What do you want to do when you go on a trip to Europe??!!
Most of you reading this, or rather all of us have at some point in life have fantacised about a great European holiday!! A holiday fuelled by numerous Yash Raj films romancing & romanticising the locations of Europe, with lots of soulful & melodious songs & dances and pastel chiffons romancing the never ending expanse of gorgeous beauty!!
So, coming back to the question…what do you want to do
when you go on a trip to Europe??!!
Watch breath taking visuals…
Drive on smooth full metal roads...
Ride your bicycles on soulful & silent trails ala
Europeans..
So why go to Europe, when you can get all of this in Himachal!!
Welcome back to the last & final post on our Great
Kullu Adventure – Musafir & Hasina in Wonder Wyne land!!
Well technically in this post we are out of Kullu & are
in Shimla district…but our 10 day trip in Kullu was something we will never
forget all our life & something we have to do again…very soon.
We love Himachal for many things, but amongst those many,
many things, one thing surely tops our list – the Himachal Wines!!
Fruity, aromatic, fresh to taste & delicious,
Himachal’s fruit wines reflect the taste of the land they are made in. Their
delicate & sweet-fruity flavour is the perfect foil to wash down the spicy
Himachal food and sipping them seated in a beautiful resort while doing nothing
is what perfect holidays are made of!! The perfect mood lifter to enjoy an
afternoon in Himachal, just sitting lazily, sipping wine & doing nothing….the
Italians fondly call this Dolce Far
Niente – the sweetness of doing nothing!!
So this time when we were going to Himachal for a longer
time, Hasina, who is a bona fide lover of Himachal wines did some research on
her favourite fruit wine – The Wonder Wyne!!
The Wonder Wyne, a brand from the very famed Minchy’s Group,
is owned by Mr. Girish Minocha. Hasina contacted Mr. Girish & expressed her
desire to do a photoshoot on her favourite Wines from Himachal. Girish is a
good natured, erudite & very polite gentleman who was extremely delighted to
hear good words about his brand & was very forthcoming in accommodating us
last minute to do a beautiful photo-shoot in his plush gardens in Mashobra.
This post would serve dual purpose for us…it would give
us a beautiful “lifestyle” round up to our blog series on Kullu & we would
get to talk about the lovely wine of Himachal that has enthralled our senses
for years now!! J J
18th April:
2pm:
After completing our lovely trek in the Great Himalayan
National Park, and having seen some gorgeous landscape that jumped straight out
of a Hollywood fantasy series, detailed in our last post (read here), we came
down to Gushaini at around 1pm. Initially our plan was to head to Lake Parashar
(another wonder) led again by Ankit Sood’s team, but due to bad weather he
advised us against the same.
Now with no hotel booking for the night, and Lake
Parashar cancelled, we were kind of left on our own…but what are we if not
adventure lovers!! J J
We were supposed to spend 18th April night at
Lake Parashar & start early next day, i.e, 19th April for Mashobra
to reach Girish’s plush gardens for Wonder Wyne photoshoot. Post the shoot, we
had planned to wrap up by afternoon, we were to start for Delhi after a lunch
and reach home by 19th late night, so that we have 20th
April, i.e, Sunday to rest and prepare ourselves for the other facet of our
life – the usual corporate humdrum (yes, yes…we know that face…we often make
that face too!!)
Now with things not happening how we had planned, we
simply decided to drive off to a somewhat midway point between Gushaini &
Mashobra, from where Mashobra would be an easy distance. So our revised
itinerary would be - Start early morning for Mashobra on 18th April,
finish our shoot by afternoon, have lunch & push off home that day itself…giving
us a full weekend at home!!
Ankit suggested our halt of the day to be Darlaghat,
which is merely 8kms away from Solan!!! Aur hum to hain hi raahi pyaar ke….off
we went!! J J
Hum
hain raahi pyaar ke, humse kuch na boliye
Jo
bhi pyaar se mila, hum usi ke ho liye
(translated: We are the
travellers on the road of life & love, and we become co-travellers to those
who meet us on this route J J) – there you go, hope the
translation works well!!
