‘Wine is flavour, not alcohol'

By 2010-10-18 10:17:10

From perfect wine pairings to the art of winemaking, Jean-Marc Vettesi, Director – Beverage, at Dubai's Atlantis, the Palm, is a fund-house of information..

“Today, it is not only about the chef or the sommelier, but about the entire experience of the restaurant. Vogue or Elle, when reviewing restaurants, tell readers to look at the candles or the chandeliers… the décor.”

Rasheeda Bhagat

He doesn't believe in the old saying in Europe that white wine goes well with fish and red with meat. “I always tell people that if this is so, what do you drink with chicken?

Jean-Marc Vettesi, Director – Beverage, Atlantis, the Palm, Dubai, is a fund-house of information on wines and the wine market. “We have two kinds of wine consumption in Dubai: Wine by the glass for new-world wine from Australia and New Zealand; and for dinner it's French wine — 41 per cent of our wine sales is for dinner.”

In the white versus red battle, white is a clear winner at the Atlantis, which buys about 65-70 per cent white wines “because of the climate and type of food. The spices are much more complicated to be paired with red wine.”

Vettesi explains that wine pairing depends on the food flavour and ingredients. “It is not so much related to the fish or the meat, but more to the base of the dishes. When people ask me to recommend a wine, I try to find out the ingredients in the recipe.”

And if that base has to do with “chutney or masala, German Riesling is the best bet. India and Germany are so different and so distant, and yet you pair some Indian food with dry Riesling.” And, he adds, Riesling varies from very dry to very sweet, and it goes very well with flavours like mango and the masala; “one of the most beautiful pairings is of green masala mussels with dry Riesling!”

A little confused, I venture to say: “But the general belief is red goes with masala and white with milder food.”

The Frenchman is horrified. “No, no, no; you need to have the palate… you need to think that the base of the food is the spices, the salt, the pepper, etc. Because wine is flavour, it is not alcohol.”

Same grape, three varieties

Even when you take grapes of the same variety, he explains, such as Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, Australia or France, “you've got three different types of soil so you're going to get different kinds of flavours.”

So, what would he pair a Sauvignon Blanc with?

“This has a light flavour like pineapple, citrus, passion fruit… such aromas. So it goes very well with fish from sweet water; black cod is perfect with Sauvignon Blanc rather than Chardonnay.”

Are people getting more knowledgeable about wine?

“Yes, and that's what makes it interesting,” says this wine expert, who thinks it is very important for sommeliers to get to know their customers. “When I started in this profession 25 years ago, people went to restaurants looking at guides like Michelin. But today, restaurants don't fill that way; now general magazines are talking about food and beverage… and it is not only about the chef or the sommelier, but about the entire experience of the restaurant. Vogue or Elle, when reviewing restaurants, tell readers to look at the candles or the chandeliers… the décor.”

Europe Vs Asia

The Atlantis has 1,100 people in the food and beverage section! “We bring our combined experience to serve the guests,” says the European, adding, “I was at a restaurant in France a few months ago and everybody was sitting quietly, nobody was talking to the waiter. But you will not see the same dynamics here; people in Dubai come for an interaction, an exchange, and the knowledge of the staff is part of the experience people hope to get here. The idea is not to feel intimidated, but relax.”

He explains how at the Atlantis' three-Michelin-star restaurant Nobu, within 5-10 minutes of the guests' arrival, effort is made by the chef and the waiter to understand what they'd like to have, “so they don't need to ask questions. When I see someone entering a restaurant, I try to guess what they might like to have; it's a completely different approach in this part of the world from Europe.”

Their wine selection aims not to impress with “only the top wines. We have a fairly representative selection of the world's wines.” The rates start at around €25 and go up to the most expensive red Spanish wine called Pingus (a ‘cult wine' from the Spanish winery Dominio de Pingus); “This is vintage 2004, classified in the top-10 wines ever made, and a bottle would cost €45,000,” he says.

As you gasp and ask if it gets sold, he says, “I won't say we sell it every day, but it would be bought by someone who would know; to order this specific wine, you'd have had it before, or at least heard of it. It's a very rare wine and we have only two bottles of it.”

Whiskey catching up

Malt whiskey, Vettesi adds, is the next big thing; “it's interesting to see that whiskey is trying to catch the trend of vodka, because vodka represents 90 per cent of spirits consumption in Dubai.”

This is because vodka is a “very social drink, and to drink malt whiskey you need a bit of education. It is not a casual drink… you don't drink whiskey at a beach party,” he says, adding that McCallan is getting really popular.

When I comment on the growing popularity of Scotch whiskey in India, particularly single malts, he says the Indian market is “completely different.” He was recently with the maker of a popular Scotch whiskey and “he told me India is the first destination for them in terms of volume.”

