Have you ever found yourself ordering a house wine, just to escape the embarrassment of pronouncing a wine name incorrectly? We plead guilty. The saving grace is that house wines are no longer considered a cheap or hassle-free way to score a carafe — "something" poured from the end of the barrel, quality overlooked. Today, top-end restaurants and five-star hotels are making room for their own house pours in an attempt to build their brand.

Next week, Karyna Bajaj, owner of Italian wine bar CinCin at BKC, will be launching the CinCin Rosso. "It is our first house red. We decided to make our own blend in order to represent our ethos — easy drinking and accessible. Wine drinking is not in our Indian culture, but we wanted to make it fun," she says. Bajaj is already pushing the envelope to make wine-drinking less intimidating, by serving the drink in stem-less glasses, and starting by-the-glass options on all wines. Last month, they also introduced Wine Wednesday, where they crack open a great bottle of wine for internal tasting, and offer it to the guests to try, too.