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Photos By:: Adil Arora
 What promised to be launched in September, 2016 is finally available at Pullman Aerocity- private labels Pullman Rouge and Pullman Blanc- available by the glass at various restaurants at Rs. 420 a glass san taxes and will be soon available at banquets, club floors and complimentary for premium customers. The wines have a very attractive, contemporary, sleek and chic label that gives adequate information (serve Rouge at 15°-18°C)-but in the back label. Produced exclusively by Grover Zampa Vineyards (GZV), Bangalore, these wines are to be launched soon at Pullman Aerocity.
Pullman Blanc 2015 (Also labelled on the bottle as Blanc by Pullman- the white wine is a Sauvignon Blanc Varietal from a special plot in Bangalore vineyards, says Kriti Malhotra, the dynamic Pullman lady Sommelier who was part of the team that helped select the wines. The nose is clean, crisp, fresh and typical Sauvignon Blanc with fruity, gooseberry flavours and nice balance, with beautiful acidity despite the rather pale straw colour. It’s a very easy drinking, quaffable wine with medium finish, making it suitable even for casual drinking. The alcohol for the screw capped wine is reasonable at 13°.
Pullman Rouge 2014 (Also labelled on the bottle as Rouge by Pullman) is a blend of Cabernet and Shiraz (Cabernet Sauvignon appears to be around 60-70%). As Kriti explains, the blend is based on various tastings and is aged for 12 months in the new French barriques. The aromas are fresh, fruity and slightly jammy. Pleasant fruit forward wine with abundant red berries. The mouthfeel is pleasant-not as tannic as contact with the New French Barrique for a year might suggest. The wine does need opening up in the glass and could do with a 15-30 minute of decanting. At 13.5% alcohol is reasonably low level in the screw-capped bottle.
Vinoteca by Pullman
 What prompted Tristan Delomenie, General Manager Delegate of Pullman Aerocity to bring out the private label? ‘We need to be wine- friendly and send this message to our clients. The Pullman wine label is a step in that direction. Pullman is new in India. I have to promote Indian wines. There are a lot of talented winemakers. During the three years I have been in India, I have seen a great improvement in quality. We talked to a few producers for branding for us. Grover Zampa has reputation as a good wine maker and we asked them if they were interested to select some of their production for branding Pullman Rouge and Blanc and they agreed.’ says Tristan. The fact that Grover has had a French wine consultant might have a role to play in the partner selection.
Labelling the wine as Rouge and Blanc is a smart idea- signifying the French connection of the hotel. But Tristan is forthright as he says, ‘ the idea for the name came from our designer- Links who also designed the label in collaboration with our team. But I accepted the recommendation instantly,’ says Tristan, adding, ‘Kriti (our sommelier) did the initial short listing of wines. Our team including her, Vishrut Gupta and me tasted several samples including different blends and finalised on the current one as you have tasted, based on what we believe are the taste profiles of our hotel guests.’
‘We were offered several varieties like Viognier, Shiraz and Tempranillo etc. I wanted to keep the wines with French grape varieties and so we selected Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz, grape of Southern regions of France. These two were the best for us in terms of the balance of quality of two varietals that are very French.’
‘Pullman is ready for the long haul with GZL. We are committed to lift the total production from the parcels we have selected. They realise, as we do too, that consistency will be very important for the success of the programme.
Promotion of Pullman in Pullman
Pullman will pull no Punches with Pullman wines. ‘The two labels will be promoted in Pullman to the hilt-but only in Pullman. ‘We plan to make it a house pouring brand, but shall also pour during events and banquets, at club floors and for premium customers’ rooms. When the new Pullman hotels come up, these labels would be used but we will not use them for Novotel hotels or Sunday brunches, ‘says Tristan while stressing ‘we plan to offer a bouquet of Indian wines from other producers as well. ‘We also have a range of other Indian wine as well- from Grover of course and Fratelli, Sula, York and Charosa,’ he confirms.
Not a pioneer idea
 Private Labelling for Indian wine is not new in India, though the practice is far from prevalent. ITC had ventured into it a couple of years ago with Vino de la Casa label –a Sangiovese-Cabernet Blend from Fratelli but it did not make much headway as the concept did not apparently find favour with top management which was not excited about Indian wine brands piggybacking on its brand popularity.
