July 12: Pluck Restaurant at Hotel Pullman Aerocity Delhi and Le Cirque at the Leela Delhi are the new entrants into the Wine Restaurant Awards List for 2018 with Single Glass, and Le Cirque, Mumbai and Artusi Restaurant Delhi maintain their status quo at Single Star, with Taj group conspicuous by its absence after years of presence and a clean swipe of 8 Awards in 2014, writes Subhash Arora
Four Restaurants- Pluck, Artusi, Le Cirque Mumbai and Le Cirque Delhi are the four winners of Single Glass- The Award of Excellence. A few restaurants in India, including those from the Taj group have won ‘Double Glasses’ in the past but the Grand Awards won globally only by 7 restaurants this year, has always alluded India. Restaurants of the Taj Hotels group that had a clean sweep of ALL Awards in India in 2014, winning all 8 Awards including 2 ‘Best of Awards of Excellence’ for its Delhi Restaurants-Orient Express and Blue Ginger, is conspicuously missing in this year’s list. The only plausible explanation can be that they decided not to enter their List this year. They have been a major force in all such Awards every year since delWine started following the List in 2007.
The Award lost a bit of its sheen since 2008 when a fictitious restaurant in Milan calling itself ' Osteria L'Intrepido' was given an ‘Award of excellence’ despite the wine list that featured a 1993 Amarone Classico Gioe S. Sofia, which the magazine once had earlier said, tasted like paint thinner and nail varnish. A wine critic, who entered the fictitious List from a non-existent restaurant, claimed that the Awards were merely a tool of making money from the participants and advertisements. The so- called fiasco was reported in delWine
As mentioned then, getting the award isn't like winning an Olympic medal. ‘This year (2008), nearly 4,500 restaurants spent $250 each to apply for the Wine Spectator award. All but 319 reportedly won the award of excellence or some greater kudos, to the applicants but over a million dollars to Wine Spectator, according to Chicago Tribune.
Ritu Dalmia of Diva Restaurant in Delhi would perhaps agree with that wine critic. Once proud of her Award of Excellence that she received regularly along with the Mumbai-based Indigo, then owned by another wine aficionado Rahul Akerkar, she does not apply for these awards anymore even though she has one of the best wine lists in the stand alone category. ‘When they don’t bother to check the details and want only the money, where is the satisfaction that I have achieved something when I win an Award? I’d rather spend the $250 they charge as application fee, on something more productive. I am happier with my clients being satisfied.’ She stopped applying for the Awards after the 2008 episode, she tells delWine.
The participation fees has been hiked to US $400 in January, 2019 with an opportunity for early bird rate of $350 in December 2018 when the entries open.
Her Wine List was judged to be the Best Imported Wine List in the Stand-alone Restaurant category at the first-ever Wine ‘delWine Excellence Awards’ announced in 2016 at Hotel Pullman which has now won the single-glass Award of Excellence for the ‘Pluck’ Restaurant.
This year, Wine Spectator is honouring 3,759 restaurants, located in all 50 states in the US and over 75 countries and territories, for having outstanding wine lists. The awards are given across three categories: Award of Excellence, Best of Award of Excellence and Grand Award.
The Award of Excellence recognizes restaurants whose wine lists ‘feature a well-chosen assortment of quality producers along with a thematic match to the menu in both price and style. Ranging in size from 90 selections to several hundred, these lists are well-focused and tend to emphasize discovery’. This year, 2,453 restaurants achieved the Award of Excellence.
The Best of Award of Excellence, granted to 1,215 restaurants in 2018, ‘honours wine programs that take their commitment a step further; it recognizes lists that display excellent breadth across multiple regions and/or significant vertical depth of top wines, along with superior presentation.’ Seven received the Grand Award the Three Glasses, according to Gambero Rosso, the Italian wine Guide known for its ‘Tres Bicchieri’ ratings.
For details of awardees in India and elsewhere, please visit
For some of the other Articles, please read:
WS Wine List Awards- Why this Kolaveri, Kolaveri Di!
Clean Sweep by Taj for Wine Spectator Restaurant Awards
Another Wah- Taj by Wine Spectator for its Wine Lists
WS gives Real Award to Fake Restaurant
Taj Wine List gets a Taj from Wine Spectator
Subhash Arora
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