The sixth autumn season of the Delhi
Wine Club kicked off with a distinctly Italian flavour
at dinner at Aqua in the Park Hotel with the culinary
skills of Chef Gaurav Bajaj rising to the occasion.
With the weather having improved to being extremely
pleasant in the evenings, we decided to take advantage
of this and planned a totally outdoor event. The location
offered to us –the poolside Aqua- was indeed ideal
for such a gathering and the imaginative table setup
and lighting by the hotel made it even more memorable.
A word about the wines imported by
Amfora Wines - as usual our members were once again
fortunate to sample 5 new wines. None of the big banner
names present but all the wines were produce of small
high quality Italian vineyards –evident from the
fact the both the reds and the whites served were rated
high by Wine Spectator. And representative of the age
of equal opportunity we live in, two of the wines of
the evening were made by lady winemakers
Despite it being a Monday, we had a
full house and most members were at the dinner well
in time to try the Pignoletto Frizzante from Bonfiglio
– a fruity sparkling wine, low on acidity and
a soft mouth feel. During our aperitifs, some of our
members had the opportunity to give sound bytes to the
team from Inx News for a soon to be aired feature on
Wines in India.
A welcome appearance on this evening's
wine list was the Gewurztraminer 2005, St Michael Appiano
–an elegant intensely fruity wine which in my
opinion should always be on a white wine drinker's radar.
The clean taste of the melon salad with cucumber jelly
balanced the fruitiness of the wine excellently.
The second white of the evening-a Pinot
Bianco 2005- was produced by Elena Walch, a lady winemaker
from Alto Adige. Fruity with an apple nose, this wine
had good acidity and a compact finish – it was
a better companion to the smooth rich notes of the smoked
salmon and cream cheese than the Santa Anastasia 2004
from Sicily which was also served with this course for
red wine lovers to experiment with the food paring.
Though the braised chicken looked very
well presented and appetizing, the Milanese lamb was
succulent, tender and just literally fell of the bone.
It really did justice to a great Sangiovese offering
from the Fattoria Le Pupille estate of Elisabetta Geppetti
–the Poggio Valente 2003 – an aromatically
complex wine with a persistent taste –well worth
its 89 points by the Wine Spectator.
If I were asked what the single factor
that made for a superb evening was, I would unhesitatingly
mention the attention to detail that was displayed by
Rifaquat, the ever dependable EAM at the Park hotel
and his team in both the planning and execution of the
dinner.
The Park Hotel has long been a very
strong supporter of the DWC and their contribution to
a superb evening underscored the point.
Arun Batra
is a management consultant, foodie and a commentator
on food and wine. He has been a regular member of the
Delhi Wine Club for the last three years-editor
