A year ago, Karyna Bajaj — the executive director of Ka Hospitality — opened CinCin in Mumbai, introducing the concept of cicchetti (small plates to accompany wine) to the city. It was one of many ideas she picked up from her visits to Venice, the city that also inspired the restaurant. “With CinCin, what we’ve tried to do is make wine really approachable [with wine flights and the like],” Bajaj tells me, on a surprisingly windy day in November. Now, on the first anniversary of the restaurant in BKC (which is also home to Ka Hospitality’s Nara Thai and Yauatcha), they are celebrating with a custom red wine that has been exclusively created for them by Vallonne Vineyards.
“With CinCin, what we’ve tried to do is make wine really approachable,” says Karyna Bajaj
The CinCin Rosso is a blend of 85% Shiraz and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon. “It will not intimidate you,” says Abhishek Bindal, Associate Vice President of Operations, Ka Hospitality. A young blend, the wine is fruit forward and can be had straight after opening — ideal for consumers who are not wine connoisseurs. The red, which will be released next month, tastes of plums, strawberries, and chocolate, with hints of green and black peppercorn, with the Cabernet Sauvignon lending it body and tannins.
View from the vineyard
While the country’s luxury hotel chains have been serving private blends for a few years — Taj and ITC have collaborated with Fratelli Wines, and Pullman with Grover Zampa — the trend now is for standalone restaurants to uncap customised bottles. CinCin is the latest to join the bandwagon. “Out of our entire beverage sales, 50% is wine,” says Bajaj — a fact that owes a lot to their wine list (from high-end names like Sassicaia, Italy, and Maison Louis Jadot, France, to newer world vinos like Penfolds Bin 407, Australia, and Cakebread Cellars, California) being available by the glass, a rarity at most restaurants.
The idea for a house blend came from a conversation over four months ago. “I was talking to Karyna about how private blends at restaurants in India is not too common. That’s when she said they were looking to do something on those lines for the first anniversary,” says Aditi Pai, co-founder of Vallone Vineyards. Soon Bajaj and the team went to Nashik for tastings and, in under two months, the blend was finalised. However, Pai admits, the Rosso took the winemakers out of their comfort zone as the CinCin team was looking for a youthful wine — with instructions that it should be the “open, pour and drink” variety, without having to decant it.
“Our brief was on the wine’s personality, which is very playful and non-intimidating, and they sent us four blends,” says Bindal. The team conducted a blind tasting before settling on the blend that “reflected the general audience we’re catering to”.
So, why a red? “We wanted to make it a red because it’s very synonymous with CinCin, being fun and approachable, yet bold,” says Bajaj, adding that they hope to expand the in-house range to include “a white, a rosé... you never know”.
Rosso is ₹1,612 plus tax.
