Our friend and a special guest of the evening, Mr. Thierry Boisseaux, the outgoing Commercial Attaché of the French Embassy, best described the atmosphere at the Cheese and Wine Evening at the Agni Bar of the Park Hotel on 22nd March. He said he had never seen so many people having cheese, wine and fun at the same time, in contrast with the wine tastings at the embassies where the atmosphere was generally stiff.

Our evenings are certainly informal with plenty of bonhomie; this one took the cake, pie and everything. Almost 100 people including members, guests, invitees and non-invitees (gate crashers) enjoyed themselves immensely (some even managed to get drunk, others were only 'high' and "happy" ) . It was a pub evening with a difference ... the only beverage being served was the 6 wines: Domaine Long-Depaquit Chablis , Le "S" De Schlumberger ( Alsace ), Maison Albert Bichot Nuits-Saint-Georges ( Burgundy ), Gigondas Rouge E Guigal ( Rhone ), Dolcetto d'Alba Marchesi di Barolo , D'Areberg Footbolt Shiraz ( Australia ).

Cheeses served were English Cheddar, Edam Herbs, Red Hot and Smoked Cheese ( Holland ), Emmental, Gruyere and Fondue ( Switzerland ), Blue Cheese Extra Creamy ( Denmark ) and Brie Wheel, Boursin and Cream of Camembert ( France ). Of course, there were plenty of snacks provided by the Agni bar to try wines with the snacks too.

Not the best way of introducing wine with cheese, people had fun nevertheless, trying different combinations without really tuning the memory cells to the palate for various wines and different cheeses. But we ran through the wine cases like each sip was an anti-aging elixir (remember the movie, 'She'!) and the traffic cops had all but gone to sleep. Chablis (white) and Australian Shiraz (red) were the clear winners of the day though other reds were not inferior in any way.

All the wines served were of very good quality, thanks to Brindco. Cheeses were the best as only Karamels can provide in Delhi. But the hero of the show would have to be the Park Hotel in general and the Agni Bar in particular (to be more precise, it was a heroine, named Madhulika who had been planning it all with us for over two weeks). The serving staff was enjoying the service generally unseen. Some members and guests, pampered by the elegant wine service of our usual sit-down dinners felt a bit unhappy at the 'slow' service. A couple of them even indulged in the unthinkable, carrying the bottle on the table. But that was checked immediately. It was with great difficulty and late in the evening that we could pronounce that the evening had come to end.

Subhash Arora
President