Thanksgiving for the delWine Excellence Awards

An event of the magnitude of delWine Excellence Awards that was organized by delWine and Indian Wine Academy at Pullman New Delhi Aerocity on April 21, left a mark on everyone attending and was very successful  despite it being an Easter Sunday that  kept the bureaucracy and polity out also due to the impending Indian general elections; the success can be attributed to the following who had a faith in the objectives of the Conference and the Awards and who  Subhash Arora, Chairman of delWine Summit & Excellence Awards 2019 thanks through this Article

1. First and Foremost I profusely thank PULLMAN NEWDELHI AEROCITY and particularly Mr. Tristan de Lomenie for agreeing to become the venue partner. His vision and contribution in wine & food is legendary.

2. A special thanks to Ambassadors Eleonora Dimitrova of Bulgaria and Panos Kalogeropoulos of Greece who attended despite it being Easter Sunday for us. And Mr Liber Pater himself -Loic Pasquet and his Brand Ambassador, Claudio Martins who came from Bordeaux and London respectively, especially to attend the event.

3. Without the active support of the wine vendors - Sula, Grover, Fratelli, Brindco, Prestige, Ace Beveragez, Hema Connoisseurs, Agnetta, Aspri, VBev, Gusto and Pullman Wines, the event would have been listless. It’s their enthusiasm to show solidarity with the event by participating has really touched my heart. Thank you, my friends.

4. Support from vendors like Kumar Labels and Windsor Chocolatier, Epicure for cheese, TVS Motors and the Gift Sponsors Sanah Shivali by Shivali Kalra was noteworthy.

5. A special word of thanks to Shilani Sadh, a digital media specialist who barely knows me bit appreciated what I was doing in the world of wine, and decided to give unconditional support to this project. I love you, Shilani.

6. I must thank the panellists who kept the discussions and debates alive with hard hitting facts to support their points. Thank you Amit Lohani; Vishal Kadakia; Kadambari Kapoor; Oscar Balcon;, Iliya Dekov (Head of Trade & Economic Affairs, Embassy of Bulgaria), Loic Pasquet ( Bordeaux) for Panel 1 ; Sonal Holland MW, Tristan De Lomenie; Chef Malhotra , Madhulika Bhattacharya; Claudio Martins and Ankur Chawla for Panel 2; and Yatin Patil, Aman Dhall; Arun Kumar; Sandip Parsan, Uma Chigurupati for Panel 3.

7. How can I forget to thank the illustrious Jury of 12 who worked diligently over 2 days, deliberating and picking out the best amongst the nominations for the Awards. Thank you Anil Wadhwa – Chairman (Subhash Arora -- Co-Chair) K.B. Kachru, Anil Bhandari, Dilip Puri, Dewan Gautam Anand,  Yangdup Lama,  Ashna Kapur Chintamani Rao, Isabelle Beau de Lomenie, Noi Cecilia Oldne (Director, Amphora of London) and Sourish Bhattacharyya. Special thanks to Sanjiv Sharma for the back-end work.

8. AND thanks to you all for coming here tonight to appreciate the one-of-a-kind wine event  and encouraging us for future- special thanks to  AD Singh from Mumbai and Ravi Viswanathan who came in from Singapore and others who came from Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kolkata, Nagpur, Ludhiana and other cities to grace the occasion.

9. We kept the Selection of the ‘Best Stand of the Evening’, with a jury of 3 independent women- chaired by Isabel de Lomenie, Uma Chigurupati and Natasha Vohra. Thank you for picking out the 3 nominees and the Best.

10. Thanks to the Team Pullman for the co-operation and the spirit of partnership in working with us-especially Amit Sangwan F & B Manager and of course the GM Tristan de Lomenie

11. Thanks to Members of Delhi Wine Club for co-sponsoring the event. (Do I hear clap clap!). Special mention for their members Anil Malhotra and Ranganathan Parthiban for the special support through block of 10 passes each.

12. Special Thanks to Ziu, ROOH, Lavaash by Sabi, The Wine Company and The Whiskey Samba for donating coupons-each entitling the winner to a Dinner for Two and a Bottle of Wine.  Huge success, that!

13. Very special thanks to Natasha Vohra, Assistant Editor of delWine, who came from Mumbai for the event, for handling the Awards Ceremony diligently and without any error -there was not a single mix up and it was a smooth show all the way. Same to Adil Arora for back up of pictures and lovely photographs.

14. Our Event Management Company= Deli Staple Pvt Ltd. and Ankur Sarin who handled all the last minute problems with a smile even during the most tense moments.

15. Last but not the least, thanks to my core team with the bottom of my heart-Sourish Bhattacharyya who has been a friend for a long time and was diligent when available and gave a lot of his previous time and ideas, Sanjiv Sharma who really pushed me to organise the Awards again after a gap of a couple of years and was available 24*7 to us, Ankur Chawla who was able to fit us between his multiple consultancies and Arun Verma who was there for valuable advice. Also thanks to Kaveree Bamzai who volunteered to make us talk little on stage generally by agreeing to anchor. It is seldom that an event like this closes dot on time (if you forgive the two minute delay at the end).

Thank you all for believing in us. God willing, we shall be back next April 30 (or around when the halls are available at Pullman New Delhi Aerocity) for the 3rd edition of delWine Excellence Awards.

Subhash Arora

Chairman, delWine Summit & Excellence Awards 2019