If there’s one thing that ties a certain Roman god, Bacchus, a young Romantic poet, John Keats and the massively oh là là evoking recent Netflix production, Emily in Paris, it must be the love for ‘a draught of vintage’ - the passion for fermenting, seeking and drinking good wine! While Bacchus, who in Roman mythology has been the mastermind behind the origin of wines, it was Keats in his Ode to Nightingale, luring us into craving the wine that would sensually taste of “Flora and the country green, Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!”, to following Emily as she travels to Champagne and takes a tour of Camille’s family-run winery while drinking a whole lot of it and well, ahem, making some very bad decisions; the love affair with wines is ancient and divinely sanctioned!

The approach of the winter season and the jolly sound of Christmas bells ringing in the air and the dreams of powdery snow cascading from the heavens is yet another divine indication to perhaps, uncork that bottle of fine, aged wine and let that barrel of happiness flow. Unable to resist the Christmas spirit (ahem) anymore, Dotadoodle soon found themselves in conversation with Veena Ashok, a maker of homemade wines, par excellence (ah, did you read this in the French accent!), who hails from the lush green hill town of Coorg, a land guarded by coffee plantations and where the waterfalls gurgle and flow, making their way amidst the mist.

Long-exposed to a world which associates wines with Merlot’s and Cabernet’s and Pinot Noir’s and etcetera milieu of ferments that would have us on more occasions than one, running our thumbs down a never-ending list, scratching our head, the dreaded look of confusion beginning to dawn in our eyes, the ghost of indecision tapping on our backs; the world of wines has refused to welcome us in easily. Perhaps this is where Veena Ashok’s range of homemade non-alcoholic fruit wines triumph as she, like her wine collection - opens Pandora's box of wine-making at home and introduces us to a more flavourful world! Always the curious experimenter in the kitchen, Veena invites us in by revealing, “I usually make a lot of fruit wines, but since a lot of fruits here are seasonal like mulberry or pineapple, during the off-season I experiment with stuff like rose wine, betel leaf wine or even coffee wine!”, she leads us in.

Here’s a quick wine geek fact: If the questions have started popping about whether you should choose non-alcoholic wines like this, here’s a tiny geeky perk you’d like to know - although both alcoholic and non-alcoholic wines have the same heart-healthy antioxidants called polyphenols, it so turns out that the alcohol might at some point get in the way of these polyphenols by literally blocking the way. In the case of non-alcoholic wine, well, that’s an issue that never comes up and your health and we can vouch, your heart will be happy as ever!

Hailing from Madikeri, Coorg, Veena’s fascination for wines is not just limited to herself but it actually runs in her family, especially with her sister, Beena, who was the first one to initiate the business of wine-making at home, brewing their love for the beverage and churning it into a profession entirely. Veena candidly confesses, “As far as choosing wine-making as a profession is concerned, it was actually my younger sister, Beena who began preparing and selling wines. She was the one who started the wine business in the family and pushed me to do the same. So, she is someone I can say was an inspiration since she was the one who told me to not keep my recipes limited to myself but actually set up a business!”

Veena’s history with wines is an old one and she gushes, “Wines and I have always gone together,” leafing through her mind for the best memories, “I can't remember the first time I tasted wine or toddy (palm tree wine), but surely that first time, the first sip must have been when I gave my heart to wines!” she fondly recollects. Veena, who is quite the expert at cooking and conjuring new recipes and enjoys a good ferment of mulberry or chilli wine for herself, confesses, “I have always been a person who likes experimenting, especially with my cooking and I feel fortunate that my husband and children have always been very supportive about it,” she thankfully notes. Her biggest source of validation comes when people come to her wanting to learn about wine-making and she is able to impart some of her knowledge and in return, they make their own wine and ask her to review it - it inevitably leaves Veena feeling overwhelmed and blessed, to have chosen this profession.

Digging further into her memory, Veena recounts, “So, I didn't have any particular recipe that I followed to produce my first wine. I have always been an improviser, from the very beginning! I didn't have anybody telling (me how to to go about things), it was very random; it just happened,” she smiled. While some memories may have faded over the years, the very first one has remained embedded in her mind, she nostalgically says, "I remember the very first wine I prepared was mulberry wine. I'm still very proud of it as it turned out to be very well made! It is still amongst my most sold wines," she remarks with a laugh. Since the first time is always special, Veena holds mulberry wine close to her heart and gushes, “My favourite wine has always been mulberry. But at times, I also enjoy chilli wine for its the best solution to a bad throat or the flu. One glass of it (can cure any minor ailment).”

Also, good to know fact: Veena’s streak of experimenting in the kitchen has made her quite sought after during the wedding season in Coorg where orders for not only her homemade fruit wines pile up but also those of milkmaid balls and coconut toffees, two personal inventions, she takes pride in! Other than that, Veena can always be found cooking up a storm in the kitchen, experimenting to her heart’s content, even doling out as many as 5 varieties of dosa, expertly!

Having watched Madhur Bhandarkar’s Fashion a tad too many times and having found ourselves particularly excited in the grape-stomping scene from the movie, the automatic question nagging our minds was this - So, how is it that wine is made actually? To this, Veena is ever-obliging and declares, “The process of winemaking is actually quite simple. Just imagine that you wish to make 5 litres of grape wine; for that, you'll need: 5 litres of water, 1 kg of grapes, 1kg of sugar and a quarter teaspoon of yeast, and you can get going!” After ensuring that the grapes have been washed thoroughly, Veena guided us to add it to an air-tight vessel filled with water and sugar and leave it to ferment for 3 days, at least, before opening the lid and adding the wine yeast. Soon after an (im)patient wait for a minimum of 21 days, the wine will be ready to be served!

For Veena, whose sales sky-rocket mostly during the summers and the wedding season (April to May) in Coorg, wine ultimately has been her go-to beverage and the good people of the Scotland of India also seem to share her spirit and love for this grapey concoction! Veena feels, “ The best thing about wines is that they go with anything and everything. Be it starters or the main course, both non/vegetarian, a glass of wine is always welcome,” she points out. However, wines are also medicinally valuable and that makes them a great option - especially when they catch a cold or are down with a fever. Humorously Veena mentions, “Over here people drink wine as a substitute for paracetamols, it seems,” she says, before breaking into a laugh.

Albeit a time-consuming process, making that perfectly good wine is a lot like learning a life lesson. The real magic of wine lies in its age - the older, the better, they say and swivelling within that saying lies the virtue of being patient and waiting for the good things in life to arrive, not rushing them on, perhaps. There is beauty in the waiting too - the beauty in knowing the longer we let it absorb all the flavours, letting it swim in all its goodness for quite some while without disrupting a natural process - and a bottle of guaranteed happiness will be waiting to greet us and a sip from it will leave us feeling that yes, we deserved it, after all. Om Chianti!

Psst: If you are feeling a little tipsy by now and in the spirit of the Christmas season craving some wine, well here’s a tiny list of some of the best wine-y movies to quench your thirst with till you wait for your wine to ferment with all the goodness:

1. A Good Year (2006)
2. Sideways (2004)
3. A Walk in the Clouds (1995)
4. The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1969)