I was glad to meet again Pierre Perrin of Perrin & Fils and Chateau di Beaucastel, from the Rhone valley. They make some excellent Rhone wines-incidentally the only winery to my knowledge that uses all 13 varietals allowed in Chateau Neuf du Pape. I loved his '95 CNP. I still won't open my solitary possession of '95 for the next couple of years though-I feel it is still maturing elegantly in my cellar. Pierre has been trying to enter Indian market for 3 years since I firs met him and I am glad to see he has found a worthy partner in Sonarys. I wonder, if his entry into the PFV Family early this year was of help. Despite the statements by many members to the contrary, I cannot but believe that such alliances bring some additional business too, and why not?

Egon Muller's wine were spectacular.OK, the Kabinett was not outstanding. But his wines are a perfect example of how the  low yielding, low volume but high priced elegant Rieslings can make Germany proud.

Another table where you would have found the love of your life, if you were a white wine lover was Etienne Hugel's table, for Alsace and especially Hugel produce an excellent variety of quality whites ( Alsace is  honest about its colour bias and sticks mostly to white).

If you wanted to know why Churchill loved Pol Roger and why they love him (he added so much to their topline that they have even named one of their labels tasted as Winston Churchill. But their Cuveé Prestige    and Blanc de Blanc (light bodied) … are so elegant and food friendly that one can have a complete meal with their range (I wont want the butter chicken to insult them though) with careful food paring.

It was good to see the top three importers (Brindco, Sonarys, and Global). controlling 60% of the market, smiling under one roof. Sanjeev Singh of TT (one of the Ts signifies Torres – the JV between Torres and Thapar imports only Torres wines into India unlike in China where Torres imports many international wines) was also there helping the ever smiling Miguel Torres Jr. who I meet more often in Spain and Vinexpo.

It is also interesting to see that 9 out of the 11 members are working with the top two importers.

It appears that, like the big ticket rock music  bands, fine wine makers also skip Delhi and prefer Mumbai. Maybe, the lure of a trip to the real Taj near Delhi will attract them to Delhi next year. Nes Pas?

For details on the PFV Family, visit www.pfv.org