Delhi Wine club has been promoting Chile as the trove of value for money quality wines with the first dinner as far back as in 2003. When Charles Donnadieu, Corporate Sommelier of the Lalit Hotel in Delhi proposed a wine dinner at the Grill Room with Chilean wines (private labels), the club organisers were rather ambivalent at first. The wines are not widely available and the taste was not familiar. Always willing to experiment with new wines, Arora requested a Tasting of the wines and the President of the Club Mukul Manku immediately got an instant invite from Charles Donnadieu for Tasting

The Menu had been crafted keeping the 3 wines from Fides Import in mind. Vendimia de Tempo Sauvignon Blanc 2022, Vendimia de Tempo Carménère Gran Reserva 2020 and Vendimia de Tempo Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva 2021 were the wines selected for the Chilean Troika. While we tasted the first two wines, we were quite impressed with the taste and decided to pull out all stops. What made us more decisive was the proposed presence of Remy Hoenn, the Shanghai-based Export Manager of Ventisquero who are the producers of the wine with 26 years of experience.

The icing on the cake was the acceptance of my invitation by the Chilean Ambassador, H.E. Juan Angulo. He is known to walk the extra mile for such an opportunity of Chilean wine Promotion and despite being a Sunday event and despite hectic schedule hosting the recent 4-day India Chile Summit 2024 in Delhi and Mumbai with 2 ministers and several important leaders of the industry in various agencies including ProChile and Wines of Chile, he was all smiles when he and his charming wife entered the Petit Café where an ingenious presentation of ‘Aperol’ with Prosecco and Greek Vermouth and the delicious  breads from the hotel ‘Nannery’ got the members salivating for an enjoyable evening ahead.

The Ambassador gave a brief talk though he had been informally circulating amongst the members throughout the evening, clearly one of the most affable Ambassadors of our time, even though he was our guest in an informal capacity. He wondered why Chile is considered a New World even though it has been a wine producer for almost 500 years, thanks to the Spaniards. He talked at length about the uniqueness of the geography of Chile and how the different Appellations were coming up from East in the Andes Mountains and West towards the Pacific Ocean. He emphasized that the Appellation system was very strict assuring you of quality wines.

Stressing the passion of Chilean producers, he asserted that they are constantly improving the quality of their wines. Chile may not be making the best wines in the world but they are definitely the best wines at the price they are sold, with an attractive PQR. With high taxes, they offer interesting opportunities to the importers and excellent PQR to the consumers. Ambassador Angulo also stressed the Mediterranean climate of Chile that makes wine a great partner with the Med- food.

He also praised both the Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve and the Carménère Grand Reserva of the evening as popular reds from various valleys in Chile in different local microclimates, though he preferred the latter personally.

He said the consensus was building up in Chile to call Carménère the signature grape of Chile. DelWine has always been recommending it for the last couple of decades but there had been some problems in grape ripening, leaving a green taste in the mouth but it has now been sorted out. Also there used to be some confusion between Merlot and Carménère because they are very similar but it has now been categorized accurately in the appellations.

One feels that Chile will soon make concerted efforts through ProChile and Wines of Chile to promote this grape as the signature grape, like Sangiovese for Italy, Pinotage for South Africa, Shiraz for Australia and Malbec from Argentina. The Carménère Gran Reserva was definitely the winner of palates and many rightly felt that the fuller bodied wine with more structure could have been the wine for the main course.

The members were so motivated by his interaction that many were seriously planning to visit Chile next year. We even discussed with the Ambassador the possibility of more rational flights cutting down the travel time. This would increase the Indian Tourist trade flourish like it has recently to countries like Georgia where direct flights have made Georgia Flavour of the day for Indians. He was well aware of the situation and hoped something could be done soon about reducing the travel time and making it more convenient.

Such discussions and debates are a common observation at the Delhi Wine Club just as the serving of Extra Dry Prosecco served with the dessert, with many feeling it should have been served as Aperitif, even though today most members were happily gulping it down the ubiquitous off-dry Italian Prosecco from Ca’ del Doge.

A word of appreciation is due for the chefs and the Service Staff who put their heart and soul to make sure the full house would remember the evening for the taste, wine and food match which is a specialty of Charles Donnadieu.

For the record, our President Mukul Manku has been overseas on a visit and our Treasurer Sumita Lehiri did an excellent job of filling in for him- looking at the minutest of details very deftly, including the Lucky Draw. A memorable experiential evening for members and hopefully also for our special Chilean guests, Mrs. And H.E. Juan Angulo.

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Menu for the Evening

Subhash Arora