Travesty of House Wines

I am not a wine expert but I love wines and herein lies the problem. I don't believe in Wine ratings that the experts so blithely state. The only exception being Jancis Robinson's column in the weekend edition of FT. I don't believe in wine pairings either. When your food is vegetarian, especially the spicy Indian kind, wine-food pairings targeted mainly at the meat eating western population doesn't make much gastronomical sense. So drinking good wines has mostly been a game of chance. A good bottle of wine followed by a couple " oh, not so very good" ones.

Last week, we were eating at Mezbaan (where the food is really mazedaar) and they served excellent Cab. Sauv. and Pinot Noir. I partook the Pinot (thanks to Sideways) and Paavana chose the Cabernet. I was all excited and asked the hostess to part with the names of the wines. She rattled off the names and my spirits, thanks to the spirit imbibed, were high.

"And Sir, these are house wines", she remarked happily.

Feeling happy at possibly buying two nice Reds, I asked, "Nice selection, where do you get them from?"

"Oh, these are sold exclusively to the restaturants. You can't buy them in open market."

"Oh, I see."

Bummer! And the quest for nice Reds continues.