India Wine Awards 2019: Once more with feeling

With 320 wines tasted and assessed this year, Sonal Holland MW’s India Wine Awards 2019 is getting set to announce the best wine in India

Fun, games and a whole lot of work.

That, in brief, summed up the third edition of the India Wine Awards (IWA) jury session held in Mumbai on 12^th & 13^th September 2019 – two days of an exacting tasting schedule punctuated with witty one liners and gags, bonhomie over food and intense debate over wine as the jury raced the clock to judge the 320 wines – Indian and imported – nominated for the awards to identify the best wine in India.

While it was a whirlwind couple of days, Sonal Holland MW, the founder and chairperson of the Awards showed little visible signs of strain – she says her amped up all-women’s team did such a great job behind the scenes that it took the stress of the annual mega-event off her shoulders. “I just had to get my hair done and show up,” she joked.

Joking apart, there was much behind-the-scenes micro-management to get the awards – its task to identify the best wine in India – to this happy place. IWA’s head of operations Apurva Gawande admitted, “There is a lot that goes on at the back end… you can never be sure how it will go until it’s done.” The biggest task once the nominations were in was to get the coding nailed, the hundreds of bottles brown-bagged, their labels meticulously obscured. Then the service staff had to be briefed on serving temperatures, pour sizes and efficient clearance – key to keep the flow going through the day. “There is always madness that goes on behind the scenes, but we can’t give in to any stress.”

In fact, there was an uncharacteristic calm in Holland’s team before the event. The Leela’s EAM Abhisek Basu recalls the flurry of emails exchanged before last year’s event. “This year there were barely any,” he recounts, “In fact, I started getting worried a couple of weeks ahead of the event.” Holland confirms, “We were exceptionally calm, in zen mode. We knew what needed to be done.”

Last year, in her briefing to the jury prior to the event she spoke of how she wanted the 2^nd edition to be ‘bigger, brighter and shinier’ than the inaugural one. That happened. So, what did she expect for the 3rd edition this year? “I wanted the IWA to be accepted by the (wine) industry, and it has been.” Given the growing buzz about an impending economic slowdown, they thought that crossing last year’s nominations would be tough, but, she says, “we hit the mark.”

Now with Day Two of the 2-day jury session at The Leela Mumbai done, the excitement has subsided much like the pounding rain and frenzied drumbeats which marked the Ganpati visarjan the day before. It is time for Holland to reflect on the events of the last couple of days. After judging the final tasting session of food and wine pairing, we sit down for a coffee and a quick recap.

2019’s 16-member jury had a few familiar faces and several new ones. “I think this year’s jury lineup was the best. We included many more judges from the industry – sommeliers, hotel general managers, restaurateurs – they constitute the most important part of the trade and are a direct link to consumers. So it was a strong jury with discerning palates.”

We discuss the single biggest change Holland has instituted in the judging process: the tasting of Indian and international wines together in the same flights. This time, flights were defined solely by grape variety or blend, and the judges tasted and assessed the wines blind without knowing whether the wines were Indian or imported. Why this modification? I asked.

“We decided to simplify categories this time. Before anyone considers judging Indian wines alongside international wines unfair, let me say that Indian wines are now taking part in international competitions abroad, and competing with wines around the world, so why not here, where we are looking to single out the best wine in India?”

The scale of the competition has required meticulous planning and an eye to detail. Holland explains, “As the wines are tasted blind by the jury, to start with it’s important to use high quality glassware. We are thankful to Lucaris crystal stemware for their support at the IWA over the last two years. Receiving over 600 clean and brilliant crystal glasses for the competition took away a lot of our initial stress. Furthermore, the perfectly-shaped glass bowls helped elevate the tasting experience and allowed each wine to show at its best. We also arranged flights with the same grape variety or similar styles of wines presented together. For example, aromatics whites would seldom be mixed with non-aromatics styles, and only full-bodied reds would be presented together. This kept the tasting parameters at par across the flight. Every wine was tasted by at least 3 to 4 members of the jury to eliminate any bias and only the aggregate scores were considered. The chairperson’s role (in this case, mine), was to ensure that the wines that were considered worthy of medals were re-discussed and re-assessed to ensure that the jury table agreed unanimously on the winners.”

The conversation turned to the eternal question on every Indian wine geek’s mind: what does wine culture in India need in order to develop?  “India needs more consumers of wine,” avers Holland, “The industry needs support from the government, and wine tourism must be promoted. We need to reinforce this message, and I did, recently when I was invited to the India Leadership Conclave 2019. We must continue to speak up and speak out.”

The IWA will play a role in broadcasting this message. “We would like everyone to embrace these awards, and this is not an ego-boosting request. We want credible winners to get to the eye of the consumers, who in turn will be led to the best wines to buy,” To this end, the IWA will issue stickers for all the winners – in the categories silver, gold and diamond for best in show – and she intends to create a separate section for all IWA award-winning wines at her own wine stores located in the Food Halls in Mumbai and Bangalore. This will help consumers to quickly identify quality and also demonstrate her own commitment to India’s wine industry, she says.

As for the Winners’ Night gala on 5^th October, she wants it to be a celebration of excellence. “We want it to be a great party, a fantastic show. But what we don’t want is the IWA to be a burst of activity that happens once a year. We want to stay on top of mind – so after it is done, we will put together a calendar of events to promote the winners during the year.” Holland’s SoHo Wine Club also plans to go full throttle on wine-centric activities, from educational courses, both formal (WSET) and non-formal, brand consultancy, wine events and more. “I am fortunate to have the support and good will of the wine industry in India. I consider myself blessed.”

So after the Winners’ Night strobe lights have dimmed, the music faded and the wine glasses polished and put away, it will be time for the next chapter to begin.

The India Wine Awards 2019 continues with its super sub-category of Excellence in Restaurant Wine Program started in 2018, where shortlisted restaurants, both 5-star and standalone, with the best wine lists will be judged by a panel which includes 3 international Masters of Wine. The objective is to help consumers in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore identify the restaurants with best wine selection, pricing and knowledgeable service. Look out for these when the results are announced on 5th October.