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| H.E. Alfonso Silva (L) and Carlos de Carlos of Errazuriz |
Delhi Wine Club members will certainly remember the outstanding Indo-Italian cuisine he had created out of Indian ingredients and the trouble he had taken not only matching food with the wine , but also with serving dishes that included his favourite frozen tear drop trick. 'I will give you a menu that has been designed for the first time and perhaps will never be repeated,' he had promised. He chose the fusion of Indian and Italian for the special evening; keeping in view the wines of the evening.
The Errazuriz Reserve Chardonnay 2006 is a classic chardonnay wine with oak infused in the DNA through the barrel fermentation. The dark golden, pleasant coloured wine had medium to full body with a touch too much of oak for my personal liking but with the quail tikka ravioli, it matched so beautifully that I would recommend it in the 'food wine' category, but avoiding as an aperitif for which the Sauvignon-Chardonnay and Estate Chardonnay served earlier were delicious, crisp and fruity. The Chardonnay with a touch of oak only was very interesting, fresh and yet slightly powerful, full of aromas and flavour full of peach.
Prosciutto wrapped salmon stuffed with fois gras and white bean dal was a perfect pair for the wine from what ought to be their national signature grape- Carmenere Estate 2007. The brilliant and clean wine had spicy aromas that carried into the berry like flavours that immediately took to the salmon-ham combo. What I liked about the wine was also that it had been cooled a wee bit to enjoy better with food.
The sorbet at Shangri-la is always a surprise. A previous dinner had stolen everyone's heart- with its frozen tears. The tear shaped frozen container of ice that reminds me of a certain shrine had just a tiny space to place the spoonful of purple colour dark fruit- jamun in shaved ice, which we devoured as kids. As refreshing as ever-I wondered how David got the idea; perhaps walking on the boulevard lined up with jamun trees on both sides of the street, barely a few hundred meters away from the hotel, where different roadside vendors sitting on the ground sell them cheap.
Keeping in view the next two red wines- the award winning Cabernet Sauvignon Max Reserva 2006 and Don Maximiano Founders Reserve 2005, the protagonist of the famous Berlin Tasting (details in the next issue of delwine, but suffice it to remark that this wine surpassed even the $150 Chadwick, the top wine of the company at this year's Tasting, scoring ahead of Latour and Sassicaia), I ordered the Shaved Lamb loin Napoleon with morel mushrooms which had a nice structure and texture, accentuated by the morels, a perfect match for my palate.
I will never know if the optional Peking Hariyali Duck with wild rice biryani and grilled kishmish upma served in a Bento might have been a better match with the two wines. They seemed to be natural condiments for the lamb dish which could be a benchmark for paring with many red wines.
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| Morel mushroom cannelloni |
It was very interesting to try and pair the two with the vegetarian Morel Mushroom Cannelloni. Morels are Gucchi, the most exotic and rare form of mushrooms that grow in mountainous areas and go very well with red wines with soft tannins. It would be too powerful for the light white wines.
Once again, the ease and comfort with which the staff served and looked after the guests showed the commitment of the hotel to wines, apart from the food and service. Though the General Manager Andrew Steele was on vacation, his deputies Paramjit Singh Nayar and Rohit Bajpai and the team were all there to make sure everything would be perfect to the P.
Talking to the members, the chief guest, H.E. Alfonso Silva, Ambassador of Chile appreciated the work done by the Delhi Wine Club to promote wine culture. He also emphasised, taking a cue from the wines from Errazuriz, that Chilean wines were not only good value for money wines but had also come up as fine wines. Carlos de Carlos, commercial director who had come to Delhi only for the night was jet-lagged but bravely presented the wines and made several friends of their wines.
Don Maximiano 2005 was unquestionably the wine of the evening. A typical Bordeaux blend, it was an example of perfect balance and harmony and though very young by the Bordeaux standards, it had rounded silky tannins with a long, persistent taste. Fairly fruit forward and yet mineral, it had the elegance of a Burgundy.
Digressing a little from the subject of food and wine, I must clarify for the non-Spanish readers that Don is not what Big B or King Khan were in the Bollywood movies bearing this title. It is a polite way of addressing a man. I always think of 'Esquire' when I hear Don. It is used in front of the first name. Don Maximiano, refers to Mr. Maximiano Chadwick, the founder of the estate-and hence the name of the label.
Now that you know what I am talking about, Don David won many hearts through the stomach and hopefully he will remember the making of the Last Supper at Shangri-la as much as we will remember enjoying the evening.
Subhash Arora
July 4, 2008
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