Sémillon with your samosa?

I'm not a huge fan of drinking wine with Indian food. Nine times out of 10, I'll have a beer or a lassi. As far as I'm concerned, wine's subtle nuances are totally lost with a curry - there's just too much going on. Coconut and ginger do wine no favours at all - and don't get me started on the combination of tannin and chilli.

But the reality is that many customers want to drink wine with their curry. "And you've got to give people what they want," says Richard Hand, general manager of London's latest swanky Indian eatery, Benares.

You've got to hand it to Hand - he certainly knows how to sell wine with Indian food. At his last place, Quilon in St James's, he managed to shift copious amounts of Chablis and Fleurie. Not that he would have singled out these wines as particularly Indian food-friendly, it's just that this is what his customers asked for.

However, he had gone to the trouble of sourcing interesting whites from New Zealand and reds from Chile, for example, and these also sold in fair quantities.

Quilon certainly had a fine wine list, but Batailley and Rogan Josh…? "Hmm, I know," he says. "Yes, it does hurt a bit, but, as I said, customers were asking for it."

But get this: according to Hand, practically every table at Benares, which has been open since mid-May, is ordering wine with food. Guess what sells best? Instead of Chablis, it's Pinot Blanc - Alsace Pinot Blanc, to be precise. And instead of Fleurie, think red Alsace, from Les Caves de Turckheim. In fact, he's selling so much Turckheim Pinot Noir Rotenberg 2001, at £24 a bottle, that he's about to run out. "But don't worry, I've got another good Alsace red lined up," he promises.

What does Hand recommend when the diner wants just one bottle to drink throughout the meal? "Austrian Grüner Veltliner and Riesling," he declares. "They're amazing wines - they go with everything."

Another Hand discovery is Prosecco and spicy food. He pairs one from Valdobbiadene with the crab salad, vermicelli-coated fried prawns and kumquat chutney - it's fabulous.

Chef-proprietor Atul Kochhar's cooking is about as good as it gets. He made history two years ago when he won a Michelin star for his cooking at Mayfair restaurant Tamarind as Michelin finally recognised a cuisine with as much right to the spotlight as its European counterparts.

At Benares, Kochhar has incorporated influences from all over the subcontinent, though his cooking is definitely lighter on the chilli than most, which is a good thing as far as the wine lover is concerned.

Hand and his assistant manager, Mark James, have great plans for the list. "At the moment," Hand says, "I've got a Monbazillac on with the tandoori pineapple - but we're looking at listing Tokaji instead."

So, I've changed my mind - wine is a suitable partner to Indian food (not to mention being better on the digestive system than beer). But I guess we're not talking just any old Indian food here.

Shorts

Cognac goes for youth market
Cellar Trends (01283 217703) has launched A de Fussigny Cognac in the UK on-trade. It's one of the few Cognac houses which sources its grapes, distils, and ages in barrels made from its own cooperage, all on its own 350-hectare estate in the heart of the Grande and Petite Champagne regions of Cognac.

Five Cognac styles will be available within the three brands - Nyak, XO for Men, and Collection. The USP is said to be the rather radical packaging of its Nyak and XO for Men range, aimed fairly and squarely at the "yoof" market.

Nyak is aimed at "younger drinks with designer appeal". Its VS-style Cognac is aged for as long as five years and is intended for mixing with cola or tonic. XO for Men comes in a cigar-shaped tube for ease of serving (rather handy for the minibar, too) with 80% Grande Champagne, 20% Petite Champagne and a tasting age of up to 35 years.

Whoops
Somehow, we omitted on-trade wine giant Waverley's involvement with the Wine Research Project, which looks at wine drinking habits in pubs, as reported on in Caterer‘s 12 June issue. Sorry, folks, your valuable input has been noted.

Gosset shortlists Champagne gastropubs Fifteen gastropubs have been selected for the Trophée Gosset Celebris 2003 shortlist, which seeks to reward representation of Champagne in gastropubs. In alphabetical order, those on the shortlist are: the Angel, Woolhampton, Berkshire; Angel Inn, Hetton, North Yorkshire; the Bell, Skenfrith, Monmouthshire; the Bridge, Barnes, west London; the Coach, Greenwich, east London; Fire Stables, Wimbledon, south London; Griffin Inn, near Uckfield, East Sussex; the Inn, Lathones, Leven, Fife; Inn @ West End, Surrey; the Inn, Whitewell, Clitheroe, Lancashire; Nobody Inn, Doddiscombsleigh, Devon; Old Passage Inn, Arlingham, Gloucestershire; Red Cat, near St Helens, Merseyside; Star Inn at Harome, North Yorkshire; and the Yorke Arms, Pateley Bridge, near Harrogate.

The judging panel included Lynda Lee-Potter, Rose Murray Brown MW, Fiona Beckett, and myself. The winner will be announced at a reception in London on 17 September.