The Financial Express JANUARY 22 l 2012 l 11

THIS YEAR I decided on Jammu and-Kashmir for a family vacation. Srina-gar was a great choice as, in addition toreligious sites, it is a remarkably peace-ful and attractive city with some of themost pleasant and happiest people I’vemet anywhere. My wife, Anita, and Ihad a holiday filled with great food,shopping, and exploration of this beau-tiful part of the world.

I am not afraid to praise competingcompanies. Our stay at the new Taj Vi-vanta was wonderful. Located amongstthemajesticZabarwanMountains,thispropertyhasagorgeousviewof theDalLake. The modern rooms and suitesalso incorporate lovely touchesof Kashmiri culture.

A Shikara trip on the Dal Lake was astunningdiversion,if quitechillyatmi-nus three degrees. (The low tempera-ture did not prevent us from enjoyingsome ice cream during the tour—theseare the sorts of things one should dowhen away from the office.)

Our local travels also included a stopat Shaw Brothers, where Anita pur-

chasedalovelyphiranthatwillworkforall types of occasions, while I wasmoved to pick up a silk carpet with noparticular place to put it. If you are in-terested in shawls or carpets, this issurely one of the best places to go.

Backatthehotel,weexperiencedthewarmth of a crackling fire and the gen-uine hospitality of the predominatelylocal Kashmiri staff. And we loved thefood. The Taj’s Chinese restaurant,Jade Dragon, was delicious and won-derfully nuanced, much better than theso-called Chinese at the group’sDelhi property.

The Kashmiri fare at the hotel wasalso great—forget Ahdoos and go forthe Taj for your local cuisine whilein Kashmir.

Coming to the airline, when I in-formed a friend that I would travel toJammu on a low-cost carrier, he joked,“How will you make it?” It is not that I

refuse to fly economy class, I just preferthe extra room and better service ofbusiness or first class. All the same, Iwas not expecting much on this flight.

ButIndiGosurprised me.Infact, it ismakingmerethinkmyintra-Indiatrav-elplans.Theaircraft, likeallof Indigo’splanes, was a new Airbus A-320. The in-teriors were very well appointed. Sure,the seats were smaller than interna-tional business class, but for a shorterflight, they were perfectly acceptable.Andthecabinwasveryclean. (Iarrived

at the business class seat of a recentflight on another Indian airline to findsnack crumbs ground into the carpet atmy feet.) More importantly, the servicewas good. The crew was presentableand polite without exception.

One issue with LCCs, as they’reknown, is food. Economy class food onmost of the main line carriers, even onsome otherwise decent internationalones, is dreadful. LCCs have a reason-able alternative: either do not eat at allorpayalittlemoreforsomethingthatisactually edible. My travel agent bookedmy meal ahead and, I have to say, itwas fine.

Oneof thebetteraspectsof theflightwas how professionally the service an-nouncements were handled. Ratherthan disturbing guests with announce-ments (or sales pitches for the food) forthe whole flight, the crew left us to sleepor read in peace, and yet was readilyavailable for another bottle of water ormore food.

Idecidedtotestoneairhostesswithaquestion about IndiGo’s routes and she

seemed very knowledgeable. Through-out the flight, the service was handledwith finesse, so training must be doneverywellandwiththeguest’sprioritiesin mind. In fact, the flight was so pleas-ant that I assumed it was a fluke. I waswrong. On a second flight from Jammuto Srinagar, the service and experiencewas the same.

Low cost carriers in the US probablytook it too far in the 1990s. Threadbareseats and inedible meals remindedmany flyers of traveling by bus. Mainline carriers followed the LCCs downthe same road, only with even worseservice. This left a gap in the market forcarriers like Jet Blue that had a goodhard product (newer seats, live in-flightTV) and genuine service.

The Indian airline marketplacehas traveled a similar route, andIndiGo seems to have found where itcan make a compelling offer to anunderserved market.

