Kwan's Anirban Das Blah opens up his precious gin collection and shares the magical stories behind each procurement
Anirban Das Blah with his gin collection. Pics/Sneha Kharabe
On a sunny morning, when we meet Anirban Das Blah, founder and managing director of Kwan Entertainment, at his Carter Road home, it's the drinks cabinet at the far end of the living room that immediately catches our attention. The mahogany shelves are stocked with bottles of craft gin, with lesser spirits relegated to a corner. "He's not an alcoholic. He just loves collecting them," says Rita, Blah's septuagenarian mother with a dismissive laugh.
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Blah's passion for gin - created by distilling fermented grain and a number of different botanicals including juniper berries - has made him something of a connoisseur. While perusing the labels, we spot varieties from England, Scotland, South Africa, Germany, Finland, Spain, Singapore, Thailand and Japan. In fact, at any given point in time, you're likely to find a minimum of 30 craft gin bottles from across the world in his shelves. "Last year, I tried 43 different gins. I'm not talking about commercial varieties like a Hendricks or a Tanquerey," he says.
Discovering his poison
From his vast collection, it's the Napue from Finland that Blah considers the most-prized. "It has been awarded the title of the world's best gin by the International Wine & Spirit Competition organised in the UK in 2015, and I have both the traditional one and a rye gin aged in oak casks," he says. We also find Koval, a barrel-aged gin that has a note of bourbon and then moves to the smoother flavours of gin, imported from Chicago.
Blah has a dozen anecdotes to regale us with, courtesy his profession which requires him to travel to different countries. But the craze for craft gins started only about six years ago. Like most, the 39-year-old started with vodka and moved to whiskey. Neither clicked. "Vodka is very coarse for my taste and the latter is plain bitter," he says. While he can't recollect where he drank the craft gin, Monkey 47 from Germany, for the first time, what he does remember is the moment of epiphany on sipping it. "It was smooth, well-rounded and had the best balance of flavours. I had found my poison," he says.
Craft all the way
But it's craft gin that has truly caught Blah's fancy. At Atlas in Singapore, he sipped the Anty created by Danish chef Rene Redzepi of Noma, a two-Michelin-star restaurant in Denmark.
Its name comes from the crushed ants that give it its unusual flavour. "Robust, rich and heavy, it was a good substitute for red wine."
For Blah, the beauty of gin - depending on the botanicals and where it was distilled - is that each one is different. The challenge, he adds, is not whether you can afford it, but whether you can find it. In his collection, there's not a single gin which costs more than Rs 50K.
Despite his love for the spirit, he has consciously stayed away from joining gin clubs. "For me, gin is an enabler for conversation. I like making conversations around gin without making it the focus."
Which one will you pour next?
Tom Cat is made with juniper and raw honey, and matured in American oak barrels. Monkey 47 is the most popular German craft gin with lime, fleshy berries and woody undertones Gin Mare is a Spanish gin made with olives, thyme, rosemary and basil.
Also Read: Woman Stumbles On Century-Old Gin Bottle While Walking On The Beach
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