The Hindu Business Line : Of fruits, wine and chocolate mousse

Recently in Heraklion Greece As one sat at the breathtakingly beautiful Boutari winery — called Fantaxometocho — taking in bouts of information on the intricacies, aromas, tastes and flavours of the wide variety of wines made by the Greek company with 130 years of wine-making history in its six wineries across Greece, and one in France, one could not help thinking of the `wine shops' of Chennai! At these sorry, squalid places, you can buy all kinds of stuff, except any wine, leave alone good wine!

But for the moment, research would have to wait on why liquor shops across India are called "wine shops"... and one tuned in on the presentation on how this wine maker plays an important role in Greek wine making.

At the dinner hosted for the 230-plus international delegates of the Kerasma food and wine festival in Crete Island, organised by the Hellenic Foreign Trade Board, even before one could take in the delicious aromas of the wines, the beauty of the place, about 4 km from Heraklion in Crete Island, took your breath away. The sweet scent of the flowers in full bloom was heady enough; and you could just reach out and pluck the peaches. One bite was concrete evidence enough of the sweetness and special taste of Mediterranean fruits... the cherries were no less - bright red, juicy and sugary sweet!

But our hosts for the evening were not too keen to have the attention and energy of the so-called "food and wine experts" dissipated on fruits.

We were summoned into the winery's circular glass-covered gallery — which looked more like a gourmet restaurant than just a place to taste wines — and through it to the multimedia presentation on its products. Apparently `Naussa Boutari', its red wine, "was one of the first to appear in a bottle in the early stages of the Greek wine market, and hence was a bold project."

But a much bolder spirit was required to down all of the half-a-dozen or so varieties of wines, offered by different wineries marketing their produce, that were to accompany the gourmet meal offered by the Kerasma organisers.

The very sight of the large number of wine glasses that crowded each seat at the table could be daunting for the faint hearted... and it was quite a task to spot the water glass. One left it to the person serving the liquids to spot it and fill it up!

Rose, White and Red wines followed one another in quick succession and the rate at which the wines were being downed all around made it appear that the gastronomic delights that followed, were only accompaniments. The dinner menu was an impressive one, but not for those allergic to seafood. As for the veggies, the only question to be asked was what the hell were they doing there. Cold bean soup with green olives croutons; Marinated sea Bass with thyme, lemon and extra virgin olive oil; Sea Bream with chard and egg-lemon sauce; Braised goat cutlets in Fava bean puree and caper juice; Briam Timbale with potato patties perfumed with marjoram, followed in quick succession with the dessert being the delicious Tart with Graviera from Crete and dried Figs compote. (A couple of days later one tried fresh figs at the mini market in Santorini island and wondered if a sweeter fruit had been ever grown).

The amount of trouble the Greek take over a gourmet meal can be judged from the fact that even the coffee that closed the meal was accompanied with Chocolate mousse with extra virgin olive oil!

Neither the chef nor the sommelier would have been happy to know that one put a firm stop to this flow of heavenly, but impossible to down-it-all, food after the `Sea bream' - it required all of my fellow Canadian journalist Isabelle's persuasive power to make me take a bite of her `braised goat cutlet'. As for the wine glasses, only three of the six were used, and one bashfully admits that even this was a record! But almost everybody in the room went all the way. Cheers to them!

The regret is only on how the chocolate mousse would have tasted...

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Of fruits, wine and chocolate mousse

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