November 2006 - Posts

• PUNE GOURMET CLUB - BBQ & WINE EVENING

  The theme of the second meeting of the Pune Gourmet Club, an online community on www.orkut.com, was barbecue dinner with white wines – Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc.   The menu was designed by members with advice and inputs from Shagun Mehra, the well known food and wine consultant, to match wines selected for the evening. All the items were prepared by members and brought to the venue ready to be put on the grill. The wine bottles were wrapped in silver foil and tagged with numbers for blind tasting. All attendees were given slips of paper to rate the wines as Very Good (5 points), Good (3 points), So-so (2 points) and Bad (1) point.     The evening’s guests were Girish Kamble and Nitin Shinde, winemakers and consultants to wineries and wine bars. They brought a complimentary bottle of wine from Renaissance Winery and cheese. Vinsura Winery also gave us a bottle each of their Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc with their compliments. ND Wines and Vinsura also offered attractive discounts on their wines to members.   Twenty members attended this meet. A 40% increase over the first meeting. Members shared the workload – assisting in the barbecue, serving wines and keeping everyone’s glasses filled. Kamble & Shinde briefed members about the wines, how to differentiate between Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc and what to look for in a good wine.      The evening’s menu was Starters:   Hummus with bread Greek Salad Minced chicken reshmi kabab Herb infused Paneer Bacon Wrapped Prawns Chicken bites in an oriental sauce Selection of cheese Brun with dill butter     Main course:   Slices of Seer fish charcoal grilled on the barbecue and served with roasted red pepper sauce & grilled Tomato Salsa Eggplant Parmigiana fresh baked Stuffed Green, Yellow and Red bell peppers chargrilled on the barbecue.     Dessert: Ice cream cake   Though 10 bottles of wine was brought only 7 were served. The 8th one was Renaissance brought by Shinde & Kamble. The scores are as follows Wine Index & Final Rating Sheet Bottle # Type Vintage Year Packing Year Brand Points Rank 7 Chenin Blanc   Sep 2006 Vinsura 61 1 6 Sauvignon Blanc 2004 May 2005 Sula 50 2 1 Chenin Blanc 2005 Jan 2006 Sula 40 3 5 Sauvignon Blanc   Jun 2006 N.D. Wines 40 3 9 Blanc du Blanc   Jan 2005 Wonder Brew 34 4 11 Renaissance         32 5 2 Chenin Blanc   Jun 2004 Wunder Brew 31 6 3 Sauvignon Blanc   Dec 2004 Bluefolds 27 7   The score sheet is slightly skewed since some members did not rate all the wines. However the common consensus is that the Ranking more or less reflects the majority opinion of the attendees.   The wines not tasted Chantilli Chenin Blanc Apr 2005 Chateau Indage Chenin Blanc June 2006 N.D. Wines Sauvignon Blanc Oct 2005 Vinsura   Mr. Nitin Rao of Vinsura sent an email on 10th Nov that  their “Chenin Blanc has won  silver medal at the recently concluded Wine for Asia at Singapore and the Zinfandel and the Rose won a commendation”.  Members can take some satisfaction that the judges in Singapore concurred with their views.   Pune Gourmet Club would like to thank Girish Kamble and Nitin Shinde for spending time with us, Shagun Mehra for inputs on the menu and Vidya Joshi for hosting the evening. And all the members for making the evening a great success. PUNE GOURMET CLUB - BBQ & WINE EVENING Held on Friday 27 October 2006 On the lawns of the Joshi Residence in Pune --------------Salut! Skol! Cheers ! Sante! ----------------------- Posted Nov 11 2006, 02:04 PM by admin with 2 comment(s)