If one had any doubts about Chile making only low end value-for-money wine s or bulk wine s like Santa Rita being imported by Sula Vineyards and sold as Satori Merlot after bottling, one was in for a pleasant surprise at this evening of fine wine with Indian snacks , fun and Indian Classical music, at the residence of H.E Jorge and Norma Heine, the Ambassador and a dynamic supporter of Chilean wine s. In fact, the evening was as much a business promotion as fun for this wine aficionado who is ever willing to support any wine activity with the fond hope of promoting Chilean wine s.

The Top Chile Wine Fest had been co-hosted by Embassy of Chile. They have been working with Indian Wine Academy at whose initiative this event had take the final shape toady, and who had helped procure the red wine s. Hyatt Regency Delhi had supported the concept and had earlier carried out the blind tasting of all wine s submitted by the importers for evaluation by the independent panel of judges.

The Ambassador, while welcoming the guests to his residence, explained why Chile is producing top quality wine s. Each producer presented his wine s. Mr. Nicolas Saelzer, Regional Director of Wines, Errázuriz Family was there to present their Max Reserva. Naresh Uttamchandani of Sovereign Impex talked about his Caballo Loco and Tabali. Subhash Arora, President of Indian Wine Academy was roped in to present Don Melchor and Escudo Rojo whereas the charms of Venere were shared by Magandeep Singh with the guests that included about 35 of our members .

Top Chilean wine s served for tasting were

Caballo Loco No. 7 Viña Valdivieso

Tabali 2003 Reserva Carmenere Viña Tabalí

Don Melchor 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon Viña Concha y Toro

Max Reserva 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon Viña Errazuriz

Escudo Rojo 2002 Baron Philippe de Rothschild

Montes Alpha 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon Viña Montes

Venere Vina Cremaschi Furlotti

Earlier, the evening had begun with Valdivieso Sauvignon Blanc 2005 and Casillero de Diablo Chardonnay 2004 with finger-licking- good chicken samosas. Other delicious snacks offered were Chicken Malai Tikka, Fish Tikka; Mutton Kebab Roll; Paneer Tikka; Mushroom Tokaz; Veg. Shammi Kabab. The only snack which miserably failed to hold against any of the Fest wine s was fish tikka. It would have been the ideal choice for the white Sauvignon and Chardonnay served as aperitifs though.

A packed house enjoyed the hospitality of the Heines as much as the wine s. They might have been spoilt for choice now. They could taste the top end wine s, some of them a worthy rival to the classified growth French chateau wine s and now their invigorated palate might not find it easy to accept the quaffable wine s they have been hitherto used to.

One also had a taste of our skewed system of wine distribution. It appears that even the embassies are not spared the frustrations and jitters. ACSA, through which the embassy buys wine s had been approached by the importers and the embassy more than a couple of weeks ago to order and get the wine s in. The procedure of working with MEA is so complex that a simple activity of transferring the wine s from the importers to the embassy through this ‘middleman' took over two weeks to get the necessary permission. And, is it fair for ACSA, to charge the supposedly 47% over-riding commission even for a purely promotional event like this, in which wine s were supplied on an f.o.c. basis? I'd let you be the judge. We came very close to a disaster- a close shave really. But we came out all singing songs about how delicious the wine s had been and debating which one was the best- something that can never be settled unanimously in a democratic society like ours.

Subhash Arora