Match of the week

Raan and Grover Chêne

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on March 31 2017 at 12:36

I’ve been thinking a fair bit about red wine and Indian food lately - of which more in due course - but wanted to flag up one pairing from my trip to India last week which definitely worked.

The dish was a raan or marinated roast lamb which was served at the International Vine and Food Experience I attended at the Taj Falaknuma Palace hotel in Hyderabad and the wine Indian winery Grover’s Chêne, a blend of tempranillo and shiraz. Most of Grover’s reds are made in Bangalore though they have some vineyards in Nashik which is where we had met up with them earlier in the week.

You might be surprised to discover that India produces full-bodied reds but a number of wineries do as I revealed in my Guardian column last year (and will write about again in due course)

Incidentally they served it cellar cool which was obviously welcome in the considerable heat of Hyderabad - and not a bad idea elsewhere.

You could of course serve other reds with raan such as shiraz and tempranillo from other countries including a young rioja or a malbec. Even a cabernet which I feel sometimes struggles with spicy food would work perfectly well.

If you want to give raan a try yourself here’s a delicious recipe from Meera Sodha’s Made in India (Photograph © David Loftus)

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