Deepak Ohri is CEO of lebuaHotels & Resorts. He can be reached at

deepak@lebua.com

DEEPAK OHRI

Srinagar is a remarkablypeaceful and attractive city

with some of the mostpleasant and happiest people

I’ve met anywhere

The valley experience

THE KASHMIRI FARE AT THETAJ VIVANTA WAS GREAT—FORGET AHDOOS AND GOFOR THE TAJ FOR YOURLOCAL CUISINE WHILEIN KASHMIR

l F l O l O l T l L l O l O l S l E l

THEY SAY everything in lifetastes better with a glass ofwine. So how about beingamidstallthat'stodowithmak-ing wine. Now a winery tour

might not be everybody's cup of tea orrather glass-of-wine, but I discovered on arecent visit to Spain that it added zing tomy holiday. As Homer stated in Odyssey,“Wine can of their wits the wise beguile,make the sage frolic, and the serioussmile”, my trip was full of fun, frolic andsome serious smiling.

The choice of course was to visit thevineyard of Miguel Torres in Penedès. Thestory goes like this: About three centuriesago, the Torres family settled in thePenedès,awinemakingregionsincephone-cian times. Since then the Torres surnamehas been synonymous with wines. And thefact that I've had a fleeting romance withtheir wines in India only whetted my ap-petite to visit the winery and find out whatgoes into transforming the 'local' into 'glob-al', as Torres wines are available in morethan 140 countries.

On a sunny winter morning, Penedèswas a smooth, one-hour drive fromBarcelona, away from the hustle-bustle ofthe city, tucked in the serene countryside.On reaching the winery, a wine expertgreeted us and guided us to the auditori-um. After viewing a short film on the his-tory of the Torres family and the winery,we headed to the 'Tunnel of the seasons'--amultimedia experience which introducedus to the various aromas of the vineyardduring the four different seasons, a sensu-

al journey through the transformation ofgrapes into wine.

Beforewegottothefunpartof thetour,atrain ride through the vineyard, we visitedthe Torres museum, which houses some oftheoldwinemixersandapparatusfromthemedieval era used for wine making. Andthen we hopped onto the mini-train thattook us around the picturesque vineyard.However, winters is not the best time to vis-itaEuropeanvineyard.Butforfirst-timers,it is still an exhilarating and an insightfulexperience. On the train we also had com-panyof theaudio-guidesystem,besidesourwine expert, who took us to different partsof the cellar—the storage room which hadbarrelsandbarrelsof redwinesindifferentstages of ageing. After stopovers at the old

and the new cellars, we headed to the un-loadingandthevinificationarea,wherethefermentation of the grapes is done. The gi-gantic machines, scores of bottles on a con-veyor belt and men at work—it's a wholenew world, and quite a heady one at that.Thereisalotthatgoesintothatquintessen-tial bottle of wine!

Wine tasting is of course the most await-edpartof awinerytour.AtTorresPenedès,while the smoothness and richness of 'MasLa Plana' and sought after 'Gran Coronas'tickled our taste buds, I had an equally fas-cinatingaffairwiththeinnovativeNatureowine. Though Natureo wine tastes like redwine, it is actually alcohol free! The expertshared the background of each wine andhelpedustasteitinacorrectfashion,which

helped us enjoy the wine better.After soaking in the winery experience

for couple of hours, it was time to havelunch at the family restaurant, Mas Rabell,a cosy set-up that has an old world charmand that vivacious Spanish feel. Authen-tic Spanish food matched with thebest of wines was a really intoxi-cating combination. So it wasVinaEsmeraldatogowithensal-da--Spanish for our goodold salad—andthe Gran San-gre de TorowithFritosSecos, that is nuts and driedfruits. The award winning Mas La

Plana was once again served with the maincourse,andTorresbrandywiththedessert.Shall we ask what's Spanish for the word'perfect'?Winepairingisindeedaninterest-ing, if tricky, aspect of wine culture.

But that's not the end of the tour. A must-do at the winery is some shopping at the in-housewineshop.Thoughit'snotcheapertobuy here (and you might actually get a bet-ter deal at wholesale retail shops inBarcelona), but at least you know what youare getting. And then what good is a wine ifit doesn't get the price it deserves.

A trip to Spain is incomplete without a trip to the Torres vineyard, which is an altogether new world,feels Vishakha Talreja Guha

The cellars at the vinery The Torres vineyard

ONASPANISHHIGH