Three great wines with an Indian connection at Mumbai's Les Bouchons

Les Bouchons is a wine store and experience centre in Malabar Hill, one of Mumbai’s poshest pin codes.

What did India’s loaded set drink during the pandemic? It is said that they sipped a lot of premium tequila and high-end whiskies. Mumbai-based wine importer Sanjay Menon, who has been in the business for over 20 years, adds that they also quaffed some really good wines. Menon, who says he got persistent enquiries for premium wines, worked with retailers in the city to cater to the demand for the good stuff that spiked during the pandemic. He also expects the demand to sustain, which is why, in December 2022, he launched Les Bouchons, a wine store and experience centre, in Malabar Hill, one of Mumbai’s poshest pin codes.

Le Bouchons, which stands for ‘cork’ in French, is an intimate, tavern-like space with movable tables, a kitchen, and a cellar that houses over 1,000 bottles of both Old World and New World wines. The wines at Les Bouchons are priced between Rs 2,000-odd and Rs 82,000. Menon sees Les Bouchons as not just a retail outlet, but also as a space for hosting private dinners (after acquiring permissions/day-licences from the excise department).

The likes of Menon operate in a rarefied niche. “Wine consumption in India stands at just around 3 million cases a year, with imported wines accounting for 0.5 million cases. But a single brand — Jacob’s Creek — accounts for a third of this volume,” says Menon.

Despite high taxes, the imported wine segment has exhibited steady growth, Menon adds. “And the consumer for quality wine, too, has evolved because he has picked up the cues for consumption from his travels overseas.”

(Image source: Twitter/InfoSassicaia)

The collection of wines at Les Bouchons includes affordable white wines from the Portugal’s Duoro Valley (Altano from the Symington Estate, for example); Kumeo River Estate Chardonnay from New Zealand; the famed Bordeaux-style Sassicaia made by Tenuta San Guido in Bolgheri; and Ama, a dry red made from sangiovese grapes in Central Tuscany. But Menon is especially proud to stock some much-acclaimed wines with an “Indian connection," and if you are ever at Les Bouchons and find him there, chances are he will point you towards one of these.

Rajat Parr, born and bought up in Kolkata, trained to be a chef, but after graduating from the Culinary Institute of America in the mid-1990s, his life took a different turn. Today, he is one of America’s most respected sommeliers who also makes well-regarded Burgundy-styled wines in California and Oregon. In short, he makes “New World Wines using an Old World template,” including incredibly Burgundy-esque Pinot Noir. The wine labels Parr co-owns include Sandhi and Domaine de la Cote from Santa Rita Hills and Evening Land in Eola-Amity Hills.

Mullineux is among South Africa’s notable wine brands. Set up in 2007 by Chris and Andrea Mullineux, the winery is located in Swartland, an hour’s drive from Cape Town. In 2013, Max Group founder and chairman Analjit Singh acquired a significant stake in Mullineux, and the company was renamed Mullineux & Leeu Family Wines. (‘Leeu,' a nod to the industrialist’s surname, is Afrikaans for lion). The Kloof Street range also includes the Swartland Rouge, a Mediterranean-style red blend.

Bengaluru girl Namrata Prashant arrived in Bordeaux in 2017 to study wine marketing at the INSEEC business school. Prashant, an aspiring winemaker, also apprenticed with several wineries in France, and in 2020, in collaboration with fourth generation Corrine Chevrier, she launched Solicantus from the Blaye area, in Bordeaux. Solicantus is a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec and is aged for 18 months in French oak barrels. “It is viewed with great respect by top critics in Europe,” says Menon, who is waiting for the first batch of bottles to arrive at his warehouse.