feature / Vin Voyage / Velaa Private Island


Guests may also arrange bespoke wine tastings with food, for various tastes, in the temperature-controlled Tavaru Wine Cellar under the restaurant. Here is housed what is described as “the most exclusive collection of wine in the Indian Ocean,” including “the largest collection of Burgundy in the Maldives”—both claims entirely credible


in the sand mean that the next attraction is always just around the next bend, as if tracing the scutes on a turtle’s back. It is possible to walk all around the island seeing hardly another soul. And for those who don’t want to walk, there are bikes at every apartment, as well as buggies driven by the butlers whenever required. The 3o or so beach pool villas, deluxe beach pool villas, and


larger private residences around the edge of the island are all as secluded as they could be, sheltered by the tall, lush tropical vegetation, and even the 18 water pool villas on stilts, including the Romantic Pool Residence accessible only by boat, all look out to sea, so there is never any sense of being overlooked. All of the accommodation is elegantly stylish and supremely comfortable. (The “pillow menu,” running to 12 options, is longer than many good by-the-glass wine lists, even in the Coravin era.) Following refurbishments over four months in 2022, there is now a new gym, a kids’ club, a yoga pavillion and Pilates studio, a spa, a wellbeing village, a water sports and dive center, a nine-hole golf course designed by José María Olazábal, complete with a resident PGA professional, and badminton, squash, and tennis courts, where some of the world’s top tennis stars offer lessons and play matches. Among the artistic evening entertainments are ballet and opera (a recent production of Carmen involving soloists from the Metropolitan Opera in New York) and all kinds of music, from classical and jazz, to pop and rock (though never so loud as to break the restful tranquility of the residences).


Athiri and Tavaru restaurants The sheer quality and range of the food and wine offering is as astonishing as it is thrilling. (No wonder that among Velaa’s latest accolades was Asia’s Best Fine Dining Hotel in the 2022 Boutique Hotel Awards.) Culinary director Gaushan De Silva, who used to cook for the Jordanian royal family, presides over a brigade of chefs of 14 different nationalities, who compile eclectic menus based on the cuisine of different nationalities, though many local dishes also figure prominently. Everything we ate was impeccably cooked and presented, well balanced and proportioned in terms of seasoning and serving size. There are now four restaurants (including Faiy, opening this year), plus the Avi Pool Bar, the Beach Bar, and the Cru Champagne Bar out on the water. At Athiri, the all-day beachfront restaurant, the buffet breakfast and lunch offer an extraordinary cornucopia of delicious delicacies—from freshly baked bread and pastries, through fresh fruit, sushi and sashimi, to myriad cooked dishes, including fragrant local curries. At one lunch, where the brilliantly entertaining and knowledgeable Ahu wanted us to taste two local fish with a range of very different chilies (three Maldivian,


156 | THE WORLD OF FINE WINE | ISSUE 79 | 2023


one Thai), we enjoyed perfectly cooked and served grouper and white snapper, marveling at the mellow depth, as well as the fiery heat of the spices. Any excess heat was quickly tempered by the best coconut milk we had ever tasted—from yellow coconuts, which, Ahu assured us, are better than green or orange— gloriously rich and sweet and totally unlike the thin gray water I’d sipped with bafflement and disappointment after Pyrrhic victories at the coconut shy in my childhood. The pearly white flesh of the same coconut, as tender as the white of a softly boiled egg, made a nourishing but refreshing dessert. À la carte dinner options at Athiri in the evening, when it is possible to eat at candlelit tables on the beach, were equally rewarding. Tavaru Restaurant, atop the Tavaru Wine Tower—at three stories high, the tallest architectural structure at any Maldivian island resort—affords superb views, as well as flamboyantly but fastidiously prepared teppanyaki grill food. Here, the highly skilled young chef Mark does well not to set himself on fire or lose a finger as he twirls the tools of his trade as speedily as a cartoon western gunslinger spins his guns. While he candidly describes himself as “a fake Japanese chef” (he’s from the Philippines), he studied with some very good real ones, starting as a dishwasher then volunteering to work an extra three hours a day in return for cooking lessons. He catches the ear with his talk and the eye with his tricks, but he also captivates the palate with the flavors and textures of his cuisine. Guests may also arrange bespoke wine tastings with food, for various tastes, in the temperature-controlled Tavaru Wine Cellar under the restaurant. Here is housed what is described as “the most exclusive collection of wine in the Indian Ocean,” including “the largest collection of Burgundy in the Maldives”—both claims entirely credible, despite the presence these days of other very impressive cellars at hotels on Madagascar and Mauritius, as well as elsewhere in the Maldives. Some 90 percent of the wines are sourced direct from the producers, and only 10 percent through the trade, to reduce as far as possible the risk of fraud—a serious consideration, given the many very expensive, very recherché wines on offer here (on which more below). We were treated to a fascinating and fun tasting generously hosted and shared by Wayne Milgate and expertly conducted by the passionate and well-qualified Maldivian sommelier Musto. We hadn’t given any indication of what we might like to taste, but Musto read us like a book, intuitively sensing that we might like a mix of the more and less familiar, from the Old and New Worlds: 2014 Clos Rougeard Saumur Brezé (still green-apple and herbal Chenin Blanc to smell, but densely layered, with great intensity of flavor and length); 2016 Evening Land Seven Springs Chardonnay (discreet, pure, herbal-mineral, and steely, with a gently flourishing finish); 2002 Château de Latour Clos de Vougeot Vieilles Vignes (cool, black-fruited, beguilingly silky, but still with excellent freshness and proper power); and 2016 Kaesler Old Bastard Shiraz (darkly spicy, glossy, and richly woven, the intensity from the ancient vines matched by the purity). Rajat Parr, the sommelier- turned-wine producer in California and Oregon, and the source of the Evening Land, is clearly an inspiration for Musto (and not only because he introduced another Parr wine, Sandhi, to one guest at Velaa who proceeded to drink all 36 bottles of that vintage during his stay). All four of the wines Musto served us showed very well—testimony to their provenance and storage, as well as to their selection and treatment (both of the reds brought up to the correct temperature and opened one hour prior to serving).


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