Delhi Wine Club: Pullman Aerocity pulls out excellent French Dinner

Photos By:: Adil Arora

The Genesis of the Dinner goes back to another wine dinner organised a few months ago at a French Bistro where Tristan de Lomenie was invited as a special guest. During the dinner, he said that in India people are sadly mistaken that French wines and dinners are outrageously expensive. When a member quizzed him to have a French Dinner at Pullman, he was spontaneous to accept the challenge. Camas wines from South of France were selected by him for the evening.

To add a couple of notches to the level of quality, we convinced him to add Devaux Cuvee D Brut champagne from their regular portfolio to the quaffable Camas labels from Languedoc region in South of France.  Devaux Cuvee D Brut is delightful champagne with a perfect mix of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The second fermentation in the bottle for 5 years (each bottle spends a minimum of 5 years in touch with the yeast-dead or alive) making it yeasty, complex and well rounded. It’s always welcome with snacks and today was no different-except that the snacks were more delicious than ever-especially compressed water melon with cheese served on ice. It turned out to be an incentive for members to come on time since those coming late had to miss this part of the ritual.

As we sat down, we were served Millet, Citrus and Greens Salad. After its huge success in the West Millet has become suddenly very popular in India. So this dish could be considered modern. Citrus flavour brought out the best in the Millet. Camas Sauvignon Blanc was certainly a welcome add on. Both the salad and the wine were crisp and fresh-very refreshing indeed! Long mineral, citrus end added to the combination.

Bright pale gold coloured Camas Chardonnay was served next with Wild Mushroom  and Truffle Parmesan Choux for vegetarians. Unfortunately, I found it a bit too oaky though it went fairly well with the mushroom dish- nothing to write home about it-one wishes they saved a bit on using too much wood for the balance. Floral aromas on the nose wifht fruity flavours of white fruit and citrus finish all had a tinge of oak through wine’s journey in the mouth.

 Butternut Squash Velouté was astoundingly delicious. Served at the right warm temperature, the typical French dish with a touch of lemon and just the right density was highly repeatable at this time or in future. I even tried some Chardonnay with it but realised it was not needed-it was certainly not compatible. I wondered how the dish would have blossomed to a heavenly dish with slivers of fresh white truffles so much in season in Piemonte right now. Camas Pinot Noir was not bad with the Velouté.

I chose Sea bass Grenobloise (named after Grenoble-a city in south-eastern France) served with a sauce of browned butter, capers, parsley, and pieces of lemon and served with cucumber mint puree. Truly heavenly, it did not go very well with Camas Merlot but brilliantly with Camas Pinot Noir, the second option. Vegetarians were happier with Merlot that accompanied Baked three Cheese, Artichoke with Tender stem Broccoli, mustard dill emulsion and palm heart cerviche-showing it can be sometimes difficult to pair food with the available wines.

Camas Merlot was bright, deep wine with purple highlights and aromas of ripe red  fruits with tannins  well integrated with the nose giving out perfume of spices and red fruit with a decent finish. Camas Pinot Noir had generous bouquet of red fruits and cherry stones. This attractive cherry red wine with delicate cherry brandy fruit on the nose had notes of red fruit on the palate as well.

Talking about the Camas Wines from Limoux village in Languedoc Roussillon in South East France, Tristan said that such wines are very commonly drunk by French people on a daily basis (though they are prohibitively expensive in the Indian restaurants but ‘we French enjoy such wines as part of French gastronomy.’  

Most members found the wines adequately though a few felt that all wines were not grand to drink. This is the philosophy of our club. One must go through the grind regularly and taste all the wines together before being judgemental.

During the dinner we also asked some simple quizzes and there was also a lucky draw. The winners of the quizzes, Pradeep Mehra, Sunil (Mondy) Mahindra and Mukesh Malhotra were the winners. Chef Shyam who was the true hero of the evening thanks to his fabulous interpretation of French cuisine.  Thanks go to Arun Varma for helping me with this dinner and tasting the dishes and the Treasurer Sumita Lahri for an eficient collection job.

Subhash Arora

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