 Whether it is the surplus inventory due to recession or the pro-active and progressive action by the management, the restaurant has come up with a really salivating idea. Served at 5 glasses to a bottle, the wine cost works out to Rs. 1000 a bottle, with the option of having the same wine or three different varietals.
‘It is a combination of both the factors,’ admits Rifaqat Mirza, the outgoing F&B Director of the hotel- he has been promoted to join the Hyderabad property as the General Manager. ‘I have been trying to work at the promotional wine-by-the-glass idea for a long time. With a general slowdown, we did have some of the labels which needed a push and a nudge. The concept has been working very well. Classifying it as wine buffet also helps the customer being positive due to the thought of drinking ‘as much as he wants.’
The bouquet of the wine buffet includes white wines like Stag’s leap 2006 Sauvignon Blanc and Forrest Estate Pinot Noir 2005 which at the Taj Hotel sells for an attractive price of around Rs. 2800. If a couple polishes off a bottle of the wine which won the ‘Best Red Wine’ title and a Gold medal in the India Wine Challenge last year (perhaps a different vintage though), it would cost you only Rs.1,000!
Although the opened bottle is not kept in an enomatic machine to preserve the freshness and flavour and there may be the usual critics who might debate the freshness of the open bottle, ‘we do not let the bottle stay opened for more than 24 hours,’ claims Sahil Sharma, the restaurant manager.
The scheme, running successfully for about 3 weeks is on an experimental basis and if successful, would extend to other labels. ‘We have a few importers requesting us to keep some of their higher end slower moving wines at an extremely attractive rates and we are looking at the proposition to add to our bouquet,’ adds Rifaqat.
All wines in the menu, if not bought as the buffet, can be ordered for Rs. 250 a glass, which is also fairly reasonable.
At the ongoing kebab promotion at the Fire Restaurant, at Rs. 1200 a head with unlimited quantity of Nilaya Cab Shiraz and Sauvignon Blanc makes it an unbeatable offer which will also give a valuable feedback of quality about this Diageo product.
Who says 5-star restaurants do not offer value? Recession or whatever, the reasons, the customer is in for some pampering and the times were never so good to order a glass of wine-or three-at the Park wine buffet.
Subhash Arora
Do you know of a restaurant or a hotel which is offering a wine promo and seems to be a great value for a wine lover-do share with us for the readers around the world? We will give due credit to the source-editor |