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Photo By:: Adil Arora
 Christened as Cellar Stellars; the wine calendar has 11 events chalked out for the next 11 months, including again, for some quirky reasons, one evening with beer and barbeque - reminiscent of long-day wine tastings that make the professional tasters long for beer in the evening. Talking about the program Michel Koopman says, ‘as the name evokes, we have culled out the wines extraordinaire and complemented them with our chefs’ favourite suggestions.’ The international journey that started with light and cheerful wines from Chile and Argentina with the April-Fool themed Wine Dinner, takes you to a wine journey through all parts of the world.
If Super Tuscans don’t excite you, you could go for the Old World-New World combat. Dr. Loosen wines from Mosel would enchant you with Rieslings from Ernie Loosen, the man who is credited with the Renaissance of German Riesling. Bigger, Bolder and Better wines may eventually allure you for an evening of Beer and BBQ. The Republic of Indian Wines - the brochure proclaims that Indian wines can hold their own against the best in the world (Sula and Fratelli take a bow)- would charm the ex-pats and the patriots whereas if you are a Champagne buff, your taste buds will be serenaded by the bubbles from Moet e Chandon.
To simplify administrative matters and avoid confusion, each dinner is priced at Rs. 3000 +taxes (Connoisseur Club members pay only Rs.2400+) and the fun starts at sun down which is always at 7 pm. The venue does change – Zanotta, Diya, Banquets or Skydeck etc-depending on the mood which the food and wines of the evening are expected to evoke. The prices are reasonable - some are extremely attractive. But what makes every dinner interesting, is the offer of a complimentary wine tasting a week after the dinner for those who attend. The Moet Chandon Champagne dinner followed by a tasting of Chandon and the Moet Champagne a week later, seems an offer too good to refuse.
If this is not enough, there is a lucky draw at the end of the programme which would see a lucky wine aficionado win two tickets to Paris (travel Class not clarified), sponsored by KLM-Air France. As logic would dictate, every dinner attended gives you one more shot at the prize.
Of course, the evenings are possible thanks to the co-sponsorship by various wine importers like Brindco, Mohan Bros, NBD and Moet Hennessey and Indian producers-Sula and Fratelli. It helps that the imported wines are available totally tax-free to the hotels in Gurgaon and presumably complimentary or at special, low prices. However, it is certainly a win-win situation for everyone-especially the consumers and the hotel deserves applause and support for the initiative.
The icing on the cake is that the Cellar Stellars is not the only program chalked out by Michel Koopman and his deputy, Sanjeev Kapoor. The EAM-F& B is as excited about the whole wine programme that includes introducing wines at better prices along with various other innovative schemes, as his visionary boss. Michel believes that the wines must be priced and presented such that people order more often when they come to the restaurants and not to keep the accounts people happy over the potential windfall in selling a bottle even if it is never sold.
One hopes the new lists at attractive price are finalized soon, setting an example for several other hotels which are surely in the process of putting their creativity to good use. With the Taj Palace having announced its recent programme and Oberoi well-entrenched into such wine tastings, one sees the light at the end of the tunnel so far as the hotels trying to increase the wine consumption and awareness through education are concerned.
Subhash Arora
DelWine and the Indian Wine Academy are committed to promote such initiatives without any reservations provided we feel that they will benefit the consumers directly, help create wine awareness with no short-term commercial interest in mind and might catalyze other hotels across India to try similar innovations. Please contact me directly and if you know of such hotels or restaurants anywhere in India, you are welcome to write to me at arora@delwine.com-editor
Tags: Hotel Leela Gurgaon, Michel Koopman, Sula, Fratelli, Cellar Stellars |