With this beautiful song
playing & we munching on lunch packed by Dileep ji, we drove off into the
sunset towards Darlaghat.
Our accommodation that night
would be the straight, simple & most reliable, HPTDC Baghal, Darlaghat.
When in Himachal & when in doubt in Himachal, just close your eyes &
choose HPTDC. HPTDC, a government run hotel chain across Himachal, is safe,
standard travelling option, generally full with enough rooms, and though not
too fancy, it is just fine for night halts. Of course HPTDC hotels vary
location to location; some of them being extremely beautiful & good, while
some being low on beauty factor…however one thing is definitely assured –
safest and most reliable option when nothing else works out.
The drive to Darlaghat was
on spacious & comfortable roads and by 6pm or so, weariness started
settling in. We had driven off immediately after a 6 hour trek in rain, so this
was bound to happen. Thankfully we got very good roads, else this would have
become exceedingly painful. By 8pm we had reached the very large Hotel Baghal
at Darlaghat. It was exceedingly cold outside and we were immediately assisted with
our bag & checked promptly into our room.
Oh…what a relief!! A well-made
bed, plush armchairs in the room helped us stretch out after a long &
tiring day. The manager was extremely sweet & requested us to order dinner
by 9.30 as a stretch time, and even agreed to get it to our room by 10pm, so
that we can take our time to relax & unwind.
Well nothing relaxes &
unwinds us more than a large glass of Smirnoff!! Whew!! Especially after a long
& tiring day. We were extremely happy soon J J and
just had dinner at the right time & crashed. Tomorrow, another beautiful
day awaited us!!
19th April:
7.30am
It was going to be a
beautiful, beautiful day & we knew it!!
Girish had already given us
an alternate route to reach his homestay in Mashobra. So rather than following
the very tourist laden route from Darlaghat to Shimla, we took the road less
travelled!!
From Darlaghat we took a
turn away from the usual Shimla route & reached Mashobra using Galog,
Dhami, Basantpur, Naldhera & then Mashobra.
The road, though single
lane, was extremely well made & made us stop at so many places to explore a
path we had never ever seen.
We could not believe all
this was lying all along, just behind Shimla & we did not know it at all!!
In fact we did not see one
hotel or dhaba in sight. This was clearly a route only locals knew about….and
we as travellers were so happy to discover it.
What an irony of life…while
we see one side of Shimla, all tamed and stripped off natural beauty, and made
as a tourist hotspot, there is an alternate world right behind it that is wild,
untamed & yet more beautiful than its urban version!!
10.30 am:
Yes we took a lot of time
along this route, but finally we reached Girish’s home in Mashobra, Summer
Rain.
His estate caretaker was
there to guide us to his home & assist us in our photo-shoot. We had a
breakfast of a rather large bowl of soul satisfying Maggi & then had a
beautiful, fun time running our mind creatively to capture Wonder Wyne in all
its glory!!!
Welcome to the land of Wonder Wyne!!!
It was an afternoon straight
out of a lifestyle show of a travel channel!!
Creating lovely images &
pouring out our imagination in full swing…is this not what you expect from
lovely holidays??!!
A lovely life!!!
On Hasina:
- Tie & Dye pants: Forever 21
- Denim Jacket: Forever 21
- Black Vest: Froma flea market
- Deep Purple layered t shirt: Benetton
- Slippers: GK Flea Market
- Wrist Watch: Casio
Is this not what you expect
from a slice of “Good Life”!!!
On Musafir:
- Cerulean shirt: Benetton
- Indigo undershirt: American Eagle
- Military Pants: Jack & Jones
- Crocs: Select Citywalk, New Delhi
- Wristh Watch: Esprit
- Beads on hand: Ladakh flea market
Now a natural question that can come to your mind is that why we are so enthusiastic about covering Wonder Wyne. Are we paid by the owners? Is this an AFP of sorts? Well, no not at all….our reason to give this coverage to the brand was simple…to promote a good, home grown brand & make Indians aware first of all, that “The Good Life”, for which we are ready to travel to miles away, and bust lacs of currency, is right here and you should know it!!
