Our first Indian wine festival

On Saturday, we spent a relaxing afternoon at the Bandra Wine Festival, conveniently located within easy staggering distance from our apartment and a great opportunity to learn more about local wine.

Wine making (and drinking) is on the up in India and most of this happens around Nashik, a city three hours from Mumbai with a Californian climate well suited to wine-grape cultivation.  We have been to Nashik before although, up to now, the only way to try new Indian wines has been a buy a bottle, so it takes a while to try the full range of what's on offer.  The wine festival presented the perfect opportunity to rectify this omission.

The Bandra Wine Festival has been going for several years and the organisation was slick and smooth.  The entrance fee was surprisingly inexpensive too - for £4.50 each we could enter the festival and were 10 tokens to taste local wine, 4 to taste international wine, 8 vouchers for cheese tasting, a wristband and several other types of ticket.  The most challenging part was keep track of all the bits of paper, which became harder as the number of wines we tried progressed!

We thoroughly enjoyed trying wines from many different producers.  The quality was variable, from pretty good to novelty (pineapple wine anyone?) to unpleasant, and we bought a few good bottles to take home.  So far, we have struggled to find Indian reds that we like but this changed on Saturday and we'll know which brands to go for in future.

The drinking mentality at the wine festival differed from what we saw in California or in the UK at similar events. The primary objective for lots of people seemed to be get drunk rather than taste the wines, though certainly not for everyone, and we heard requests like "give me your strongest / best wine" frequently while at the bar.  Saying that, many of the wine producers were passionate about their produce and keen to raise awareness both in India and internationally.  Wine is increasingly understood and valued in India.

The mix of people attending the festival was cosmopolitan - everyone was speaking English as a first language (most of the people there were Indian) which reflects the affluence of the attendees. We were stuck by the predominance of the rich elite at the festival; at a similar event in the UK (a beer festival) you would get a much bigger mix of people from across different social classes.

The food at the festival was great too with lots of local good start-ups selling their wares.  We found some lovely home-made cakes and jams and end up bringing lots of these home too!

The covers were required as amazingly it rained (the first since 2010!) 

Lots of seating, it could have been a pub garden 

 More fancy wine display

One of Philip's favourite reds 

More vino stands

The highlight of my day though was not wine-related.  On the way to the festival driving up from South Mumbai, we passed a broken down autorickshaw being pushed along by another autorickshaw.  There were no tow ropes used though, instead the driver of the working autorickshaw was pushing the second with his foot whilst moving at high speed.  Genius!

Breakdown cover - Mumbai style

What's on in Mumbai?

The monsoon has gone, Mumbai is cooling down, and the city has sprung into action.  There seem to be a lot of events being organised, if you know where to look to find out about these activities, and we're struggling to fit it all in.  I've been busy at work so we don't go out every evening but we are still managing to pack lots into our schedule.

In the last week alone, we have done the following:

1)  Found a great website called "Gourmet it up" which offers tasting menus at good restaurants around the city.  On Wednesday, we had a fab 7 course tasting menu at a great Japanese restaurant called Aoi for the princely sum of £10 each.

2)  Gone to see the circus.  Well, this was Phil only as I was at work but he said it was good fun.  Apparently the performing dogs were a highlight, marching around happily on their hind legs.

3)  Visited an amazing old Parsi cafe in South Bombay on the way back from renewing our visas (thankfully we're allowed to stay in the country for a while longer!) which looks like something from another age.  For £1 a head, we had tea, Parsi scrambled eggs on toast, plum cake and custard, mawa cake, cucumber sandwiches and maska buns.  Yummy.

4)  Gone to a local food festival, which we think was for some kind of Marathi / Koli food (there was a lot of fish) but it wasn't quite clear.  What was clear was that it was very local and we were the only white people.  Even the menus on the stalls were not written in English which is unusual for Mumbai. Naturally, we were escorted round and the local TV station homed in on us for an interview.  I was a bit nervous about eating lots of fish which had clearly been kicking around for a while but, two days on, we're both fine which is a relief.

5)  Seen Abba Gold (apparently Abba's most successful tribute band) in concert - a bonefide western group from London touring India.  This was in the grounds of a local gymkhana and felt very un-Indian; we could have been at an open air concert anyway in the UK (on a very hot day).  The band were great (sounded great, the female blond singer didn't quite have the Abba look with an extra 20 years and couple of stone compared with the original) and the music was very loud in the middle of a built up residential area.  I've been humming Abba ever since.

6)  Been to Mumbai's first ever craft beer festival.  They had 12 home brewed beers on tap, from Belgium white beers to porters, and a variety of food stands.  The venue was great, in the grounds of an old club in South Mumbai, and the event seemed pretty well organised in advance if pricey by Mumbai standards (£15 entry including 1 litre of beer, and £20 entry including 2 litres).  We enjoyed the beer and the organisers had put a lot of thought into the venue decoration though there were a few bonkers aspects.  There was no leaflet or information of any kind about the different beers - the people serving had no idea - despite the fact that new breweries were supposed to be advertising their wares.  The food was great in theory but the electricity to the food stands kept cutting out so getting anything cooked was a challenge.  The highlight for me was the festival beer - Bomgalore - and the waffle stand which did super salted caramel waffles on a stick.

7)  Been to our first ever proper yoga class.  Yes, that's "we", Phil did it too!  We went to a great local studio in an old bungalow in Bandra which did super fruit juices afterwards too.  I am quite achey today, the class was challenging, but I enjoyed it, and I'll be going back again soon.

Other attractions which we have not managed to visit include a literary festival (this clashed with Abba and beer) and Ted talks (looked good but at £100 a ticket we went off it).  Coming up, we've got several running events and a wine festival in a couple of weeks' time, where we'll be able to taste the wares of a range of local vineyards.

India is changing and Mumbai is leading this change. This wealth of culture and activities would not have been available a few years ago; we're lucky to have come to India at the time that we have.

Course 3 of the Japanese tasting menu 

My post-work treat 

A traditional circus with a big top 

Phil was very impressed with the acrobats... 

...and the wildlife. 

Lunch at a Mumbai institution - The Kyani Parsi bakery 

The bakery's house rules

The food festival 

Proof the modak can be sourced outside the Ganpati festival season.  The maker of these wanted our photograph mid-bite to advertise his shop.  We obliged. 

Prawn masala with rice bread 

Classic Abba 

A pleasant Sunday afternoon with beer and quesidillas 

The old Wodehouse Gymkhana building 

Doolally - a brew pub opening in Bandra "soon" - as soon as it obtains its final licence. 

Hipcask - an app to guide us through the beer which unfortunately only went live after the festival had finished.