Mr. Ilan Weill, General Manager, Grand Hyatt Mumbai and Mr. Chai Woo Foo, General Manager India, Singapore Airlines extended a warm welcome to guests. The event was to encourage the presence of premium Australian wines at Indian five star hotels. With 62 wine growing regions, Australia is the current ground for around 2,000 wine companies, making it the fourth largest wine exporter in the world, and a holder of 25% of the market share of imported wines.

Chef Alessandro Pavoni, Executive Chef of the Park Hyatt Sydney served his exclusive creations to tantalise the palate. On the menu was baked ricotta with cauliflower and vanilla puree, topped with green beans salad, which was perfect with the Yering Station Chardonnay 2005. There was also seabass with black olive crust and carrot, saffron and orange puree, delicious with the Yering Station Pinot Noir 2006. The Kaesler Old Vine Riesling 2006 was wonderful with fresh lobster and mint risotto. To end the delectable meal, was cassata siciliana with candied citrus and chocolate sauce, although the Elderton Botrytis Semillon 2005 was something of a mismatch.

While the Indian wine production is relatively small but growing steadily, the showcase was a part of Utsav Australia's initiative to encourage investments between the countries. Free flowing conversation with charming company and good wine made it an enjoyable evening.

The Hyatt Regency in Delhi hosted a similar seafood festival at La Piazza, the opening night of which by all accounts was a great success. We had the pleasure to taste the wines and sample some excellent seafood renditions prepared by Chef Alessandro Pavoni at a later date. I thought the olive crusted Barramundi fish steak went down particularly well with the 2004 Brokenwood Shiraz I drank with it. - RKS