Wine clubs re-visited

THE WINE CLUB

The oldest running wine club is The Wine Society founded in London in 1874 and now run out of owned premises with dedicated temperature-controlled storage for wines and a fleet of delivery vehicles. Although the British gentry had a fondness for claret (red Bordeaux) and port, this never did translate into a wine culture in India.

Nevertheless, wine clubs, in India, are sprouting all over "" surely an indication of the growing interest in what most see as an esoteric and elitist subject.

Delhi
The Wine Society (of Delhi) (www.thewinesociety.org) is the grand-daddy of them all "" founded in 1997 by Ghulam Naqshband, Bunty Singh and Prem Behl. It has a very exclusive membership and only a few events annually.

The Delhi Wine Club (www.delhiwineclub.com) started around 2000 and is run by Subhash Arora, who has probably done more to popularise wine in India than any other individual. The website has a wealth of information.

Bangalore
The Bangalore Wine Club was started in end-2001 by yours truly and a few other aficionados, and with some 150 members and an elected committee, now meets nearly each month.

The Rotary Wine Fellowship of India is an initiative by Devesh Agarwal and has held three events to date. In true Rotary style, it uses the forum to also raise funds for charitable causes.

Then, there's Food Lover's Club (started by Food Lovers magazine) which has held three paid sessions of "Wine Appreciation for Beginners" and which may evolve into an ongoing forum.

The Bangalore Club has also held three sessions on wine appreciation as well as an annual wine fest in an effort to get members to understand wines.

Last (but not least), the Chaine des Rotisseurs (www.chaine-des-rotisseurs.net), an international gastronomic society founded in Paris in 1950, held the inaugural meeting of its India chapter at the Leela Palace, Bangalore last week.

Mumbai
The Bombay Wine Club (www.bombaywineclub.com) started by wine importer Vishal Kadakia is yet to take off. The other is the Wine Society of India (www.thewinesocietyofindia.com) which seems to be in the nature of a wine promotion organisation (members buy six wines each quarter for Rs 7,000-10,000). It has wine authority Steven Spurrier and wine importer Sanjay Menon on its board.

Other cities
The Pune Gourmet Club (www.punegourmet.blogspot.com) started in 2006, and recently held a two-day wine festival with wines from 10 Indian wineries.

Chandigarh has its own Chandigarh Wine Club: started by Yasho Saboo in 2003, it can be credited with having taxes and rules on wines rationalised wines at reasonable prices.

Even Hyderabad has a Hyderabad Wine Club (www.indianwine.com/hyderabadwineclub), started in 2005 by Balaji B K Rao, and has spluttered along despite the high cost of and non-availability of most wines.

In Calcutta, the Park Hotel's F&B manager Anirban Simlai organised the first such gathering at his establishment in mid-2006.

Write-in if you have a wine club not listed here "" or if you'd like to start one in your city.

al.chandra@gmail.com