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Despite another freezing bone chilling evening, a healthy
turnout of members soon got the bonhomie going. 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.
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