|  The seven cities included Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Gurgaon and Dhaka. ‘Why Dhaka?’ was the first question I shot at Adrian when I met him at the 28-plate Al Fresco dinner organised outside the restaurant by Rabindra Rai, Manager Restaurants at Westin Gurgaon under the watchful eyes of Executive Chef Deepak Bhatia and prepared by the Italian Chef Emiliano di Stefano. ‘Primarily because they have a Westin property there,’ was a simple and logical answer from him.
Adrian Pinto, Senior Manager Business Development for Nine Hills Wine said to me, ‘We got the idea to organise such an event from the Blind Tasting Competition in Westin Pune where Nine Hills Chenin Blanc and Rose were declared the winners. We wanted to take the concept forward and promote our wines. Everyone organises food and wine dinners so we decided on something novel-a food IN wine event. After all, creative chefs love to use good wine in the food preparation. So we scouted around and focused on the Master Chef Michael Swamy to work with us on this programme.’
Michael is a rock star Le Cordon Bleu Chef in Mumbai. He is not only a creative chef but also an avid food photographer and a freelancing consultant. His role is to work with Chefs in each of the 7 properties who design the Menu, pairing the six respective wines with each dish. ‘It is important that the chefs use their creativity to use the right wine to match with the dish they are preparing and in the process encourage wine consumption. Educating people on cooking with wine is an excellent concept and I am proud to be involved in this project.’
 "There are super chefs at all Westin properties. We got them together, gave them the wine tasting notes and asked them to dream up their masterpieces by pairing our six wines with the food," says Adrian.
Nine Hills Rosé Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Reserve Shiraz, Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon and Viognier were the featured wines. Wines were paired well with food, barring Viognier which I felt was like a fish out of water with the Pannacotta being too sweet for the wine. Forced dovetailing in the absence of a proper dessert wine like a Late Harvest Chenin Blanc (overseas producers have a vast range of such wines but not in India, where the market is extremely limited for such wines) always lays a trap for slightly sweet wine like this Viognier and the person pairing wine with food clearly fell into this trap. It’s not prudent to break the common accepted principal that a wine should not be less sweet than the dessert.
Nevertheless, it was a bold initiative on the part of Seagram’s Nine Hills to promote the concept of wine through food-using the wine too.
Subhash Arora
<Prego Menu with Nine Hills Wines>
Tags: Westin Pune Blind Tasting Competition, Nine Hills, Wine in food 7 City Odyssey, Michael Swamy, Adrian Pinto, Deepak Bhatia, Seagram’s Nine Hills |