Members of the Delhi Wine Club  were in for a big treat last Saturday when Nikko organised the first-ever wine festival in Delhi. There were 16 countries that took part in the festival through their distributors offering over 75 wines. Various importers had set up their stalls at Eden Court, the open area around the pool. Snacks from Chutney Restaurant was available aplenty along with unlimited wines.

A majority of wines were entry level wines. But one could spot nuggets like Barone Ricasoli, Vineland Ice-wine, Tabali (Chile), Tarapaca, Trivento (Argentina) and Frescobaldi.

The pleasant surprise was some excellent wines from the Embassy of Uruguay. The Ambassador, who is a member of our Club was seen leading the tasting brigade from the front by encouraging people to taste their wines and  attracting a constant stream of visitors. His wines were about the most popular wines. One wine connoisseur from the US was heard commenting,' These are the most promising wines out of the whole lot at the festival-especially the Tannat) The High Commissioner of New Zealand rued, “ I wish we knew about the possibility of taking part in the Festival. We could have showcased some of our better wines'. Montana's Azure Bay at the festival failed to make much impression on any wine lover..

Another attraction of the evening was the great grape stomping organised by Champagne Indage. They had organised some grapes and a barrel-converted tub where two models started the rompin' and stompin' of  the grapes and enticing our bubbly Vijaya Laxmi to jump in the tub for a natural pedicure. Wine is good for grapes. So grapes should be healthy for the feet. Media loves celebrities and gimmicks. So they had a feast for their eyes and possibly for their viewers for later viewing. Of course, you can also view it on our website where like any other event, we capture such images till posterity (well, after a couple of years we do take them off for pragmatic reasons but store them in the office archives only!).

Indian Wine Academy had been advocating the concept of an international wine festival to various embassies and  hotels. They had conceptualised and made  an elaborate proposal for such  event about two years ago. So it was wonderful when the hotel management agreed to call members of the Delhi Wine Club for the event.  

Wines and snack menu can be made available on request. A thoroughly enjoyable evening under the stars-surely worth an encore next year with more (not really important) and better wines definitely). It could also make it a public event by charging a nominal price for the event. The hotel has taken an unexpected lead as a wine destination event and we hope they shall soon come out with the date for the second edition next year. Let us hope the event will help them to become a good wine destination too.

Subhash Arora

February 20, 2006