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 In the short time since Hotel Pullman was opened in November last year, after months of dithering by the government to give an NOC, it has earned kudos for the innovations in flavours and food presentation and diversity, gaining reputation as an excellent Food destination, giving run for the money to the more established ones for decades. The credit goes to the French General Manager Designate of Pullman and Novotel Hotels- Tristan Lomenie. But the wines served in the hotel have not been able to keep pace with the progressiveness in the culinary section.
What are his thoughts about the imbalance, I ask him over a cup of cappuccino in the morning! ‘How can we have excellent food without the appropriate beverage? We need to be on top in this area too in order to become the top F & B destination. India is known for its whiskey consumption and the knowledge about them. What is missing is wine’, he says. ‘Being a Frenchman with part of my roots growing up in Bordeaux in the wine culture, married to a winemaker in Bordeaux (his wife Isabel has a family winery in Sauternes), working for a French hotel chain, it is natural for me to promote wine as a part of the beverages and make it a differentiator in my hotels. Unfortunately, India is lacking volume of wine consumers at present and it is a challenge.’
Invested in collaterals
But Tristan has prepared the ground to take off. ‘We have already invested in different things including Enomatic machines. I have a talented Sommelier in Kriti Malhotra. Unfortunately, there was a delay in getting our liquor license which we received only in April this year. So we could not get a proper selection of wines so far. At the end of the fiscal year the choice is limited,’ he says with pensive looks and adding, ‘But we are waiting for the supplies to open up in a couple of months when we shall invite more vendors to make presentation so we can have a proper choice.’
Philosophy for wine promotion
‘With a good Sommelier in place, we plan to have a calendar of wine events in which we shall have wine dinners with invites to winemakers. We propose to have more dinners with clubs like the Delhi Wine Club and organize regular tastings. We will have tie ups with e different suppliers and curate wine dinners with them,’ he says, adding that he does not believe in the idea of floating a hotel wine club for its guests but will offer a platform to several groups interesting in wine promotion.
So when does the action start? ‘We should be ready in October when we shall roll out our plans applicable till December 2017.
Pricing is always a tricky issue in every hotel. With the duty paid stocks how can they hope to compete with other hotels which enjoy the duty-free-status? He hopes to get their duty free licence by April, 2017. He stresses, ‘wine is not money making product for us. I want it to be affordable with meals and approachable. We are not looking for profits from this beverage because the food ordered should give us the profits; the wine should cover the basic administrative costs’. When pushed for specifics, he says there should be 100% margin to cover the overheads.
 How about Indian wines in his portfolio? ‘This gets somewhat tricky. I am very much in favour of Indian wines so long as they meet our standards. We shall not compromise on quality. We won’t serve what we don’t like,’ he says. Currently one finds Grover Zampa wines from the Indian stable. He has initiated an excellent programme on Saturday evenings when one can have unlimited wines from Grover Zampa with complimentary Tapas from the Tapestry from 7-9 pm for only Rs. 1000.
He further emphasises that wine is a ‘scary’ beverage in India with too much snobbery attached to it. ‘We want people to start drinking and will have affordable bottles and gradually move up to Grand Crus, Super Tuscans etc’. He plans to have 80-150 labels in his portfolio. Right now the choice is very limited, with only around 50 labels available. He clarifies that by Grand Cru he does not mean necessarily Burgundy Grands Crus but high quality wines like Pommerol, Chablis and Bordeaux that cannot be affordable for many wine lovers. ‘I want to be able to offer some of these wines by-the-glass so people can trade up gradually.’
How many labels do they have currently? ‘As I said our choice is very limited right now-about 50 labels only. But we hope to have a balanced list of 80-150 labels on our portfolio.’ What about high customs duties making their wines unaffordable? ‘Keeping our margins low we want to ensure that we are fairly reasonable and next year when we get the license for duty free wines, we don’t need to reduce the prices much lower.’
Challenges of marketing wines
Like all the preceding GMs in Delhi 5-star hotel properties, he also faces challenges he must handle deftly. ‘Selling wines is a real challenge. Suppliers don’t have much variety. Regulations change every year. Delhi is not friendly (he means the government) to wine. Price of the licenses is too high. We pay Rs. 90 lakhs (Rs. 90,00,000) for both the hotels (Pullman and Novotel) for 3 restaurants and 2 bars! And this is only for a 12- hour license! If we wanted a 24-hour license, we’d have to shell out twice as much. There is no way we can recover the license costs with such fees for the whole day!’
 Tristan plans to have a tasting dedicated room ‘where we shall offer different tastings. I would rather have Delhi Wine Club and other similar wine loving groups or clubs to organise and conduct wine tastings regularly and wine dinners with us. We shall provide the professional service to them.’
Delomenie is bubbling with several ideas in his head-some may work, others may not. But his passion, French lineage, a very strong and successful F & B background and not the least, his understanding of Indian consumers during the stay of 2 years, will stand him in good stead. And the wine connoisseurs can soon hope to find a destination where wine is an affordable extension of the cuisine.
Vinexpo at the hotel
Tristan has no plans to stock wine bottles in any room. But he hopes that one day he will be able to organise a ‘Vinexpo’ at the hotel, bringing various producers and importers in direct touch with the consumers. He may have an opportunity soon to have a mini expo without realising it. Pullman Aerocity New Delhi is the hospitality partner for the maiden delWine Excellence Awards on 14 September 2016. The World of Wine Showcase being organised at the venue will have about a dozen stands pouring over 50 Indian and imported wines. Followed by a sit-down dinner for around 280 people with 5-6 wines, might be a challenge but he has accepted willingly and smilingly. This will be the litmus test for him and his whole team to prove they are not lacking in wine service at a grand scale too and hopefully it will take his F & B initiatives a couple of notches higher.
For a related earlier Article, visit
Pullman: Tristan Lomenie scripts F&B Success Story
Subhash Arora |