But trends keep changing all the time; for instance, in the early 1980s and late 1990s, expensive cognac mostly went to China and Japan “because in Asia they were eating with cognac. But that is over; now even the Asian market has been opened to wine”. One of the most important trading places for wine now is Hong Kong, where the government has either removed or slashed taxes on alcohol.

Indian wines falter in Dubai

Coming to Indian wine, Vettesi says that three years ago he sampled it in Dubai and found it “very good, particularly the sparkling rose wine from India”. But Indian wines failed in Dubai. “I think the brand manager thought that a large Indian community in Dubai would drink Indian wine, but apparently it didn't. But I think the soil of India will one day produce great wines.”

His reasoning is that wine from the French Burgundy region is very good, “but how old is the vineyard? Nearly 500 years old, and the soil tends to get tired. In India there is so much soil that is rich. When you can produce good fruits you can produce good wine!”

Argentinian wine also had a similar experience. “About 80-90 years ago, there was no wine in Argentina, but today it's so popular. So it's just a question of time, communication and education of the market.”

When asked whether French wine continues to enjoy top billing in the minds of guests, Vettesi says, “It depends; in Ossiano (the Mediterranean restaurant at Atlantis), people look more at French wines. But in Nobu, you're going to see more New Zealand and California wines, because these go much better with the food here. But those wines lack structure to support the type of food served at Ossiano.”

This wine expert goes so far as to say that perhaps the French wine “might kill the parameters, flavours of the food in Nobu.”

And then comes this gem: “When you talk of food and wine, one should never take over the other. They should stay close… next to each other. You should never have the food going over the wine or vice versa. At least when the food takes over the wine it's okay, but not the other way. That means there is a problem of recommendation!”

Wine and women!

Ask about the common notion that women prefer white to red wine, and how their palate has evolved on wines, Jean-Marc Vettesi says: “Taste has no gender. There are only two tastes — good and bad.”

He has an interesting story on “the dynamics women have brought to wine”, which goes back to the US of 1980-90. Around that time American women started enjoying an active social life. “After work-hours, groups of ladies would go to the bar. They didn't drink hard liquor or Champagne, which was very expensive then. So that helped wine by the glass.”

Men, on the other hand, never ordered wine by the glass; “but women were looking for something lighter, and because the men were around the women, they became interested in wine by the glass too!”

He agrees that for long wine was considered a woman's drink, but that is changing now. Also, before the ‘new-world wine' came on the scene, wine was made only in France, Italy or Spain, it was mainly red and its quantity was limited.

Vettesi says that 20 years ago everybody was drinking red wine, now he estimates the white-red ratio at 60:40. “But if you have more women on the table, it will be white wine. By nature, women drink white wine because they really don't like the taste of red wine… the tannins and the wood. No one likes to drink wood!”

He's sorry when people say: ‘Ah this wine has a very nice wood taste'. “But you don't want to drink wood or tannins, you want to drink fruit; tannins don't give a very nice sensation, especially when they're not balanced.”

To get a wine with good and balanced tannins you have to automatically go for an expensive wine — French, Spanish or Italian!

That brings us to the high price of some wines. “Well, there's a lot of work in a bottle of wine — it's a combination of the man and nature. You can have a great winemaker but if nature doesn't help, it will not be a great wine.” And vice-versa; “both are essential for a perfect blend.”

He then relates the story of champagne, said to have been invented by Benedictine monks. A winery had produced some white wine that was not very good for consumption. “So the monks put some sugar in it, closed the bottle, and decided to wait. A second fermentation started in the bottle. And one day, a monk went to the cellar, opened the bottle and pooooof! went the cork. At that time they said it was an act of god. But no, it was an act of chemistry!”

Champagne is the result of man's interference in nature's work, he says, and explains the process through which the impurities in a bottle of champagne are brought to the very top. The house of Veuve Clicquot in France was set up in 1772, but its success came after 1805. In a Europe torn apart by war, veuve (French for widow) Clicquot exported her champagnes to Russia.

(Do you know why many champagne brands have “ veuve” in them, he asks. “In World War I, the men went to the front, leaving their vineyards to women, and when the owner died his veuve took over and ran the business.”)

In traditional champagne-making, yeast was added to make the wine sparkle; but the by-product made it cloudy.

Madame Clicquot devised an ingenious method to get rid of this impurity. In 1816, she made holes in her kitchen table at different levels and inserted the bottles upside down. When the cloudy deposits gathered at the neck of the bottle, she removed this sediment by disgorging it.

“That's how the champagne was clarified and you can find the original table at the Veuve Clicquot house in France even today,” says Vettesi, adding, “Yes, champagne is very expensive, but that's because there is a lot of work in a bottle of champagne!”

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