Wine dinners aplenty

THE WINE CLUB

Come November and, with the wine grape harvest over in the northern hemisphere (Europe, North America), winemakers and marketing honchos head out to popularise their wares overseas, resulting in the decidedly upmarket ritual of the "winemaker dinner", where a select group of people pay megabucks for a sit-down dinner, with each of the five/seven courses matched with different wines.

The biggie importers in India (Brindco, Sonarys) have been doing these for so many years that they are almost passe in Delhi and Bombay "" nevertheless, the market is growing so rapidly in India that there is no dearth of takers. Indeed, since people pay a fraction here of what such events cost overseas, the seats get taken very quickly indeed.

So I consider myself quite fortunate to have been at three winemaker dinners recently: the Chateau Palmer vertical, the La Brancaia dinner, and a small private sampling of Champagne Vollereaux.

Chateau Palmer is a third-growth Grand Cru Classe from Margaux, one of the six famous appellations of the Medoc region of Bordeaux in France. And if the name sounds non-French, it is: the estate and winery were established by an Englishman, Sir Charles Palmer, in 1814.

Today it has some 130 acres of vineyards, and only produces red Bordeaux "" a blend principally of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, with a bit of Petit Verdot thrown in for structure.

With Bernard de Laage officiating, we started with the Alter Ego 2001, and progressed to the Chateau Palmers "" the 2001, 1998 and 1996, all classic Bordeaux wines: deep coloured, gorgeous aromas of blackcurrants and flowers, full-bodied, silky tannins, long finishes. Reasonably expensive wines, only for special occasions, only for the very well-heeled.

Brancaia is a family-owned wine company located in the Tuscany area of Italy "" intriguingly, the owners are Swiss, with one foot in Zurich! Tuscany is of course the home of Chianti (made from the Sangiovese grape) as well as "Super Tuscans", wines made with a larger-than-officially-permitted proportion of grapes other than Sangiovese (and hence denied an official quality tag).

Brancaia, too, produces only red wines from their 200-odd acres, and we tasted their three super Tuscans and the Brancaia Grappa, with Martin Kronenberg (who runs the company) taking us through the paces.

The Brancaia Tre 2005 is a nice entry-level wine that rates 86 points from Wine Spectator "" plums, round and velvety palate. The Brancaia Ilatraia 2004 is simply superb: rated 92 points, a fabulous aroma, full-bodied, ultrafine tannins, balanced and complex, long finish. The Brancaia Il Blu 2002 took us to another level: enticing oak and smoky notes and a taste that went on forever. And the grappa was amazingly smooth and aromatic.

Look out for these wines in the best hotels and fine-dining restaurants.

Champagne Vollereaux is a family-owned company with 100 acres in the heart of "la Champagne" (as the Champagne district is known), producing the classic bubbly since 1923, and the meal at Via Milano was accompanied by the delightful Brut, the Rose' Brut, and the Demi-Sec. Not one of the known brands, but the wines are well-made and provide terrific value and taste.

The slightly formal dinners of the first two above were followed up with a somewhat sybaritic afternoon at Olive Beach when Chef Manu Chandra did the honours and Martin re-established the pedigree and quality of La Brancaia "" and left us somewhat dazedly going Prost and Cin Cin!

(al.chandra@gmail.com)