Our Club is at times labeled as elitist and restrictive in opening its door to people who want to join to appreciate wine drinking. Our brief to the Membership Screening Committee remains unchanged – the applicant should be a wine drinker, preferably known to some member. Level of wine knowledge is not as important as the desire to learn while enjoying different wines in the company of like-minded, socially compatible group of people who also value wine etiquettes. We are unabashedly biased towards under-40 generation, which is setting standards of drinking wine and alcohol in future and is keen to learn appreciating wine and etiquette.

An example of why we value this common thread of congeniality was evident at this Champagne and VinExpo Launch at the French Embassy. The unavoidable late start and the longer-than-expected time it took to go through all the speakers at the podium delayed uncorking of Champagne, which an obvious majority had come to enjoy. But the urgency of filling the glasses and the plateful of snacks defied the etiquettes we cherish (or like to believe so!). How else can one explain some folks insisting on filling their red wine glasses with pink champagne… and not finding it compatible with their taste buds, quietly dumping it and asking for the ‘Blanc de Blanc’ Chardonnay instead?

I am neither a professional sommelier ( French word for a trained wine waiter/ steward) nor was our Club involved in the evening arrangements – except procuring cheese, wine and champagne, the quantity of which was restrictive due to the limited wine quota with the Embassy. Yet I offered my honourary services behind the bar, pretending to service as many thirsty palates as I could but also keeping the aggressive drinkers under check and ensuring that the ‘decent’ guests including our members get a fair share. I even had to intervene and rebuke a gentleman with a glass already quarter full of white wine and insisting on topping it up with red wine ( Lord, please forgive me if I have sinned!).

After the first round of tasting the two wines and two champagnes, we were obliged to suspend the wine service for a while. Plenty of snacks but only the soft drinks could not hold back a majority of people. After a short gap we opened rest of the champagne and way past the indicative exit time, it continued to flow smoothly.