feature / Vin Voyage / Velaa Private Island


Among the good by-the-glass options are Delamotte Blanc de Blancs and Rosé NV; Schloss Gobelsburg Riesling and Vacheron Les Romains Sancerre; Domaine Dugat-Pÿ Bourgogne Cuvée Halinard and La Dame de Montrose; and Les Carmes de Rieussec Sauternes (to highlight only some of the French options). The Champagne selection (also available at the Cru Bar), some 70 cuvées strong, is headed by Delamotte, the “signature” Champagne house, while its suitably exclusive sister house Salon is also very well represented, with vintages stretching back to the 1970 Delamotte Collection Blanc de Blancs in magnum and the 1971 Salon in magnum. (There are also other Salon magnums, from the sublime 1983, to the spectacular 2008.) But while other top houses and great mature vintages are also here in generous profusion (Billecart-Salmon, Bollinger, Deutz, Dom Pérignon, Henriot, Krug, Laurent-Perrier, Pol Roger, Roederer, Ruinart, Taittinger...), so, too, are leading growers and smaller houses (Dhondt-Grellet, Fleury, Pierre Gimonnet, Jacquesson, Leclerc Briant, Pierre Péters, Philipponnat, Eric Rodez, Savart…). The Champagne section sets the stylish tone that the rest of the list maintains. There are many of the great and the good from Bordeaux—all five first growths and all of the super-seconds on the Left Bank; Ausone, Cheval Blanc, and Figeac, Petrus, Le Pin, and Vieux Château Certan on the Right Bank, most going back decades, some to the 1920s. And the equivalents from Burgundy— Bouchard Père & Fils, Dugat-Py, Dujac, Lafon, Leflaive, Leroy, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (back to 1959 La Tâche in magnum and 1978 La Romanée-Conti), Roumier (including four vintages of Chambolle-Musigny Les Amoureuses stretching back 20 years), and Rousseau (including Chambertin, Chambertin-Clos de Bèze, and Gevrey-Chambertin Clos St-Jacques). Most of the wines are French, but there are also famous names from Italy (Altare, Biondi-Santi, Dal Forno, Gaja, Masseto, Solaia, Terlan) and Spain (Alvaro Palacios and Descendientes de J Palacios, Pingus, Roda, and Vega-Sicilia); California (Dominus, Harlan, Opus One, and Screaming Eagle) and Australia (Kaesler, Penfolds, and Torbreck). There are also a few very fine but much less expensive options—from Austria and Germany (Schloss Gobelsburg and Bassermann-Jordan and Dönnhoff Riesling); from California (Calera and Domaine de la Côte); from South Africa (Boekenhoutskloof and Sadie Family); and from New Zealand (Dog Point and Felton Road). The affable, deeply knowledgeable, and widely traveled food


and beverage director Davide Guidi—who arrived in 2022 after stints at grand hotels in London (The Dorchester, The Lanesborough, The Four Seaons Park Lane), as well as elsewhere in Europe and Asia—is aware that there are areas of the list that could be developed, not only with wines from his native Italy, though these are clearly close to his heart. Not even wine lovers who could afford to do so want to drink Champagne prestige cuvées, Bordeaux first growths, and Burgundy grands crus all the time. But it is a glittering treasure trove that Velaa has been able to assemble—especially remembering that it will be celebrating only its tenth anniversary this year—and rounding out the selection with a few more options for its more adventurous and curious wine-savvy guests will be relatively straightforward.


Special wine dinners When he captured the magic of two very special Château Latour dinners at another elite Maldives resort more than 15 years ago, Michael Schuster revealed the way in which Latour president


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


Frédéric Engerer wanted, in his words, “to get rid of the idea that certain wines should be drunk here, but not there” (see WFW 16, pp.80–87). Other crème de la crème producers have shared that dream since, to the extent that enjoying their wines with haute cuisine in idyllic, remote, tropical settings no longer seems quite such the “delectable incongruity,” as Michael put it, that it did in 2007. Delectable, yes; incongruous, no longer. Among those fine-wine producers is certainly Didier Depond,


the capable, charming, and discreet president of Salon and Delamotte, who has been willing to supply Velaa with venerable vintages from both twin houses. In February 2022 and again in February this year, he has been there to present meticulously prepared Salon and Delamotte dinners in Aragu, in association with the boutique Argentinian producer Tiano & Nareno, represented by its founder Dr Ariel Savina, for the still red wine to go with one of the meat courses. I was fortunate enough to be at last year’s dinner, and


memorably special it was. Elsewhere in this issue, Michael Schuster has described the exquisite pleasures of the Delamotte and Salon far more evocatively than I ever could (see this issue, pp.70–72), so it should suffice here to give a brief description of the menu and the wines at the Aragu dinner and to applaud not only the very high quality of the food, the wines, and the service, but also the success of the imaginative but sensitive pairings:


Delamotte Blanc de Blancs NV Yellowfin tuna (raw, stuffed with olives and walnuts, goat cream, truffle caper dressing) Delamotte Blanc de Blancs 2014 Spanner crab (steamed, avocado, yuzu, caviar) Salon S 1997 Maldivian lobster (slow-cooked tail, cauliflower, spinach, sesame emulsion, puffed rice) Delamotte Rosé NV Barbary duck (ragù, Parmesan tortellini, rosemary oil, redcurrant reduction) Tiano & Nareno 2015 Japanese Ohmi A5 (chargrilled tenderloin, potato, porcini sabayon, foie gras jus) Salon S 2012 Cheese (Comté, Parmesan, Brie) Delamotte Blanc de Blancs NV Citrus saffron jelly (espuma mandarin and lemon sorbet)


The Tiano & Nareno calls for a little more explanation, since it


will be less familiar than Salon to most. It may appear completely different from Salon in some ways but is actually very close in spirit. A fascinating boutique project, it was started by Dr Ariel Savina, a distinguished medical researcher, who is the grandson of the eponymous Sebastiano and Nazzareno, who emigrated to Argentina from Italy in 1908 and spent 50 years acquiring around Mendoza prime parcels of Malbec and Cabernet Franc. The next generation had other ambitions and sold the vineyards; but with great determination and passion, Ariel has gradually been able to buy Malbec and Cabernet Franc grapes from many of the same old parcels, with an average age of around 85 years. He was inspired by his family history, by old Argentinian Malbecs he tasted from the 1970s, and by Salon in terms of the very highest quality and the rarity and selectivity required to reach it. (Didier Depond is also a business partner in the project.)


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