Despite another freezing bone chilling
evening, a healthy turnout of members soon got the bonhomie
going at the Olive Beach last Monday. To start off the
evening on a real novel note, we had as aperitifs, white
and pink wine flecked with flakes of real gold. These
wines are being launched in India at an expected MRP
of Rs 5500 a bottle at which price level it would position
itself as a niche novelty wine.
The management of Olive Beach Restaurant
had given us exclusive use of their outdoor dining patio
and ensured that there were plenty of heaters and sigris
(small Indian stoves that burn coal) to ward off the
winter chill. In fact after a while, some of our members
who had seated themselves next to the heaters were seen
peeling off their jackets as the evening went on.
Another first for the evening after
a long time was that all the wines for the sit-down
part of the dinner were from one winery, Buller
of Australia, though from different vineyards. This
tasting across grape varieties of the same wine brand
was extremely educative as it gave the wine drinker
the opportunity to gauge the width and depth of the
Buller winemaker’s skills. One was also able to
spot some common characteristics in the wines no doubt
influenced by terroir of Northern Victoria in Australia.
Buller is a very old and established winery and has
in fact been winning Gold and Silver medals for their
Dessert wines for decades now.
First off the Buller list for the sit-down
dinner after gulping the Gold was the Caspia Chardonnay
2005 which with its full notes of peach and melon typified
the label given to Australian Chardonnay as being “sunshine
in a glass” – a good accompaniment to the
Caprese salad. It was a deliciously simple and clean
wine which was fresh, fruity and crisp, but not too
dry.
Next up was an experiment to allow
our members to gauge their preference with a mushroom
risotto – a slightly oaked Beverford Chardonnay
2006 or the soft and very elegant Black Dog Creek Shiraz
2005.
With the main course of tenderloin
or chicken, we had a pairing from the same Black Dog
Creek vineyard –the Merlot 2003 and the Cabernet
Merlot 2005. The well-rounded Merlot with its medium
body and good balance probably was the best wine of
the evening and certainly went very well with my steak.
It was soft, well-rounded with mellow tannins that would
have gone with my parched throat on its own.
Not to be outdone, the Olive Beach
Chef Giuliano Tassinari had organised some mulled wine
with dessert of a delectable Apple tart to round off
another very enjoyable Wine dinner with Olive.
Before we could say thank you, the
chef had flown the coop and was in the plane to Italy
for a week’s sojourn; we will have to come back
soon and have another dinner of the Delhi Wine Club
at Olive to thank him and the staff for doing an excellent,
warm, spirited job by the whole staff, some of which
looked new.
Most of the old staff at Mehrauli was
present with pleasant smiles. The quality of food was
decidedly better, the atmosphere as eclectic as ever
before- it was difficult to get rid of the members who
were hell bent to stay well beyond the last customer
had left and the last drop of wine was consumed.
Arun Batra
Arun is a long-time member of the
Delhi Wine Club and generally writes about food.
