Dinner at Olive Beach with Gold and Buller Wines (#3/117)

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.

Phtos By Adil Arora

     

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