delWine Summit and Excellence Awards Launched at Champagne Brunch at Pullman

Photos By:: Adil Arora

‘The festival of Lohri on 13th January  is a very auspicious day for the North-Indians and we chose it to not only host the New Year’s Sunday Brunch where members could get together over boundless Champagne Cuvee D and scores of delicious dishes curated under the guidance of Exec. Chef Ajay Anand, but also announce the delWine Summit and Excellence Awards, says Subhash Arora, editor of delWine and President of Indian Wine Academy.  

Awards will be both a forum for industry leaders to exchange ideas about the state of the wine business in India and the world, and an occasion to honour professionals in the hospitality industry who are actively promoting a wine culture in India.

The brainchild of Subhash Arora, who founded the ground-breaking Delhi Wine Club in 2002, the delWine Summit and Excellence Awards were first held in April 2017 at the Pullman Delhi Aerocity in the presence of industry stalwarts such as Kapil Grover (Grover Zampa), Rajeev Samant (Sula Vineyards), Ravi Viswanathan (Managing Partner of the PE Fund Visvires, based out of Singapore) and Aman Dhall (Brindco), ambassadors, senior hospitality persons, journalists and several wine enthusiasts and HNIs.  

Triple Treat and Top Ten WOW

Wine aficionados will be offered a triple treat:

1. A half-day conference where important government functionaries and international personalities will engage with India's wine industry and hospitality sector leaders;

2. Wines of the World (WOW) showcase to enable the delegates to sample the best wines in the Indian market; and

3. A high-energy awards evening followed by a dinner curated by the Pullman's multiple award-winning chefs.

It will also be an occasion for the 10 exceptional women, who are on delWine's much-anticipated biennial ‘Top Ten Women of Wine in India’ list, to be honoured publicly for the first time since the inception of the list in 2013. delWine, incidentally, is the wine and hospitality e-newsletter that Arora launched in 2006 and has been steering single-handedly since then. Its 800th edition is scheduled to reach its global readership of 33,000 spread across 71 countries on Tuesday, January 23.

Commenting on the summit and awards, Arora said: "I was particularly touched by the way the industry warmly received the idea at the first edition. Not a single award was challenged, and when I wasn't able to organise the event because of factors beyond my control, I got numerous inquiries, requests and encouragement to carry them forward. I am back therefore, with not just the awards, but also the first-ever national summit of the Indian wine industry."

Supporting the decision, Tristan Beau de Lomenie, General Manager Delegate, Pullman and Novotel New Delhi Aerocity said, "We are very happy to be associated with the delWine Summit and Awards yet again this year because of their integrity and professionalism. I am confident they will become bigger and better this year. I am particularly happy about the Conference where, I believe one of the subjects to be discussed isthe quality of wine education in the country."

The short list for the awards -- three nominees per categories -- will be put together by a core committee, consisting of leaders of the hospitality industry. The full jury will then interview the nominees and zero in on one winner in each category. As Arora puts it, "We have but one objective. We want the award-selection process to be entirely above suspicion. Therefore the final list will be based only on the majority opinion of the jury. Only the best must win."

The Brunch was as always, an excellent opportunity to enjoy the sunny afternoon, meet friends and reminisce the similar event a couple of years ago. Besides the dishes from Honk and pluck being fresh, tasty and being diverse cuisines, it was also an occasion to celebrate the New Year and the resurrection of the Awards which is the first and still the only one of its kind.

I would say Jai Ho to Pluck and Pullman to pull off yet another successful event and Jai Ho to the Awards!!

Subhash Arora

Award Categories being considered

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