FINE Wine & Champagne India - Winter 2018

FINE Event
only the FINEst in life. This year, the FINE Table covers the
largest number of wine regions ever from around the world –
14 – each carefully paired by the Leela Palace’s Executive Chef
Adrian.
The grand Le Cirque dining hall is ready to welcome us. Our
guests are guided to their pre-assigned seats at tables that take
their names from the Le Cirque restaurants locations around
the world – New York, Las Vegas, Dubai, Delhi, Mumbai and
Bengaluru.
We all sit down to the ‘novelty’ showcase and two glasses
bearing the flags of Greece and Great Britain, both of them
making their debut at the FINE Table. “I enjoy drinking
wine and am here as a humble
apprentice to learn. This is my first
initiation course”, H.E. Panos
Kalogeropoulos, Ambassador of
Greece, confesses as he presents
a 100% indigenous Greek grape
variety, ‘Malagousia’ that was
saved from extinction by Ktima
Gerovassiliou, the producer.
H.E. Sir Dominic Asquith
KCMG, British High
Commissioner, thinks that
‘novelty’ is very appropriate for the English wine that he
carried in – a good representation of what English wine is
turning out to be. A young varietal, Bacchus originated in
Germany sometime in between the world wars and settled
well in Kent where the temperatures were able to highlight
the acidity in this crisp, juicy, tropical wine – sophisticated
enough to be served at No. 10 Downing Street.
I am grateful for the generosity of the Ambassador of
Champagne to India, whose cellar I have raided for every
FINE Anniversary to bring a FINE wine for a FINE evening!
Raising a toast with the legendary bubbles from the Kingdom
of Champagne, Rajiv Singhal announces, “for the FINEst,
nothing but the FINEst will do”. The bubbles in our flutes
are from Maison Jacquart –
the flagship of the co-operative
Alliance, whose holding of
2,400Ha across over 60 crus
allows Floriane Eznack, their
Chef de Cave to create a
mosaic that lends the cuvée
its name – Brut Mosaique
which is served with a very
generous portion of the White
Asparagus Pannacotta with
Cucumber and Almond.
FINE WINE & CHAMPAGNE INDIA
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