One sip at a time

Wine tasting is actually quite a lot of work: after the first few samples, both the nose and the palate start showing fatigue

Sonal Holland is not just the first Indian to become a Master of Wine. She’s also a hugely talented showperson, one who kept an audience of wine experts spellbound — and in splits — as she recounted the rituals and pitfalls of judging wines for the 2018 edition of the India Wine Awards at the Leela Hotel Mumbai last week.

We were a motley bunch of 14 invited by Sonal to participate in a two-day session to taste and rate wines submitted by both Indian wineries and importers. This was the second such exercise, the first having been held last year