Arun Batra is Delhi based management consultant and wine writer and has been a longtime member of the Delhi Wine Club
 
Whilst us members of the Wine Club get to dine at some of the finest eateries Delhi has to offer, it’s not very often that we are afforded the privilege of a sneak preview of a up market restaurant that’s yet to be launched . Well we got lucky and that’s we were on Tuesday the 24th of Feb at i-talia, the stand-alone Italian venture of the Park group of Hotels.

Located at the about to be opened DLF Place next to Emporio in Vasant Kunj , our ingress to I-talia was smooth with no hassles of parking and smooth escalator rides thru a giant mall redolent of the sharp smell of fresh paint . And there on the second floor was Priya Paul’s new baby – a spacious well lit eatery with a choice of a bar and fine and casual dining areas backed up by a spanking new modern kitchen with all the latest gizmos. And as you can guess the cusine is modern Italian!

As our members drifted in, we enjoyed the Devaux Cuvee Brut Champagne whilst nibbling on the finger food. The champagne was young and lively and performed its role as an aperitif adequately. With the wines coming from Finewinesnmore , Dharti Desai had on hand her VP, Craig Wedge to talk to us about the wines on hand  for the evening.

On the food side, the heavyweights of the Park group, Rifaquat Ali Mirza and Chef Bakshish Dean were on hand to ensure that there were no glitches. Just to give you an idea of the wonderful support the Park Hotel extends to our wine club –they had even flown in their Master chef from their Bangalore property to ensure our taste buds were satiated.

With our thirsts and appetites suitably aroused we took our places for dinner and eagerly awaited the Yering Station Chardonnay 2005 whilst nibbling on vegetable crudités served with a piquant mascaporne and gorgonzola dip. The Yering Station proved to be a well focused wine with a citrus nose and a wonderfully fresh palate with characters of melon. This wine also went very well with the next course- a tartare of salmon -which really signaled to me that we were going to have a phenomenal evening on both the wine and food fronts. The rucola which accompanied the salmon provided a sharp tart taste in contrast to the smoothness of the Chardonnay.

A soup is usually not on our wine dinner menus primarily for the fact that for most restaurateurs’, a soup is a low interest category and some flour thickened mush is usually passed off. Not here at I-talia where the Asparagus soup was for real –it was flavorful to say the least and well set off by the firm and tangy goat cheese. In fact the Yering Station proved to be a very versatile wine teaming well with the antipasti and the first two courses.

Fresh glasses and we were off with the mushroom capellaci and a 2005 South Australian Shiraz from the cellars of Brokenwood Wade Block 2 vineyard . The delicately flavoured capellaci indicated the chef’s experience in rolling out thin light pasta cooked just al dente and bodes well for, in my opinion, consistently great pasta is the backbone of any Italian restaurant wanting to make its mark. The Shiraz, from a very hot harvest year in Australia was deep ruby, with notes of chocolate and berry and its soft tannins left a light very pleasant aftertaste-well worth the Silver Medal it won at the at the 2008 IWC.

Then the wines and the food reached a crescendo together – the Chilean Sea bass was a visual treat in simplicity– firm brilliant white flesh tossed simply in olive oil –and clearly the best tasting sea bass I have had in New Delhi. On the wine front we had two IWC 2008  gold medal winners – the Bava Wines Contrebasso Barolo di Castiglione Falletto 2003 which was a powerful Nebiollo red from the Piedemont region of Italy and the 2004 Brunello di Montalcino  Tenute Silvio Nardi  - a 100% Sangiovese wine from the heart of Tuscany with a smooth fruity mouthfeel  and a lingering finish.

We were lucky to have on hand Emilia Nardi , the owner of Tenute Silvio Nardi who meandered amongst the tables educating our members on her signature Brunello . At our table she said that 2003 was a very strong vintage for her which was recognized by the 91 points awarded by Robert Parker and the IWC 2008 Gold Medal awarded to the Brunello we were drinking. And did you know that by law a Brunello has to be aged for minimum of 50 months??

Reflecting on the dinner after our pannacottas and petit fours, it looked pretty much a win-win for all concerned – I-talia’s going to be a winner , the IWC who have their medal selections pretty much spot on and us members who had great food, wine and service . Many thanks to Rifaquat and his team for an outstanding evening – no doubt you will see many of our members back at I-talia pretty soon!!

Next up is a low cost wine dinner at Olive Beach on the 9th of March with Four Seasons wines at a very “recessionary” price of 1200 only –so do rush your acceptances to Subhash fast as it promises to be another great evening.