Dinner at Pan Asian Restaurant on 17th November was a culinary journey from here to Japan. The menu designed by the Award winning Executive Chef Manisha Bhasin was excellent, especially as it was paired with wines, not an easy job with this cuisine.

Carrying over from the Sula Tasting, we decided to chose a couple of Sauvignon Blancs from Chile and New Zealand to see how the flavour varied from India to Chile, the new SB kid on the block and the 'fast approaching-towards-leadership' country, New Zealand. I found both of these a bit too sweet. Soup was no help either to bring out the best in wine. However, Villa Maria was quite aromatic, fresh and with more fruit flavours and exotic perfumes on the nose. It scored over both the previous Sauvs. because of a nice and complex after-taste that lasted about 10 seconds.

We purposely provided both white and red ,a Chablis and a Nobile for the next course of grilled fish. This turned out to be the most successful combination. I am no food writer, but I could recommend this combination with a guarantee that you will love it.I am basing my opinion on the unanimous vote that Chef Manisha had outdone herself in preparing this dish. Fish was perfect with Chablis which did not seem to have been fermented in oak barriques which some of the producers have started doing in Chablis. It was very crisp and clean on the palate. But the red Balinese sauce embraced the soft tannins of the Italian Nobile so beautifully that one enjoyed the food and wine synergy at its best.

Lamb dish was also superb and just right for the Croze-Hermitage, a Shiraz from North Rhone, with a lower Hermitage classification. This wine just did not match up to the Montepulciano, made from 80% Sangiovese grapes known as Pugnolo Gentile in these parts. It was not a clear wine. The fruit was lacking and the tannins seemed to be overbearing. It tasted as if it had peaked or there had been the protein breakdown resulting from poor storage conditions.

Earlier one of the guests from Houston, Raj S. Paul addressed the members for a few minutes, emphasizing that the wine glass must be held from the stem or the base. He also exhorted them to drink wine in the mouth and not in the stomach. And they must drink a particular wine because they liked it and not because some one suggested that it was the best. Implicit in his talk was the fact that everyone has tasted a good number of wines, like they do in the wine clubs in the US and other countries, to be able to make the correct choice.

MENU for the dinner was as under:
1. Sushi palette with hues of wasabi
Asparagus and golden corn sushi with pickled ginger and wasabi
Smoked fish sushi wrapped in nori, side of pickled ginger
Montes Sauvignon Blanc Curico Valley 2001
2. Clear winter vegetable broth with hint of cilantro and roasted pod garlic, served with steamed Beijing Bao
Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc 2002, Marlborough New Zealand
3. Grilled sole darne laced with Balinese chili and coconut glaze, side of jasmine rice or
Silken tofu steaks with stacks of spinach , napped in chili ginger confit
Chablis Laroche 2000
Nobile di Montepulciano 2000
4. Lamb steaks tappenyaki style served on bed of braised bok choi, with
panfried rice sticks,
sprinkling of oyster sauce or
Okonamimaki- Japanese pancakes, cooked on griddle, centered with golden corn and Japanese pickles
Nobile di Montepulciano 2000
5. Passionfruit and mascarpone fluff with soya pearls in coconut milk
Jasmine Tea/coffee