The award is arbitrary-it is not based on the multitudes of SMSs that we are being subjected to these days to select the best restaurant in town-filling the slot machines of the mobile companies with zero jackpot. The award is infrequent-this is the first time we are awarding someone- hopefully we have started a trend! It does not carry any cash award – only a simple recognition which to a true wine appassionato is more than money can buy.
I frequently meet people who are regular readers of delWine. I know an expat hotel GM who, I am told, interrupts the meetings when he receives delWine to quickly glance through it for a later read. Then there is an expat lady who has become an expert on the Indian wine scene and admits to me unabashedly that she does not tell people that all her knowledge and information comes from delWine. Of course, I am grateful to many readers who, in a first-ever wine survey in India, conducted by Wine Business International Germany had me voted the Best Wine Journalism 2007.
When I meet people overseas, I am pleasantly surprised to learn that they are regular readers or visitors to our parent IWA website even if they are not regular subscribers (Praise the Google!!) During my recent visits to Singapore, Germany and Italy, I was congratulated by many for the knighthood bestowed on me by the Italian President earlier this year- they had read it in delWine. Another reader in South Africa, whom I knew only through delWine, recommended my name as a judge for South African Airways Tasting last year and I met her for the first time only at the competition.
The list of foreign producers and other avid readers is growing and gratifying. I still smile to myself when I think of a very small producer in Piemonte, an old lady who told me last year that she knew about the Indian wine market through a newsletter she was receiving; and when I asked her if she remembered its name, she rushed to her office and came out gushing- it was delWine!
Cutting it Short
So why did we choose Vikram Chopra for the recognition? Not because I have known him for a couple of decades or he was a junior in my alma mater- IIT Delhi; not because he is a good husband, a doting father and otherwise an excellent human being. At delWine we focus only on wine, food, hospitality and a shade of retail since it will become a key factor in increasing wine consumption; but mostly on wine.
Vikram has been an avid wine drinker for many years, with a penchant for Italian wines since he used to travel a lot to Italy on business. But he is not a wine snob. He likes a Barolo and Tignanello but is equally happy with Sula Dindori; he drinks wine with food regularly.
The clincher was when he told me at a Diwali party recently that not only he reads each item in every issue of delWine which he has been receiving and reading from day one, he has archived each one of them-and offered to send me any issue or article, if we ever needed any back-issue for any reason!
It is readers like him who not only encourage and keep us going, but also make us stand on our toes. A couple of years ago when we published a list of ten value-for-money foreign wines available in Delhi, his wife told me he had printed the list and would go to the DSIDC shop recommended by us as it was at least air-conditioned, and purchased only out of those wines.
So while recognising him as the perfect reader, we also realise we should be more up to date in informing readers like him the best wines available in the market and will make it a monthly feature from next month.
So Here’s Cheers to Chops!
Subhash Arora
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