On an Indian gin trail

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If you do not have a picture holding a glass of Indian gin on your social media, you are likely to be a social outcast," says Gagan Sharma, creator and educator at Indulge India, and he has us in splits. It is the recent popularity of Indian gins that made Bhopal-based Wine Telegrams, run by Shalini Singh, partner with Indulge India to create a virtual tasting event featuring Indian gins.

The assembled tasting kits

In an hour-long Zoom tasting session, Sharma will take you through the history and flavours behind seven Indian gins, including Greater Than, Terai, Stranger & Sons, Samsara, Hapusa, and Pumori along with a surprise gin which is like the Jack in a pack of cards. "Last year, India experienced a gin revolution, and while Goa and Mumbai were getting all the good stuff, many were unavailable in Delhi, Bhopal, and the rest of India. Our first virtual tasting session was in October last year after I flew down to Mumbai to buy a few gins, and did a blind tasting here for my team. In November, we did a public tasting of the Indian gin trail for 80 people in Delhi," recalls Sharma. While Indulge has done over 20 sessions of the gin trail since then, this is Wine Telegram's first virtual gin-tasting event.

Gagan Sharma

"I started conducting wine- tasting sessions with my family and friends that led to a few paid sessions in 2019. The plan was to have continuous sessions starting March and that's when we went into the lockdown," says Singh, who studied Wine and Gastronomy Management from Le Cordon Bleu, London. She decided to partner with Indulge after attending one of Sharma's tasting sessions. "I wanted to introduce this virtual tasting concept in cities like Bhopal, and among the people I know. Even now, most interested folk are requesting in-person tastings. Once they participate in this virtual tasting, their apprehensions will disappear," she suggests.
Another plus of attending a virtual tasting session is that one gets to sample gins that may not otherwise be available in their city. "Sampling these gins allows one to understand their palette; when things open up and people travel, they will know exactly what they want to drink," says Singh.

Sharma believes the rising popularity of Indian gins is because one can rarely go wrong with Indian gin and tonic; "For example, you slice a mango and add it and throw in blueberry or a syrup. You can't add Rooh Afza to whiskey for example, but with gin, it can work. It allows you to experiment. In the lockdown, drinking at home became a thing, and home-bartending picked up. Gins were the easiest to experiment with. Also, in Indian gins, you can tell the spice and botanicals that are added such as ginger, gondhoraj lime, pepper, fennel, rose petals, or the juniper that we source from Delhi's famed Khari Baoli spice market. Indian gins invoke a sense of nostalgia."

On August 29, 6 pm; Confirmation and payment by August 15 (for kits to be delivered in time from Delhi or Goa)
Cost Rs 3,000 (including doorstep delivery)
Call 9425301430
Log on to @winetelegrams on Instagram for more details