He was excited about coming to Calcutta because fellow South African Jacques Kallis is a Kolkata Knight Rider! Wim Truter, master winemaker from South Africa, was in town on Thursday to bat for his country by pairing an Indian meal with Nederburg wines from back home. A t2 chat...

Fave food-and-wine pairing: Depends which mood you’re in. I love Margherita pizza with mozzarella and maybe some salami on it, with a nice light Pinotage or Rose.

Indian food and wine: I think the Pinotage will go well with nice, spicy Indian flavours. You don’t want to smother the complex aroma and flavour of Indian food with a wine that’s too heavy.

Wine on a date: Because wine is so personal, if I’m taking a girl out I’d rather find out what kind of wine she likes. I could pick something fancy just to impress her but in the end, she’s not going to like that glass of wine.

Best compliment as a winemaker: That would be from my mom who doesn’t drink wine at all. She tasted a glass of wine we made and said, “Not bad!”

Your take on Indian wines: I haven’t tasted any but I think Indian wines are very young and India still has a lot of groundwork to do when it comes to viticulture.

When you’re not drinking wine, you’re drinking: Beer. I really like Guinness. Also, Savanna Dry, a cider beer.

Karo Christine Kumar
Pictures by Rashbehari Das

All About South African wines:

We’ve been making wine for 350 years. The Pinotage is a unique grape variety that only we make. The quality of our Sauvignon Blanc or Pinotage, both available at retail outlets like Spencer’s or Metro Cash & Carry for around Rs 1,450-

Rs 1,500, outdoes any wine at this price. In South Africa, we can explore new ideas and new wine-making techniques, which many other countries cannot. We make a wine called Baronne and another called Lyric. And when a customer comes up and tells you, ‘You know what, I drink Baronne every weekend. It’s my favourite wine in the world. I’ve been drinking it for the past 25 years’, that’s when it hits home that when we put our seal on the bottle, we have to live up to all those expectations!