When Calcutta-born, Bangkok-based chef Gaggan Anand parted ways with his investors in 2019, he closed the first iteration of his very successful Bangkok restaurant, Gaggan, which served creative cuisine influenced by India, Thailand and other locales around the world. Just after that, Anand and those he worked with closely made a decision: They’d open something new together as soon as possible. But they would do it entirely on their own terms. This included how they’d serve the drinks.
In the world of wine, there is a universe of possibilities when it comes to selection, pricing, what to offer by the glass or by the bottle. It’s rare to encounter a complete outlier in terms of wine service. Enter the second Gaggan, now the No. 9 restaurant in the world on the World’s 50 Best list, where sommelier Vladimir Kojic allows diners only one decision about his mandatory drink pairing: alcoholic or non. On top of that, he provides generous top-ups, but absolutely no wine list, no upsells, nothing by the bottle or glass, and no substitutions.
Kojic, who has worked alongside Anand for a decade, chooses the wines he believes go best with the meal, leaning heavily into his own expertise with some of the lesser-known wines of Mitteleuropa, as well as Japanese sake and a range of low-intervention wines from around the world.
Kojic and Gaggan stand by the decision to offer only one wine pairing as an essential part of their shared endeavor. It allows Kojic to champion a set of producers he loves, to share their wine and their stories with his customers, and to focus exclusively on what he believes in. Below, Kojic explains the origins of this novel form of wine service and the joys—and challenges—of always determining exactly what Gaggan diners will drink each night.
When guests come to a restaurant and you give them a set menu for food, they’re OK with that. But if you only offer a wine pairing, it’s kind of like, no, I want to choose my bottle. In 2019, when we broke with our partners, we were talking about opening a new restaurant. That restaurant would be smaller, only 14 seats, and a place where we would do 100 percent what we want to do. Gaggan asked me, “What do you think if you offer the guests A, B, C wine pairings?” For me, it doesn’t make sense. One guy is going to drink Salon, and another guy is going to drink grower Champagne? I said, “Are we doing one thing or are we just giving choices for the guests to order? Same as the food. Why not offer three choices with the menu?” And then he said, “Fuck it. We do only one thing. If you’re a guest and you’re coming to our restaurant and this is your fixed menu for the food, it should be the same for the drinks.” This is how we started in 2019. And we are still doing it. Probably we’re not going to stop doing it until the restaurant closes down.
Also, I found that if I have a wine list, it will really break the service that we have. So imagine Gaggan is explaining to 14 people at the same time what they’re eating with a 10-minute story, and then the guests during that are like, “I want to see the wine list.” It’s just a mess.
Sometimes the guests complain. A few days ago I had five guests [who] just stood up in the middle of dinner and left. We were only halfway through the menu. Then you ask yourself, should we change something? Should we give in? But the point is then you’re going back to satisfying everybody. Our whole idea is: Can we build a restaurant if we only do what we want to do? As Gaggan says, we are not a restaurant for everybody.
We did an event with a Korean chef last year. One guy, in the middle of dinner, said to Gaggan, “I love the food so much, but your sommelier is killing me with this wine. He is completely ruining my experience.” The guy said to me, “Can you open something classic?” I said, “I don’t have it. I have these nine wines for tonight and that’s it. I’ll top you up.” And the guy called me to go outside the dining room. He was crying. I looked at him and I said, “Man, you’re a grown-up. Are you really crying about this?” He says, “You are destroying my experience.” I said, “I can’t believe this. You’re a 40-plus-year-old man. Just behave.” He really wanted classic stuff. He was anti-natural, basically.
Our chefs, they’re doing 22 courses. I definitely didn’t want to do 22 wines because I’ve found that’s way too much alcohol. I decided on nine wines, because for me, after nine it’s really a shit show. I’m trying to pair these nine wines with the 22 courses. The chef never repeats. So you never find the same ingredient, you never find the same texture and you never find the same flavor. So, I thought if he’s doing that, I’ll do the same thing with my wines. So I’ll do nine wines, but I will never repeat the texture, flavor or any similarities. If I serve one rosé, I’m not going to serve another rosé. If I serve one deep orange wine, I’m not going to serve two deep orange wines. It’s going to be something with less maceration. Also, I’m trying not to repeat the same glass. So when you come you have nine different wines, all different flavors and different glassware. You are on a journey.
I love to start with Champagne because it’s a great start to the meal, and people are still confused [by the set pairing] and nobody complains about Champagne. If I start with orange wine, people will be like, “Fuck, where are we?” But when you start with bubbles—and it’s always grower, always a small producer—everybody likes it. It’s a good welcome. So it’s easy to go forward.
Again, we are not a restaurant for everybody. I’m not serving natural wines because of the hype; it’s really something I truly believe in. Also, it’s not only natural wines, it’s really people that I want to support. The older I’m getting, the more important it is who is behind the wine than the wine by itself.
Most of the time, I’m serving Mazière. I remember when I visited [the winemaker, Fabrice Monnin]. He’s a one-man show. He does everything by himself. When you see what they do—it’s so niche, it’s so artisanal.
Gaggan’s idea is this: I don’t care how much money you have. When you come to my home, there’s 14 people and you’re all having the same service from us. You’re having the same food. There’s no add-ons. And you’re having the same wine. We want to put equality on the table.
—Sommelier Vladimir Kojic, as told to Punch contributor Tom Downey
