The Table at Colaba Mumbai, owned by Gauri Devidayal family and run by her, has been consistently winning this recognition since 2019. This restaurant has a list of 125 labels and offers wine by the glass and also half-glass. The Wine List has also been published by Wine Spectator.

Other restaurants in the List from Mumbai are San: qi Restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel, having a list of 225 labels. Le Cirque Signature Restaurant at The Leela Palace in Mumbai boasts of 240 labels on its website, though the list has apparently since been whittled down to 220 as given to Wine Spectator.

Jamavar Restaurant at The Leela Palace in Delhi with 265 labels is bit of a surprise since it pours mostly French wines (according to the Award) but with Indian cuisine. On the face of it, this shows a shift in the paradigm and a support to the hypothesis that people are increasingly drinking (French ) wines with Indian food.  

It appears the wine list of each Restaurant has been added this year along with several other details but delWine failed to access the List of other 3 restaurants.

The Wine Spectator Restaurant Awards have seen a dip in interest and numbers since 2013 when India had won 18 Awards. It had dropped to 5 in 2019 which was a drop from 7 in 2018. The drop to 3 in 2021 was perhaps due to loss of appetite for the Awards because of Covid which has badly crushed the hospitality industry where survival has become the all-important factor.

Wine Spectator Restaurant Awards are divided in three categories:

The Award of Excellence is given to restaurants offering well-curated lists with approximately 90 selections or more. These lists feature quality producers and wines that diners wouldn’t easily find at local wine stores and drink at home. These wine selections also match the restaurant’s cuisine in both style and pricing, giving guests a well-rounded experience. This year, 2,001 restaurants achieved the Award of Excellence (one glass).

The Best of Award of Excellence winners take their efforts a step further with the  lists including around 350 selections or more, representing a breadth of wine regions and styles, as well as vintage depth through vertical collections of notable wines. These restaurants also provide training and educational opportunities for staff so that they can help customers make well-informed wine choices. In 2023 there are 1,411 restaurants given this honour (2 glasses).

Also read: Three Indian Entities win Wine Spectator Restaurant Awards 2021

Grand Award is the ultimate recognition for restaurants with world-class wine programs. This hard-to-achieve award is bestowed upon restaurants that show unwavering passion and perseverance in strategically building thoughtful, impeccable wine programs, then maintaining and growing them year after year. These wine lists, which typically have 1,000 or more selections, deliver an incredibly thorough range of leading wineries and outstanding depth in mature vintages, along with bottles in multiple sizes. Along with superior presentation of their wine lists and excellent harmony with their menus, these restaurants offer the highest level of wine service. Wine Spectator claims to inspect all candidates for the Grand Award to evaluate the overall dining experience and cellar conditions. In 2023, there were 93 such winners.

The Award lost a bit of its sheen in 2008 when a Milan based ‘ Osteria L’Intrepido’  restaurant won Wine Spectator magazine’s award of excellence even though no such restaurant existed and a journalist had mailed a fake list with wines like a 1993 Amarone Classico Gioe S. Sofia, which the magazine once said tasted like paint thinner and nail varnish.

WS claimed then and now that it does not check the veracity of claims made by the restaurants-except for the Grand Awards, pocketing all the $250 fees (and more) for receiving each such entry. One could well make a fictitious list and not even have the wines in the List physically, and yet get the Award. Ritu Dalmia, a highly respected restaurateur of Delhi (and now in Milan) with Award winning, excellent wine list, who had been earlier winning this Award, stopped participating, followed by some other disillusioned restaurateurs. She had told delWine, ‘I work very hard to buy and sell a diversified range of wines and take pride in my selection. I want to feel proud when my List gets recognition based on merit and not just by sending in some money and getting a Certificate.’   

However, delWine can vouch for the Awards listed in the past that the Awards were genuine and well-deserved even if it cannot vouch for the service or the physical availability of the wines listed.

We congratulate all the winners of this Recognition.

Also read: WS Wine List Awards- Why this Kolaveri, Kolaveri Di!

Subhash Arora