Paloma about town: Chennai toasts to wine, chocolate & champs

The week began with a bang at Palladium and Phoenix Market City where Akshara Haasan launched the Luxury Shopping Festival. Celebs and socialites had gathered and were happy to get ‘first pick’ on all the fab deals on offer. Most of the ladies made a beeline for the bags and statement accessories. My next stop was at ITC Grand Chola’s Tranquebar for the launch of Cholatails, a cocktail book of recipes from Tamarind Town. I love a good play on words, and who would say no to sampling some beautifully crafted cocktails. The book aims to represent little nuggets of flavours, ingredients and anecdotes about the dynasty and the Madras we know today. It was a feast for the senses, with everything tasting as lovely as it looked. Phones in one hand and drinks in the other, Chennai’s swish set documented it all in great detail. It was hard to pick a favourite; for me, it would be a tie between the rose cocktail Roja and the tamarind Puli. But why choose when you can have both!

On the subject of fine spirits, for their recent event, Terroir, the Madras wine club moved away from five-star environs to one of Chennai’s most popular hangouts, Amethyst. The event — Bottled Poetry from Germany — had wines from a leading winery, J Oppmann and Becksteiner Winzer, famed for their Sekts and Rieslings from Bavaria. J Oppmann is known for making wines for the Bavarian royal family since 1865 to date. The evening for members was in two parts at the Amethyst Wild Garden Café. To quote the president of Terroir, Minnie  Menon, “the concept for this event was sparked off by my recent trip to Burgundy where I and husband Mohan visited leading family owned French wineries for exclusive wine tastings”. Roshni Hemdev, the only distributor in India for J Oppmann, conducted a wine tasting session of seven varieties of their wines for the members, including Amethyst owner Kiran Rao who was present in her capacity as a member of the club from its early years. Roshni described the ‘soul’ of each of the seven wines like a true wine aficionado. It was a great learning experience and accompanied by enthusiastic participation by the members. A wonderfully curated café style dinner followed! Truly a memorable evening of animated conversations and camaraderie.

There were lots for foodies this week, with Cheers Chocolates opening their brand new store at Shenoy Nagar. Helmed by Chef Keshav Krishna, the brand is known for its chocolate workshops and creations in exotic shapes. Next up was the launch of Mayflower in Anna Nagar, their second venue this week, having just opened their doors in Egmore as well. Guests loved the grazing table followed by a tasting menu, which was mostly pan Asian. It featured best sellers like the Pumpkin soup, Khow suey and everyone’s favourite, Moon fun fried rice. 

Rounding out the week was two more events; Heravi Pink store launched its women’s wellness products, Hushpurr, with TV actor Alya Manasa doing the honours. The product range is meant to redefine intimate care, prioritising women’s wellbeing. And for the finale was Go for gold, an initiative by Timelinks, to wish Sharath Kamal, Indian veteran table tennis player and India’s flagbearer at Paris Olympics 2024. Sharath is a five-time Olympian, 10-time National Champion and recipient of the Padma Shri, Khel Ratna, and Arjuna Awards. Here’s wishing him and Team India great success at the Olympics.