How will I survive good South Indian food without wine??
 

We've heard the wine is not too great in India. Sooooo, considering we have wine almost every night with dinner we are wondering if you have a suggestion?

Mahabalipuram,Pondicherry ,Tanjore are our first 3 stops. Is there somewhere we can purchase some decent wine. Am I dreaming when I think of a wine shop in one of the cities? I'm thinking we can load up and carry it in the car we've hired.

Accept the fact that you'll be drinking bad wine and paying dearly for it. That's what we did and we survived to tell the tale. On the scale of life's problems you could do much worse... Have a great trip!

Drink beer!

Yep, drink Beer!

Are you flying into Chennai? I'd guess you'd have the best luck there. we had no luck getting decent wine in Pondicherry.

Kingfisher Premium Lager. Full stop.

Wine and Indian food of any variety were never meant for each other. If they were, Indians would have invented wine thousands of years ago.

You'll simply wreck the flavor of the very food you've traveled thousands of miles to eat.

Don't laugh, but water is probably the most common accompaniment to Indian meals! The flavors and spices don't mix well with most flavored drinks.

I'm with dogster. I never drink beer at home (it gives me indigestion here) but I drank cold Kingfisher happily in India. Or you could go British and drink gin and tonic. Or even local and drink lassi, but that's not alcoholic.

Finding a wine to go with Indian food isn't that easy in the first place. I usually pick Gewurztraminer, but I didn't even bother looking for it in Asia.

You will live to tell the tale. I did!

Is one allowed to take any wine with you into India?

Aloha!

We normally drink wine with dinner each evening but I rarely choose to drink wine with Indian food; it just does not tend to work very well. Beer is reliable with Indian food.

I'm glad you read that there are many of you out there that relate. Thanks for you input!

BEER IT IS!

Hmm, I like wine with Indian food but I like wine with everything, even when I *should* be drinking something else. They are making wine in India now (Sula) - I tried it and it is not half bad - soft and easy to drink. . I didn't try it with Indian food though. The classic pairing or Indian foods is riesling/gewurz but you can also try softer, non-tannic reds - European syrahs, cotes de rhone (syrah/grenache blends), spanish garnachas. Sparkling goes with everything.

Beer is classic though, which is why I originally suggested it.

Water for me makes spicier food spicier! I'd go with a lassi or something yogurt baed.

Go for Grovers Vinyard in South India- I had never quite understood the descriptions of wine as "blackberry with straw overtones" or what ever until we tried this. They actually put it into the chiller after we ordered it as it was too warm. It was delightful and even though we have managed to source it in the UK it is not the same. It never is is it?

Gin and tonic . . . although better before than with food . . . and the tonic has anti-malarial properties. The alcohol content of beer varies from state to state.

I'm not entirely sure that Kingfisher mskes a separate brew from state to state indiana: I think what you may be referring to is the difference between the 5% Premium Lager and the 8% Strong [now known as Dogslayer]. Indiana may well have been errr... fibbed to by someone who only sold the 8% - which in my opinion is a horrible tasting, deadly brew.

I think the 8% is brewed for a certain clientele who want to get as drunk as possible, as quickly as possible, as cheaply as possible. Although 'toddy' does that job better.

Dogster, dear Dogster, I'm just relating what I read on the labels. In the Punjab, the Kingfisher label says "more than 5.5% alcohol, less than 8% alcohol" (with those little "greater than" or "lesser than" thingies which I'm too lazy to seek out on the keyboard). In Rajasthan, all Kingfisher labels said "less than 5% alcohol" ( the "near beer" of my youth). Once in MP, the alcohol content on the label reverted to the Punjabi alcohol content --- and I really liked the Dogslayer!! Deadly?? We may have to have a drinking contest someday . . .

Grover and Sula both are good wines and go well with spicy food....

In the event anyone is reading this...We survivied. Loved the Kingfisher beer but did find Grover and Sula wine in Ponidcherry and Alleppy as well as a few restaurants and it very much enjoyed!

Thanks!

That's nice of you to give a follow up comment on how you made out with the wine.

Impacked, thank you for the follow-up. When you get a chance,will you post a bit about the non-alchol aspects of your trip? Either way...thanks!