Of course we are not
dissuading anyone to not look beyond India at all, but we are trying to tell
many of us, who rather hold India in a very dismissive light, that everything
that you think makes a perfect holiday, is right here as well; just try to look
at it without prejudice in mind.
For years home grown
industries have been trying to battle it out & provide us with superb products,
and if we as Indians do not promote & endorse it, well then who will? While
it is nice to drink the fine Reds & Whites of France, California,
Australia, Chile & even South Africa…it is time to give our due to the
whiff of Himachal sealed in a perfectly lovely bottle!!
Years ago the excessive crop
of fruits in Himachal (especially Apples) would suffer from abundance and thus
it was not known that after selling them off, making juices, jams & jellies
out of it, what else could be done. It was at this point of time that entrepreneurs
like Girish thought of revolutionising the market with introduction of Apple &
other fruit wines. Wonder Wyne was founded in 2006 and in Girish’s own
admission his production had increased from 1000 bottles in 2006 to 1,00,0000
bottles today!!
That is a HUGE number for a
wine that is running against the “stuck up” notions of EU as to how a wine
should be standardised & recognised. That is also a fairly large number
considering many of us hardly know about the wine or have tasted it. The
product itself has to have merit that it is running beautifully on the strength
of its content alone & is just growing.
EU might think wines are
only made of grapes & can only be called wine if & when they are aged
in oak barrels, but truth is that historically wine was a produce of fermented
fruits. If it originated in grape form, because the best crop in Mediterranean
& Gallic region was, well grapes then that does not standardise its
definition to just grape wines as Wines.
India might not have the
best crop of grapes, but it does have the best crop of every other fruit,
especially Apples, Peaches, Plums etc., so why not a superior quality wine made
out of them??!!
The machinery in Girish’s
unit are imported with latest technologies to deliver the finest product. He
had been in talks with industries in Germany, Portugal & South Africa to
provide him technical inputs and over the years with many trials & on the
basis of customer feedback, he & his family have been trying to make a difference
by delivering the finest flavour of Himachal.
If anything, we at Ek
Musafir Ek Hasina, are proud of such home grown talent, who have not bent down
to follow rules set by the World, but are constantly fighting against it by
letting their work speak for itself!! What could be the reason otherwise that
despite getting less technical support, and despite being a small home grown industry,
Wonder Wyne is catching the market so fast that Fruit Wines (especially Lychee
globally) have now become a reality that cannot be ignored at all!! J J
To be fair, the taste of
Wonder Wyne does alter according to the kind of crop harvested, but every new
challenge brings a new learning in itself.
So next time you go to
Himachal, stop at any shop that has Minchy’s written all over it (and there are
many), and try a bottle of our own wine. Hands down Apple is the best flavour,
but Peach, Pear (sweet), Plum, Kiwi (sweet), Rhododendron (very healthy) and
many others are wines we have served personally in our home to our friends
& the bottles have been emptied to happy connoisseurs of fine taste. They
also produce excellent quality of juices (lychee being absolutely breath-taking),
cider vinegar (apple being superb), pickles, jellies & whatnots. But for
us, travellers that we are, Wonder Wyne spells the magic!!!
19th April:
2.30pm:
We drove off home (we did
halt briefly to chat up with Girish & see his unit of Wine manufacturing).
By 9.30 pm Friday, we were home!! What a holiday, what adventures, a beautiful
lifestyle shoot in lovely gardens, good food, good people, new friends we made
on the way…sigh…our Weekend was full of lots of coffee, conversations & reliving
the Himachal experience again & again!!
Hope you loved our
ramblings, as much we loved re-creating them!! We will be back soon…with newer
places & newer adventures. Till then, keep travelling J
Disclaimer: This is not an AFP of any brand or product, but a genuine opinion of the two bloggers involved in Ek Musafir Ek Hasina!!
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