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 If one were to go by the comments of a few of the former members who sent congratulatory messages, ‘it seems like it was just the other day that the club had started functioning’. But when one thinks of the 263 events in 14 years, one truly appreciates that the club has come a long way and deserves the international recognition it has gained over the years. Thus, the 15th year celebrations were in order. There could be nothing better than clinking glasses after popping champagne bottles with unlimited bubbles flowing and an endless stream of multi-cuisine food trickling in, at a long and memorable 5-hour lunch at Pullman Aerocity.
 In the short few months since Pluck @Pullman introduced its Sunday Brunches with unlimited Devaux D champagne, it has raced to become one of the favoured venues for a relaxed Sunday afternoon of binging on food and the champagne for which the producer claims to follow more strict production norms; even the second fermentation is done for 5 long years. With about 7 gms/liter of dosage, the champagne is pleasantly dry.
For this special occasion, Arora had requested Vishrut Gupta, the quiet dynamo driving the F & B programs of the hotel, to dig deep into the inventory and pull out something special. The resourceful Vishrut did not disappoint and came up not only with my favourite Rose Brut with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay but also bottles of Drappier Brut, another small and dedicated producer that is well ahead in the marathon of champagnes in the Indian market because of its excellent quality/price ratio. However, his digging up of Devaux magnums made the champagne experience for the celebration exceptional.
 The General Manager Delegate Tristan Delomenie, who has also been a member of the Delhi Wine Club since his arrival in India to run the Pullman/Novotel duo, had readily accepted the idea of DWC hosting the first celebratory event of the Club at Pluck. Though he was in Jaipur a day before the event on official business, Tristan made sure to be present for the event where he personally welcomed members of the club with his boyish charm and infectious smiles. The staff pulled out all the stops including table service for the extensive buffet. Kriti Malhotra who was a joint winner as a Sommelier of the year at the delWine Excellence Awards in September, 2016 and became the first Indian woman Certified Sommelier last month, was at hand, pouring and explaining to the interested members about the champagnes being served.
 The food as usual, was very good and what with extensive choice of cuisines-Pan Asian, European and Indian, plentiful and varied. The vast variety and quality of desserts at Pullman has become the talk of the town in less than a year and the whole dessert bar was in attendance. But Sushi and Dim Sums were outstanding. Indian Mains section which was Mughlai today, offered a big choice (see Menu below); Nihari and the biryani seemed to be the People’s Choice. Ajay Anand, Diretor Culinary and his team of chefs had his team on toes throughout the afternoon.
 The Brunch highlighted two aspects once again-that champagne can accompany a majority of dishes in any cuisines. If I may specify, it includes Rose Brut as well- especially for dishes like pasta with bolognaise sauce, Nihari and quail. The other aspect is that these Brunches are a smart way for the consumer to drink champagne at an affordable price and at the same time for champagne to be popularised as a bubbly, which otherwise is prohibitive due to taxes. Visit a few brunches with decent champagnes like Drappier and Devaux (there are a few other labels like Taittinger, VCP, Bollinger and the ubiquitous Moet and Chandon etc.) which are patronised by several hotels and it becomes difficult to dumb down to lesser bubblies, despite their lower costs. In the long run, champagne brunches are an excellent idea and need to be supported by the importers and producers for long term impact.
Lucky Draw and Prizes
 To make the event a little more interesting there was also a lucky draw- a complimentary buffet at any of the Taj properties in India as a fun prize contributed by our member Arun Varma. There was a short quiz generally on champagnes with simple questions like how to ‘spell champagne’- to highlight that champagne is the drink and Champagne is the region or even simpler ones like the grapes in a Blanc de Blanc, or the atmospheric pressure in a champagne bottle (5.5 Bars) or the number of bubbles in a champagne bottle (there are 2 answers as explained in my Article in delWine and we accepted the 250 million bubbles as the right answer.)
Winners of the quiz and subsequent quiz to be emailed to members will entitle several members to an invite to the much sought-after evening- ‘Taste the World’ being organised by Fratelli Vineyards on January 18 at Mansion, Hyatt Regency to showcase their imported wine portfolio. Guests will be able to taste 29 wines from 9 producers in 5 countries and meet some of the foreign producers, including the flamboyant Jean-Charles Boisset, besides the whole Fratelli team from India and Italy.
If the first wine event of 2017 is any indication, many interesting wine evenings are in store for the members and their guests of the Delhi Wine Club celebrating its 15th year. Let’s raise and say a toast to the club and its members- Cheers and in my Indian version-Jai Ho!
Subhash Arora
Gallery Menu Video |