We met Neeta Mittal, co-owner with her husband of LXV Wine in Paso Robles, at last fall’s Garagiste Festival. Mittal is the driving force behind the winery, although the wines are made by Amy Butler. Mittal is also very eloquent on wine with food from her native India, something you might not think goes together. But she proves that it does. In fact, we took her up on her offer to visit the tasting room after the festival to try her spice experiment. What they do is pair spice mixes on bland cheese with their wines and the result is freaking amazing. But we’ll let Ms. Mittal tell you about it.
It makes perfect sense to pair spices with wine and Indian food is perfect for wine. I’d love to know what part of India reminds her of Paso because I love Paso.
I wish I knew what part of India she’s from, too. That is the disadvantage of talking to folks at busy events like Garagistes – you sometimes miss really good questions.
I loved this – thanks for sharing! There is a great restaurant in Toronto called Pukka where I was able to do a full wine and Indian food pairing session. So interesting and informative – one of the man challenges is that there is not usually a set appetizer, entree, dessert with many Indian meals and there can be so many diverse flavours on the table at a time, finding wines that work well can be challenging, but it can be such a great success.