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FINEWINE

Of hedgehogs and foxes

In his seminal essay, Isaiah Berlin divided great thinkers into hedgehogs and foxes. A hedgehog (example, Hegel) is someone who perceives the world through the lens of a big, dominant idea. In contrast, the viewpoint of a fox (example, Aristotle) is organised around many little ones. At the risk of trivialising the political philosopher’s intellectual taxonomy, I dare to suggest that wine-enthusiasts are divided along similar lines.

My friend Sudhir, for instance, is a thoroughgoing hedgehog. If he can help it, he will drink nothing but Chateauneuf-du-Pape, using the rich spicy reds from this renowned appellation as a benchmark to assess the quality and characteristics of other wines he reluctantly agrees to quaff. It is an austere form of vino-monism, but — as he would say — it is better to know one thing really well than knowing a lot of things poorly.

Most of us lack the singular focus of the hedgehog. As a self-confessed fox, I enjoy acquainting my palate with different flavours. There comes a time in any wine-enthusiast’s life (hedgehogs exempted) when he or she tires a little of the common varietals — the Cabs, the Chardonnays, the Syrahs — and looks towards something more unusual.

Getting decent wine is a hard enough job in India and getting anything beyond the usual is much harder. But one of the small and accidental perks of writing such a column is that wine has become the customary gift. Friends who earlier brought books, boxes of chocolates and audio CDs now feel they don’t need to agonise any longer about presents — “it’s a no-brainer now,” one of them admitted to me, “just bring wine.”

The funny thing is that sometimes the bottles are really unusual — exotic lesser-known varietals. Recently, I was given a bottle of white with an undecipherable Czech label, which I assumed — because of its distinctly herbaceous nose — was either a Sauvignon Blanc or some close cousin. Some Googling revealed that the name Malverina on the label, which I assumed was a brand, was actually a new Czech varietal, created with a heightened resistance to fungal diseases, pests and such like. Among other bottles that have recently come my way were a tart Reisling-like white from Germany, a dark and plummy Barbera from the USA, and a stunningly light Bardolino from Italy. A classy bottle of Californian Pinot Meunier (a mutant of Pinot Noir, one of three grapes used to make Champagne) is crying out to be drunk. There are about 5,000 grape varietals according to some estimates — too many to explore in most lifetimes. But you don’t need to hunt down the obscure — a Girgentina from Malta or a Vranac from Montenegro — to enjoy the pleasures of vinodiversity. It just means being open to the joy of discovery. The hedgehog will always be admired for his single-mindedness. But frankly foxes have a lot more fun.

mukund@thehindu.co.in

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