After tasting Green Point Wines from Australia at the Radisson, Italian wines from the Piemontese Casetta at the Mist Restaurant, Hotel Park and Michel Gonet champagnes and French wines from Bordeaux (with an evening of Chilean wines thrown in the middle at the Hotel Park Plaza, Gurgaon, our quest for tasting diversified wines from different regions took us to some premium wines from New Zealand for our April 2005 Event at the Pan Asian Restaurant at Hotel Marriott.

Goldwater Winery, located in Auckland has been going from strength to strength since Kim Goldwater started the winery in 1978. His Cabernet/ Merlot blend made in Waiheke Island, an hour away from Auckland by ferry brought instant fame to this region for its excellent reds. I had the pleasure of tasting their Chardonnays and the flagship red at the Hotel Grand during the visit of Kim's daughter Gretchen Goldwater with her husband Ken Christie last September. Their famous Sauvignon Blanc was then, sadly missing.

Food at Pan Asia cries out for white wines even though the red wine lovers may not be disappointed with proper selection of the sauces in their dishes. The Executive Chef Manisha Bhasin has always been in the forefront designing excellent menus for us. With a bit of tweaking we were able to finalize today's Menu (see below) without much fuss.

We took a detour this time and cut out the snacks with the sparkling wine for the mingling period. It has happened on a few occasions that the delicious snacks, followed by soup and salad did not leave much opportunity to the first main dish, not to talk of the final signature dish with the best wine of the evening. Also, soups paired with wine have always played a second fiddle. Coupled with the fact that the main dish included fish as well as chicken with sauces, we had decided to avoid wine with soup and offer the chardonnay and the Bordeaux blend red with the main course. This gap between wine service did cause a bit of restlessness, but I relished the Chard with the fish and chicken sauce helped my palate enjoy the taste of the red.

Matching food and wine is a laborious and yet subjective task at the most. The difference a proper pairing can make was clearly evident at this event. When I compare notes with the previous tasting at the Fire Restaurant with Indian food, the Zell Chardonnay had been a clear winner. Click http://www.delhiwineclub.com/EVENTS/FIRE_GOLD_Water.asp?serialwise=880.

for an earlier review. Today, however, the Roseland Chardonnay was a clear favourite . Was it because of the excellent shrimp salad with sauces that were just right for the full-bodied chardonnay or whether the beautiful rose decals placed on each glass meticulously, I can't say. What I do know is that our breaking the tradition of serving lighter wines first and going instead for this Chardonnay as a starter was clearly a winning idea because of the food pairing . It did help also that the following dish of lamb dim sums may have been too powerful for an ordinary Sauvignon Blanc . But this ‘new dog' was a faithful representative for Marlborough , with its powerful aromas and fruity flavour with long end that handled the lamb proteins rather well. It was a pity that the 1-piece dim sum was a mere teaser. A new dog SB combo with this dim sum would be a sure winner at the soon-to-be-opened dim sum bar.

Fish cooked in different leaves and styles has become a hallmark of any Menu at this hotel. But the grouper , the Arabian Sea fish with excellent flavour and texture beat any other preparation one had tried before. The Zell went well with it but was a bit too elegant for the fish which had such a strong, pleasing personality of its own that even the Wood's Hill red showed it enough respect. But the chicken slivers found a better match in the red, thus shaking up the old theory that white meat is not suitable for red wine. Like I always say, it is the body and the texture that needs to be matched , otherwise, a purist might laugh at the lamb and Sauvignon Blanc combo or chicken with Bordeaux type of red. The red wine might have been a bit too tannic for some but I thought the tannins were ripe and it was quite approachable. People yelling ‘give me red!' after their plates were removed, could be considered a positive vote for this wine.

Our thanks go out to the Executive Chef Manisha and the chefs Rishi , Manee , Vittaya and Peng for dishing out an excellent fare. Nitin Bahl and his team of serving staff deftly tried to keep pace with the full house, overflowing with people in fact. The very fact that people were passionately comparing the experience with West View at the Maurya is a compliment to Pan Asian. For our wine club dinners West View has remained the undisplaced and undisputed king, the Premier Cru Chateau of Bordeaux, a Ch Latour, if you will. Me, I won't compare a Latour with a Sassicaia, Sori` San Lorenzo, a Grange or a Domaine Romane`e Conti. Each gives us an immense pleasure and at the Delhi Wine Club our quest for more such experiences must carry on.

Subhash Arora

P.S. – The day after we had this event, I heard the news that Goldwater Winery has been selected by London Wine Fair as a top100 winery of the world. A total of 5 wineries are selected from each country for this honour. For details see our NEWS item:

For Tasting Notes click here

MENU

Pan Asian Munchies

Freixenet Cordon Negro Brut 2002 DO Cava (850)*

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Banana bud salad with shrimps/corn niblets'n'pepper

and spicy coconut milk sauce

Goldwater Roseland Chardonnay 2002 Marlborough(1430)

****

Lamb/crispy silken tofu dim sum napped in sheets, side of Chili ginger sauce

Goldwater New Dog Sauvignon Blanc 2003 Marlborough (1490)

****

Riesling and Wasabi Sorbet

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Sweet corn and leek soup with crab/ asparagus and coriander dumpling

Goldwater Zell Chardonnay 2002 Waiheke Island (1982)

****

Balinese style grilled grouper napped in piquant sauce/Soya nuggets wrapped in banana leaf

Wok tossed chicken slivers with ginger and chili/ Thai curry with peas, aubergines and broccoli

Crispy oriental vegetables with tamarind sauce

Pan-fried noodles with Chinese greens/Steamed rice with corn niblets

Goldwater Zell Chardonnay 2002 Waiheke Island (1982)

Goldwater Wood's Hill Cab/Mer/Fra 2000 Waiheke Island(1982)

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Coconut and kaffir lime panacotta /Strawberry short cake with butterscotch Crème

Jasmine tea and friandises

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