The art of wine dining

While some people resort to buying wine from shops during Christmas, during the year end festivities, many people still continue the tradition of preparing wine themselves. Sebastian Santiago Gabriel, who makes traditional wine, says, “Wine symbolises the new covenant - an agreement by which we accept Jesus as our God - in all Christian celebrations.

Homewide wine has no additives and hence the alcohol content is low compared to the wine available in market. This is why many prefer it.” He goes on to explain the procedure of winemaking. “Grape juice is mixed with sugar solution in the right proportions, yeast added, and kept closed in a container for 21 days to allow fermentation.

The longer you keep the wine for fermentation, the more will be its alcohol content.

Red and white grape can be used to make red and white wine respectively,” he says.

Many families in Cox Town, Ashok Nagar and Vivek Nagar areas are known for traditional winemaking. However, some communities such as Apostle Christians do not have traditional cake and wine celebrations during Christmas. The methods of wine making and celebrations also vary from place to place. Binu Wangsa, originally from Arunachal Pradesh and based in Bangalore, says, “Christmas is celebrated as a community event in the state. Wine is made from rice or millet and can be prepared within a week. On Christmas Day, the whole village gets together and holds a huge wine party. Celebrations of that scale is not possible here.” For those interested in learning to make traditional wine, the University of Agricultural Sciences offers courses in wine making. Also, the Wine Policy proposed recently by the Karnataka Wine Board will make wine more accessible to the public. Wine Board Chairman Dr L Shantakumari says, “Regular wine, which contains 4-5% alcohol, will be easily availble.

As wine is proposed to be declared as a horticultural product, there will be far lesser restrictions on its marketing and sale.”