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Photos By:: Adil Arora
 It could not have been a better time and venue to launch the series that had been launched earlier last month in Mumbai and Bangalore. Despite it being dhanteras, a religious day before Diwali when everyone is busy on the roads to shop like there is no tomorrow, about 175 people waded through heavy traffic turned up to meet the legend and taste his wines. The weather was beautiful and the open terrace provided an enchanting backdrop to enjoy the evening with an excellent service by the professional staff of Leela Palace.
Amritraj who has moved to Los Angeles but runs a Tennis Academy in India was quite pleased with the turnout and the looks of admiration from the crowd and in return showed how well-grounded and witty a person he was as he moved in the crowd, meeting people and genuinely engaging with them. Talking about his tennis days and a jibe by Kapil Grover who said that they would have launched the Vijay Amritraj Reserve Collection earlier but were waiting for his forehand to improve, he referred to the short film on the side screens showing several of his winning shots and said smilingly that he had focused only on the shots that made him look good as he had produced and edited the film.
 A wine connoisseur who drinks mostly wine, he said he had been keen for years to introduce a wine that would not only sell well in the Indian wine market but also compete in the world because of quality but had felt the confidence only after working with Grover Zampa for a few years and was happy that a world-class product had been released.
Kapil Grover and Ravi Jain, the two directors of GroverZ had come especially for the Launch which was attended better than in Mumbai or Bangalore where the label had been launched earlier last month, says Sumedh Singh Mandla, CEO of GroverZ, who was part of Team GroverZ to come to Delhi for the launch. Also present was Amit Uplenchwar, one of the investors in the group along with Reliance Capital and Ravi Viswanathan of Singapore. Incidentally, the VA Reserve Collection was unofficially launched last month at a tasting and dinner organised by the Indian Wine Academy at the Spice Market. The wines have been registered in Delhi since and are now available in Delhi Retail for Rs. 1200.
 The wines have a big story to tell and are likely to find a very favourable response in the hotels and restaurants, not only in India but overseas. In fact, earlier this month when I met Dheeraj Bhatia, Chief Sommelier of Hotel Peninsula in Hong Kong, he told me he had tasted the wine as it had been entered in the Decanter Asia Wine Awards (DAWA) and was very keen to have the wine listed in the hotel wine list as it was a very drinkable, diverse wine with an interesting story to tell. There were animated discussions on which of the two variants was a better wine but the White (Viognier) has reportedly won a Silver Medal at the very first appearance at DAWA.
DelWine has been a long-time supporter and promoter of the concept of a Bollywood star (like Amitabh Bacchan) or a sports celebrity (like Sachin Tendulkar) using his branding charisma to inculcate the habit of drinking wine in India. It is heartening to see a start has been made by a no-lesser  celebrity. It is truly a great beginning for the industry and hopefully more celebrities would be drawn into lending their names. But it might be a step closer if the Vijay Amritrajs of India are convinced to have the equity participation as well. The launch of Vijay Amritraj Reserve Collection is a step in the right direction.
This was the thought when I left the 2nd floor terrace of Hotel Leela Palace with very few people left sipping their VA Reserve reds and whites and even Zampa Brut. I was rather surprised to see Vijay sitting at the edge of the stage with Kapil Grover and a couple or friends, relaxing with a glass of wine in hand and immersed in conversation-truly the right way of spending an evening and I couldn’t help thinking that GroverZ had hit an ace with our ace tennis legend.
For an earlier article on the launch, visit Vijay Amritraj stages a comeback through Groverz
For a Report on the DAWA Award, visit GroverZ creates History winning International Trophy at DAWA
Subhash Arora |