The rich amber interiors of ‘Wildfire’ at Crowne Plaza welcomed our team to the warmth of native style Brazillian food coupled with fine Indian wines by Grover Zampa recently. The deliciously cooked meat and vegetables were served to us right off the spears that urged us to wander into the wilderness of Brazil. Just then the classic wines from the Grover Vineyards sparkling in front of us brought us back, only to make us wander in a different direction altogether. Believe it or not, each one of us loved the boomerang that evening.
The Chef’s menu designed exclusively for the Food and Wine night.
Yes, the chef undeniably had planned to kill us with the food that night! We were served crispy cheese stuffed appetizers, with which we were served the Sauvignon Blanc from the art collection of Grover Zampa. A rich creamy mushroom soup followed. What followed thereafter blew our minds off and left us relishing every single dish to the last morsel.
Cheese appetizers at Wildfire
Camarao: delectable tiger prawn marinated with Grover Sauvignon Blanc, garlic and mustard. Sauvignon Blanc has a lingering taste of grapefruit, pineapple, guava and herbs. It pairs very well with seafood, fresh cheese and white meat and did a fantastic job with the Camarao that night.
Salmon: Served fresh and hot off the spear, the tender Salmon came with lime, chilli, garlic and paprika. Best enjoyed with the Sauvignon Blanc.
Linguica: German pork sausage grilled to perfection and served with a very special wine from the grover Vineyards – Vijay Amritraj Reserve, Viognier, a white wine that has been labelled after the famous former International tennis player from India. A rich and powerful wine with long persistence that finishes on a fruity note! This wine goes well with seafood, tarts and fruit desserts.
The Reserve collection also includes a red wine, which was also lined up for us to try. The Reserve collection was launched at a celebrity-packed Wimbledon themed party at St James’ Court, a Taj Hotel in London, during the Wimbledon fortnight in July 2014.
Coxa De Frango: Chicken legs marinated with beer and spiked with Chef Rio’s special seasoning mix. Sipped along was the Vijay Amritraj Reserve, Viognier.
Peito De Pato: French duck sprinkled with rock salt, orange and tobacco, paired with Vijay Amritraj Reserve, Viognier as well as Cabarnet Shiraz. Now this wine brings in a beautiful twist. It is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon-Shiraz and Viognier. It has a youtful purple hue at the surface. A mystery of fruity and spicy flavour. This wine is matured in French oak barrels for 12 months before it reaches our palettes. Goes well with medium spicy Asian cuisine, Indian Kebabs, good cuts of red meat, game, fowl and strong cheeses.
Peito De Pato
Fraldinha: Tenderloin marinated with Gover La Reserve Cabernet – Shiraz and seasoned to perfection. Best paired with the Gover La Reserve Cabernet – Shiraz.
For desserts, we tried two of the Chef’s favourites:
Honey Glazed Pineapple with Cinnamon: Served off the spear, the pineapple had a beautiful honeycomb pattern, coated with honey and grilled. The smoky falvour gave the sweet ripe pineapple the perfect Brazillian edge.
Honey glazed pineapple
Vanilla-Chocolate Bon Bons: The bon bons are chocolate lollipops with long sticks and arrive inside an igloo. Pulling each bon bon out of the beautiful igloo is a lovely experience, until you bite into it to realise that it was only half of the adventure! We couldn’t stop at one each. We bet the chef had anticipated that much earlier and so many bon bons weren’t just put in to look pretty!
Chocolate bon-bon
Desserts at Wildfire
The journey through the Grover Vineyards.
The art of wine making has been long in the veins of the Grover family. The late 70s saw the birth of Grover Vineyards by Kanwal Grover, supported by International expertise and guidance to introduce best practices from across the globe. Kanwal’s daughter has been spearheading the Grover Zampa brand for the last four years taking the Indian wines produced out of Bangalore and Nashik to the world and bringing the world’s best technologies and knowhow to the vineyards to give the wines a global edge. Grover Zampa encourages wine tourism, so the next time you are looking to pack your bags for a quick weekend break, get your wine-thirsty soul to the Grover vineyards to experience the proudly Indian wines.
