Nisaba Sets the Bar with Its Wine List

Manish Mehrotra’s Nisaba has shown that it is possible to create an ambitious wine list despite excise policy uncertainties, writes Sourish Bhattacharyya

With 104 labels on offer, including 15 wines by the glass, Manish Mehrotra’s restaurant, Nisaba in New Delhi’s Humayun’s Tomb complex can safely claim to have one of the capital’s most ambitious wine lists among standalone restaurants. More importantly, it challenges a theory often quoted by restaurateurs: that it is impossible to create a serious wine programme in Delhi because the Delhi-NCT government’s excise policy is too unpredictable.

“Not right,” says Shubham Upadhyaya, general manager of Nisaba. “All you have to do is spend some time on the Delhi Excise website and you’ll get all the data you need to plan your wine list. If you don’t find the label of your choice, you’ll always discover an equivalent alternative.”

That is the pragmatic approach that lies behind the Nisaba list. Rather than following a conventional division by grape variety or region, Upadhyaya has organised the wines into four broad styles: Refreshing Fine Whites; Crisp and Elegant Whites; Fruity and Delightful Reds; and Delicate and Luscious Reds. The idea, inspired in part by English wine writer Charles Metcalfe, who curated Indian Accent’s earliest wine list, was to make choosing wine less intimidating. The thinking was that guests often get lost if they have to navigate too many classifications between different appellations, grape varieties and wine regions before deciding what to order. Now they simply choose one of the styles they like, making it easier for the service staff to understand their taste preferences.

Moreover, it gives the restaurant a useful link between wine and food. A guest looking for a “Refreshing Fine White”, for example, might be steered towards Mehrotra’s Dal Moradabadi, while a “Delicate and Luscious Red” could be suggested for the Mutton Seekh Kabab with Blue Cheese Butter.

Nisaba’s wine list also covers the popular wines that a contemporary Indian restaurant cannot afford to ignore, such as Sauvignon Blancs ranging from Marlborough to Sancerre; Chianti Classico and Super Tuscans; established names such as Penfolds; and Henkell Trocken, a brand that has retained its place in the Indian market for generations. Sharing shelf space with these are a limited number of premium Indian wines, notably Grover’s Chene Chardonnay, Sula’s Rasa Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon, Fratelli’s Sette and the the J’Noon Red.

Upadhyaya began by establishing what was actually available and which wines had reasonably assured supplies in Delhi. Availability on paper does not necessarily translate into availability to a restaurant. He cites Natasha Oberoi’s Chinkara Cardonnay from Victoria, Australia Even if 700 bottles are available, he points out that may not mean much because chances are that all the bottles will be picked up by The Oberoi hotels. The solution is not to give up, but to look for alternatives. And there is clearly a market for them.

Fortunately, Nisaba’s well-heeled and discerning clientele is prepared to fork out eye-watering amounts for the right wine, when the occasion and the wine justify it, says Manish Mehrotra, the restaurant’s highly celebrated chef. One table recently ordered not one, but two bottles of the restaurant’s most expensive wine, the 2022 Puligny- Montrachet from Bouchard Père & Fils, priced at Rs 1,95,000 a bottle.

But the full story is not just the top end of the list. Nisaba also has wines at considerably more approachable prices, including Indian labels below Rs 6,000 and a Penfolds Koonunga Hill Shiraz-Cabernet at Rs 5,950. Fratelli’s Noi sparkling wine, Fratelli Chenin Blanc and the Grover Vijay Amritraj Collection Viognier provide further options without breaching the four-figure barrier. For those wanting to spend a little more, Fratelli’s Sette Cabernet Sauvignon-Sangiovese and Sula’s Rasa Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon extend the range.

This breadth is important because a serious wine programme cannot be sustained simply by stocking prestige labels. There has to be something for different occasions, tastes and pockets. At the upper end for international wines, the list moves into serious territory with wines such as Château d’Issan, Sassicaia, Tignanello, Gaja Ca’ Marcanda Promis, Duckhorn Cabernet Sauvignon and Penfolds Bin 389. Among whites, Sancerre, Chablis, Puligny-Montrachet and Cloudy Bay sit alongside Indian premium wines.

The point is not that Nisaba has assembled an impressive collection of expensive bottles. It is that the list offers a range broad enough to accommodate the customer who wants a familiar New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, the diner who is looking for a top Indian wine, or the collector celebrating with a prestigious Bordeaux or Super Tuscan. Clearly, there’s a wine on the list for every palate, occasion and wallet size.

Wines account for around half of Nisaba’s alcohol sales, and the top-selling Indian label on the list is the Fratelli J’Noon Red, a Bordeaux style, Cabernet Sauvignon red blend with Petit Verdot and Sangiovese, which pairs with several dishes on Nisaba’s menu. This indicates that the wine programme is built around the food rather than existing on its own. Mehrotra, widely acclaimed as the pioneer of Inventive Indian Dining, is in no rush to introduce a wine-paired tasting menu like the one at Indian Accent, the restaurant he defined as much as it defined him.

However, when we met, he was working on an eight-course Kashmiri wine-paired menu as a possible option for curate dinners served at Nisaba’s private dining room. His approach to pairing is not at all formulaic. His no brainer wine for Indian food is Pinot Noir, preferably from New Zealand.

For the proposed Kashmiri menu, however, he pairs the Kashmiri classic, rogan josh, an aromatic, sunset-hued mutton curry with Malbec. And for aab gosht (also known as doudh matz), the mutton dish cooked in a spiced milk-based gravy, Mehrotra chooses Chablis, a Burgundy Chardonnay, although his personal favourite white is a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

The pairings reflect how far the conversation around Indian food and wine has moved from the old one-size-fits-all assumption that a Gewürztraminer from Alsace is the answer to Indian cuisine. There is, after all, no such thing as a single Indian cuisine, and the sheer diversity of flavours, spices, textures and cooking techniques makes pairing both, more difficult and more interesting.

Mehrotra illustrates the point with two of Nisaba’s popular dishes. For Motihari Mutton cooked in its own juices with roughly chopped onions, a whole bulb of garlic and whole spices in a sealed earthen pot, he recommends a light-bodied Pinot Noir. For Dal Moradabadi, a cross between a dal and a chaat, he favours Riesling – or, better still, sparkling wine. (“Definitely not a Krug NV!” he adds mischievously.) Mehrotra’s long-standing fascination with chaat is well-known and he uncorks a sparkler whenever a chaat is served, as with the Chakhna he made for me – a Banarasi tamatar chaat with blue cheese on crisp-fried aloo papad – a favourite of the holy city, Varanasi.

The significance of Nisaba’s wine list lies in the way it has been conceived: with an understanding of what can realistically be sourced in Delhi, what diners actually want to drink, and how wine can enhance a highly individual style of Indian cooking.

The restaurant’s example also suggests that a thoughtfully structured list, sensible by-the-glass choices and wines selected with the food in mind can create demand and diners will respond. More importantly, Nisaba demonstrates that Delhi’s excise uncertainties need not be a stumbling block to building a serious wine programme. It requires careful planning, close attention to availability and the willingness to find alternatives when preferred labels cannot be sourced.

Finally, Nisaba’s wine list does more than elevate a fine-dining menu; it sets a practical standard for other ambitious restaurants to follow.