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 Despite having a string of restaurants she owns and the increasing number of visits to Italy to curate mega weddings for the Uber- rich, Ritu Dalmia is a flustered and frustrated woman so far as the wine is concerned. Wine has been her passion since she spent years living in Sicily, learning to be a Chef and has converted her passion into culinary art and she likes to offer a complete gastronomic experience to her clients whether in Khan Market or Greater Kailash, Sicily or Puglia. This despite the gap between the choices, availability of wines and the culture between Delhi and Bari, Florence or Palermo. She is not satisfied with what she is able to achieve in Delhi and what she could have if the procedures were simpler.
She has reasons to be unhappy. She opened Diva Spice in Mehar Chand Market (old Chez Nini) 6 months ago. After regular personal follow ups she managed to get the excise liquor license only a couple of days ago-and it was just a transfer of the license! There has been a decrease by the finance ministry in the duty free license from 10% to 3%. The 5-star hotels have no problems with the reduction as they have enough quota-in fact most hotels did not use the complete quota or were using the license for quasi-legal imports.
Ritu had met Arun Jaitley personally when the concession to stand-alone restaurants was given only to 5-star restaurants. He had agreed to give the same facility to the restaurants too-but with the limited export earnings, 3% is going to hit her hard. She is not sure if she can keep the low prices anymore (you can get imported wines for as low as Rs. 1200 at Diva Restaurant-even a Soave is available at Rs. 1850 a bottle. You may buy a glass of Zardetto Prosecco DOC Traviso at Rs. 620 a glass- best value for money for a good quality Prosecco from a Conegliano producer in the DOCG zone!
 She has met several small wineries in Europe, who make good wines at reasonable price but they refuse to come to India because of the plethora of procedures-and big brands charge 50% premium for the brand, she says. And adding that she still likes to keep the mark-ups from 50-100%. Currently Diva has only 60% wines out of the master list as 40% are on order but not available from the suppliers due to the current excise policy status. She strongly hopes that the Delhi government won’t increase the VAT from the current 20% on wine and beer.
Barring Diva and Depot 29 she has only wine and beer licenses that the Delhi government had initiated in its wisdom to promote soft liquors like wine and beer. Latitude, Diva Spice and the Italian Cultural Center have the license only for wine and beer. She is opening her 6th restaurant at the Sangam Cinema by July end with a similar license.
She is passionate but an astute woman entrepreneur as well. Diva has over 160 labels including sufficient number of wine-by-the-glass options; she has also started Sunday brunches with unlimited Prosecco at Rs. 2800 AI. But in the other restaurants the number of labels is much less though prices are similar. For instance at the Diva Spice, she plans to keep only 40-50 labels, most from the New World and labels that are lesser known.
In the international events, she uses different local cuisines paired with local wines. ‘This way it is quite educational. When the guests have an excellent gastronomic experience at such weddings with food paired with wines, they come back to India quite educated, aware and fairly well-versed with wines and likely to continue with that experience.’
As an author of various books and the protagonist of several TV Food Shows focusing on her cuisine and travels to Italy and other countries, Ritu talks about the pleasures of wine as a gastronomic experience for her viewers and motivates them to drink wine more often. She drinks limited wine herself but likes to drink the best - a motto that is propagated by the Indian Wine Academy as well. She believes that her wine collection at Diva is the best in the city- the by-the-glass variety and the value is incomparable elsewhere.
For a woman who comes from a conservative Marwari family, Ritu Dalmia has set up a perfect example for learning and enjoying wines and promoting them as an entrepreneur in a practical way as an accompaniment with gourmet food. Indian Wine Academy and delWine welcome Ritu Dalmia once again as one of the Top Ten WOW of India 2015.
For her background read details in the previous Recognition : WOW: Top Ten Women of Wine in India 2013 -Ritu Dalmia of Diva
Subhash Arora
Earlier Articles.
WOW 2015: Kiran Patil of Vintage Wines
WOW 2015: Farzana Contractor of UpperCrust
WOW 2015: Cecilia Oldne- VP and Global Brand Ambassador of Sula
WOW 2015: Reva Singh of Sommelier India
WOW 2015: Rojita Tiwari-Journalist and Consultant
WOW 2015: Sonal Holland from ITC Hotels
WOW 2015: Karishma Grover-Winemaker at GroverZ
WOW 2015: Rupali Bhatnagar-Winemaker at Sula |