The Balvenie Guild a global platform established to felicitate craftsmen and artisans was recently launched in Delhi by William Grant & Sons, India. Malt enthusiasts were welcomed by Ms Aparna Batra, Country Manager India Sub Continent, William Grant and Sons India, at an exclusive evening which brought alive the spirit of The Balvenie. With a spectacular sit-down dinner on long tables resplendent with floral splendour and soulful strains of the sarangi and tabla in the air, the evening was orchestrated specially to give the guests a taste of Balvenies rare single malts. “As a single malt Scotch whisky that embodies so many facets which depend on hand-crafted excellence, we are very excited to bring this initiative to India and demonstrate our commitment to restore and refresh young crafts people across the country who continue to rejuvenate age old traditions.” enthused Batra. The four-course dinner was paired with the 12-, 15-, and 18-year old variants of The Balvenie.
The programme will travel across multiple cities over the next few months identifying groups of craftsmen who are exponents of traditional crafts and techniques. These individuals pre-eminence in their respective crafts will be celebrated as the programme comes to an end.
Speaking on the occasion, Stella David, Chief Executive Officer of William Grant & Sons said It is very exciting for me to be in India as we embark upon an exciting new journey with The Balvenie celebrating Indian craftsmanship across the country. Craftsmanship is the key to making The Balvenie, and we seek to celebrate and support it wherever we may be in the world. Our passion is to nurture and support products and experiences crafted with passion, skill and human perseverance, and what better country to showcase handcrafted excellence than India. The appreciation and understanding of the value of hand-crafted work is remarkably evident in modern India, and so too at The Balvenie where craftsmanship combines with contemporary influence to create a very special whisky, she concluded.
Patrons of crafts from Delhis distinguished cognoscenti were invited for the event. Sujata Assomull Sippy a respected social influencer and key advocate of craft, and former editor of Harpers Bazaar magazine was appointed the Project Lead for The Balvenie Guild and will be responsible for mentoring the program along with four Connoisseurs of Craft, (C0C) leading personalities who will identify and mentor individual bodies of craftsmen to compete in a grand finale early next year. 2012-13 will see recognition in the fields of Cuisine, Fine Jewelry, Mixed Media and Performing Arts, each vertical led by the CoCs themselves.
As an ultimate expression of handcrafted excellence, The Balvenie Single Malt Scotch whisky will offer a unique platform for the overall winner of the competition across the four verticals and the four major regions of the country.
The evening witnessed a great turn out of guests which included: Marut & Anusuiya Sikka, Navin Ansal & Raseel Gujral, Bindu Vadera, Sanjeev & Shelly Batra with son Samegh Batra, Vikrum Baidyanath, Amol Vadhera, Suhel Seth, Ameeta Seth and Vibhor Sharma, Anita Bajaj, Deepak Bedi, Jaideep Sippy, Karishma Bedi, Deepshikha & Rahul Khanna, Gauri Karan, Pia Pauro, Radhika Chanana, Ayesha Grewal of The Altitude Store, designers Suneet Varma, Gaurav Gupta, Rakesh Thakore with Kevin Negli, Ranna Gill, Mayank Mansingh Kaul with Anupam Poddar, Rohit Gandhi, Varun Bahl, Harmeet Bajaj, Gautam Seth & Prateek Jain of Klove Designs, Mahesh Mathai of Blue Frog, Sam & Karishma Bedi, Arun and Amrita Thapar, Jaisal Singh, Anmol and Nayantara Sehgal amongst others.