Similarly Taj Hotels tied up with Fratelli around the same time but again there seems to be only lukewarm response and the concept cannot claim to be a resounding success.
Conceding that Pullman is a relatively new brand in India, Tristan says, ‘we have no such issues. If someone benefits out of our association, we are fine with that. Everyone knows we are hoteliers and not winemakers. We have tied up with a good producer. GVL has selected the wines only for us based on our tastings. Thus, we offer our customers a unique brand made by our partners and they selected the best fit exclusively for us.’
Wine and Food Match
At the special Sunday Style Brunch, which has a Fashion Show as an additional USP, is being organised once-in-two-months, I had a quick matching of the wines with different dishes. Although food and wine matching is a matter of personal preference, one can get some idea of the various matches-in no particular sequence (I have ranked on the 100-point scale, matching the food and wine combo on the palate of as is done in international competitions like HKIWSC where I have been judging for 6 years):
In the Salad selection I tried lamb strawberry bite. It was ok with Blanc (86) but the fruit made it unbalanced with Rouge (85) since strawberry was too fruity and clashed with the tannins. However, without the fruit it was very good (89 match). Blanc was a very good pairing with Channa- tomato- onion chaat (89). As a point of reference only, it was outstanding with Drappier champagne (95) thanks in part to the touch e of sweetness in the bubbly that tamed the spicy flavour of the snack.
Grilled Sole made good match with Blanc as both were light bodied and there were no chilli spices ( 90). But it did not go well with Rouge (84) as might be expected. Grilled Shrimp was also fine with Blanc (89) but clashed with the Rouge (83).
Raj Kachori was delicious street food that did not add any synergy to the wines or vice versa with the Blanc scoring 83 and the Rouge 80-thanks in particular to the yogurt, a stickler when it comes to pairing with wine.
Shrimp Dim sum was a lovely match with white (89) when eating with the spice sauces but did better without chilli sauce (91). Veg Dim sum with mint and basil sauce made a heavenly combination with the white wine (95) which also paired well with Mushroom Dim Sum (90). However, the Rouge was a better match with mushroom, as might be expected (94). In the European section Chicken with home-made pesto sauce tasted better with Blanc when I avoided the chilli sauce (92).
 It was interesting to match the wines with Mains in the Indian section where the chick-pea masala was very good with Blanc by Pullman (90). Surprisingly, the taste enhanced when I mixed some chicken curry (92). Rouge was not that successful (87) though Red wine advocates would swear by the combination. Chicken curry matched the white well (88); even the red did was fine (87) due to the ripe tannins in the wine. Mutton curry-had the succulent pieces fabulously balanced with the meat (92) although with curry the flavour was not as astounding as one would like). The curry made a difference in that the spices clashed slightly with the tannins in the red (87). I enjoyed the Misi Roti by itself with white wine (90)-I didn’t think it would match with red anyway.
Global prevalent practice
Private labelling is a well-entrenched phenomenon globally. One of the best examples of this collaboration is between the champagne producer Champagne Cattier in Chigny Les Roses in Champagne and Armand de Brignac known for its Ace of Spade, which introduced in 2015 Blancs de Noirs at an astronomical retail price of $1,000 and became one of the highest priced champagnes in the world. The label is owned by the famous rapper Jay Z and the label is produced exclusively for him by Cattier.
Another example is Buena Vista champagne in Sonoma, California. The champagne is being produced in Champagne by a small producer under the specification of the winery and imported into USA and sold under Buena Vista labels.
Formal Launch
The delay in getting the wines has been primarily due to excise label registration process which hit the wine industry in Delhi quite hard this year. Although there are enough stocks now with the hotel -and both labels are already available at Rs. 420 a glass or Rs. 2100 a bottle, formal Launch is slated for early next month when representatives from Grover Zampa Vineyards in Mumbai and a celebrity guest are expected to attend the event. Till then, you could visit the Pling bar or Pluck Restaurant and order a glass or a full bottle of Pullman Rouge or Blanc.
Subhash Arora |