veggie Perrins across the border in Plymouth (Devon). If you are not; shut up! Seriously, why haven't you been there? Regardless they do a certain dish called Bengan Bhartha; a wonderful aubergine dish with a certain unmistakable smokiness about it. So amazing and different is this dish that they give you due warning of this upon ordering. It is exquisite and one that we always order. Well let's just say that this wine somehow captures that taste, and indeed the taste of India itself. The first sip leaves you wondering what exactly you have bought, as it's not exactly easy on the palate to start with. After a few sips though, and especially if you're about to eat curry, it all starts to make sense. There's a definite 'spiciness', maybe a hint of garam masala, but somehow, if you've ever been to India you'll recognise there's a certain 'Je ne sais quoi' that is evocative of India, and nowhere else.
So our message is simple; don't dismiss Indian wine and clearly you need a visit to Veggie Perrins to understand what wonders you are missing out on.
So our message is simple; don't dismiss Indian wine and clearly you need a visit to Veggie Perrins to understand what wonders you are missing out on.
Poignant - there was a discussion recently, in the Plymouth Vegans group, about the fact that Veggie Perrins didn't have any vegan wines!
ReplyDeleteJust heard from Bill, and he said he's "due to change the wine list". Maybe if enough people contact him to let him know their preference then he'll stock some Vegan wines?
ReplyDelete