Pinot Nakkali

We're taking an unusual wine trip today. We're heading to Nepal to try out their fairly young and rapidly growing wine industry. While much of Nepal sits in the Himalayas, too high and too cold to grow grapes, the southern part of the country lies on the Indo-Gangetic Plain. And, in the far north of that plain, just in the southern foothills of the Himalayas is where we are headed today.

To get there, we need to fly into Kathmandu. If you've never flown there, take a few minutes to find a video of the approach into Kathmandu and also into Paro, Bhutan. Then again, if you have a fear of flying, don't.

As we travel to our winery today, we need to be particularly careful. We're up at around 1400 meters/4600 feet in an area that lies pretty much on a faultline. In many places, the steeply sloped roads have not recovered from the massive 2015 earthquake, so we've made certain to engage only the finest local driver. Leaving out of Kathmandu to the west and slightly toward India, we begin to understand why Kathmandu is known as the city of temples. There seem to me as many shrines to Buddha as there are people.

Upon arrival at our winery, we learn that they make wine there from only grape, Pinot Nakkali that we were not previously familiar with. A hybrid of Pinot Noir and local table grape Sthaniya Nakkali, the Pinot Nakkali grapes are somewhat unique to look at. Hanging in neat, somewhat loose bunches, each individual grape is almost pair shaped. And, while somewhat dark, almost black, like Pinot Noir, the narrow part of the pear-shape appears almost striped of green and white.

Because it's a new industry here, the wine process is a bit unusual. After the grapes are harvested with the help of local yak, they are destemmed by hand, crushed and pressed, and the juice flows into mud-based barrels. The local mud, rich in minerals from the Himalayas imparts flavors reminiscent of the curries that are found in most Nepali dishes.

After spending about 8 months on mud, the wine is bottled. All bottles bear the national symbol, the unusual pennant-like Nepali flag.

The wines today are spicy on the nose, loaded with local curry and lentil. On the palate, the pomegranate hits us fist followed by some notes of dried roses. On the finish, our Pinot Nakkali brings us green tea and a bit of stickyness, somewhat unusual in wine.

Pair your Pinot Nakkali with lccal foods particularly the favorites dal bhat and the Tibetan street food that has become popular in the area.