TEACHER, SCOUT-MASTER, ARTIST, WINEMAKER ....

by Frederick Noronha
fredericknoronha@gmail.com

He has played many roles in life: scout-master, artist, teacher, a Jesuit ... but none so unusual as that of a wine-maker.

"Let me boast a little," says Saligao-based Edwin Saldanha, who was 85 years old when we spoke to him earlier this decade about his book on wine-making. "My book is the only one in the whole world that tells you how to make wine from tropical fruits." Interestingly, the book has recipes on making wine from mangoes, bananas, cashews, and even the local fruit known as kokum (bindnna) or jambul.

Secrets of successful wine-making form an ancient tradition, often closely-guarded by many cultures. But Saldanha says his book 'Successful Goan Home Wines' exposes these secrets to amateurs, through time-tested techniques. A former St Britto's school-teacher and once prominent scout-master in the Goa scouting movement, Saldanha explains how his book came to be. He was recovering from an operation, when Dr Nandkumar Kamat (a microbiologist and environmentalist from Goa University) dropped in for a visit with a government official. On being offered a glass of wine, the visitors were intrigued about how it was made. "They begged me to put down on paper how it was done before I die," says Saldanha.

Saldanha's wine-making skills run deep. "I've made wine from everything. One journalist asked me, 'Uncle, what don't you make wine from?" says Saldanha, who jokes that wine can be made even from the soles of old shoes! "I've been making wine as a boy of 13 or 14. My mother too was interested in wine-making," says he. "Some boys from South Africa tasted one of my wines and said it tasted like sherry. Yet it was wine made from the cheapest possible fruit you could use in Goa -- cashew."

Saldanha was once part of the Catholic religious order of the Jesuits. Based in Belgaum, outside Goa, the Jesuits were caught in the cross-fire between India and Portuguese-ruled colonial Goa. Their supplies of Mass wine from Goa were blocked. In those days, India didn't have grape orchards, so dry raisins imported from Greece were soaked in wooden barrels, to make wine. "It's very simple. Dry raisins kept in boiling water, stored overnight, act much like grapes do in the wine-making process," Saldanha explains.

His own story provides insight into the history of Goan migration. Saldanha was born in Entebbe, in colonial East Africa. "There were no schools then, and my parents used to send us to an European lady to learn our ABC. At the age of eight, I was sent to Goa for my primary education, and got stuck here till 1949," he recalls, memory razor-sharp. Later, he went back and spent two decades in East Africa. “But,” he says sardonically, "by then, all the trees that used to grow gold coins had already been shaken. Kenya was beginning to fight for Uhuru (freedom) and things were getting tough for the many Goan emigrants in that region."

But back to his wine-making book.….. Someone reported that they picked up his wine-making book from a railway book-shop in Sydney, Australia. “Something that I did just as a pastime turned out to be quite a success," says he, with a tinge of pride. And his motivation? "Every man and woman should do something to help other people. We should do something for the improvement or happiness of others before we die," he suggests. Most wine-makers, unfortunately, believe that their secrets should never be let out, he regrets.

"There's no secret I know that I've knowingly kept out of this book," says he, with a touch of pride about his openness in sharing information and knowledge. A Dutch friend, visiting this octogenarian-winemaker, commented that this attitude indeed reflected 'open source' winemaking -- keeping knowledge free for being transmitted to whoever can use it. Saldanha says that places like Goa - with its one-time Portuguese influence - had a tradition where affluent women retained closely guarded secrets on wine-making. "They don't sell it, but only use it for festivals and feasts, and make it in small quantities."

What makes wine different from, say, whiskey or liqueur? “Wine is not distilled. It is fermented, and the sugar in the fruit is converted to alcohol,” says Saldanha. He has his own understanding of wine: women tend to prefer sweet wine, so sugar can be added in a process known as 'doctoring' the wine. "You just try making one of the most unusual types of wines mentioned - wine made of milk. Do try it," he challenges. Even scientists said it never occurred to them that milk, when curdled, could be used to make wine, he says. There are two recipes for 'milk wine' in his book, one requiring the use of condensed milk with sweet limes, sugar, nutmeg, a little Vodka and spices like cloves and cinnamon.

"Any young educated person can set up a complete wine-making industry on a large scale. It was only when I visited Canada that I understood what 'large-scale' really means. Every day, they have 50 barrels of a hundred gallons each. Everything there is mechanised," he says.

Saldanha believes that some distillers of Goa's traditional liquors use diluted industrial alcohol or a chemical adulterant popularly called 'navsagar' with little regard for the health of those consuming it. "Liquor sold at Rs. 30-40 per bottle is probably made by adding navsagar. Some of the feni you get in beautiful bottles with beautiful labels could actually be poisonous. Genuine liquor should be higher priced," says he.

Friends have been urging him to write a book on cooking next. "It might be a good idea,” we suggested. "Oh, no," said he. "I've reached a stage where enough is enough. I'm angry with that fellow upstairs. Because I've got a passport, but no visa," he complains with mock ire. "'He says there's no need for artists up there. But then, I say, who'll paint all those images of the many saints in heaven," he said, betraying some hints of enjoying his joke.

Saldanha argues that a tiny bit of wine is healthy, especially after one crosses two-score and ten. "It's not good for those young boys falling down in gutters near the bars," says he. His advice: a small 40 to 60 milliliter peg, taken at meal times, and well diluted for someone above 50 years This, he believes, could help digestion and circulation.
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Frederick Noronha (42) is a Goa-based journalist, photo-enthusiast, book reviewer, Free Software proponent, ICT4D (information and communication technology for development) campaigner, copyleft backer, and believer in the need to build social capital. He has been long associated with Goanet (www.goanet.org) as a volunteer, through which network he circulated many of his "brieFNcounters" interviews.