Master of wine Sonal Holland explains why we need a cultural shift

For most of us, the lockdown presented no highlights. We spent much of our time fretting over the imminent threat of a lethal virus. For Sonal Holland, however, the period of isolation came with a silver lining: she got the chance to drink wine with Francis Ford Coppola. Virtually, but still.

The filmmaker is a friend. The two met a couple of years ago at an exclusive wine dinner to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the iconic Château Lafite Rothschild winery in Bordeaux. The next morning, they drove to the airport in one car, with Coppola regaling Holland with stories from his legendary career in Hollywood.

“It was a fantastic evening. Dominic West (the actor) was also among the luminaries present. We tasted some of the oldest and most expensive wines in the world. It was amazing how curious Coppola was about India. He wanted to know everything,” she recalls.

Holland’s line of work is such that celebrity encounters are frequent, and it’s safe to assume that she no longer gets starstruck. The 47-year-old is India’s first — and only — Master of Wine, a distinguished qualification issued by the Institute of Masters of Wine in London.

The certification is among the most rigorous to achieve: It involves a detailed theory exam, a blind tasting of 36 wines from across the world, and an exacting research paper. The pass rate is abysmally low: only 400 people have received the certification in the exam’s history of 67 years. “It’s a bit like a PhD — it’s almost self-taught. I went to vineyards around Europe trying to understand their wines,” she says.

We’re chatting over lunch on Zoom. Holland, who is based in Mumbai, confesses that she is tired of eating gourmet meals from all her travels. A reason she has picked out something simpler for our meeting: paneer butter masala, black dal, beans and an impeccably arranged dome of pulao. And, since no meal is complete without wine, she is sipping a glass of Château Gairoird, a crisp white wine she got back from Bordeaux earlier this year. I, on the other hand, pretend to be more abstemious, with only a bowl of fruit — papaya and mango — in front of me.

Holland’s rise in the world of wine is remarkable for the fact that she had never even tasted the spirit for much of her adult life. “I grew up drinking gin, vodka and beer,” she reveals, adding that she was introduced to wine by her British husband, Andrew. The wine she tried was a white Burgundy, a Chardonnay, which got her excited. “It wasn’t anything fancy, but I remember immediately taking a liking to it.”

The wine came her way when Holland was growing disillusioned with her role as director of sales and marketing at the American staffing company, Kelly Services. “My job had become a bit boring, and there was a genuine fear that I was going to die anonymous.”

Trained in hotel management, the naturally ambitious Holland sought a sunrise industry. The decision to venture into wine was partially triggered by an article Andrew made her read. It was by Jancis Robinson, Financial Times’ longtime wine correspondent. By then, she was somewhat familiar with the wine industry but insisted on getting a proper education. “I didn’t want to become one of those ‘self-proclaimed experts’.”

So in 2007, Holland moved to London to get herself enrolled in the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, a journey that culminated in her getting the Master of Wine title four years ago. Through the years, she was the only Indian in all her classes. “Other students wondered if Indians drank wine at all. And I normally painted a picture that was rosier than the reality,” she smiles. But this also told her that there was a tremendous opportunity to take Indian wine to the world.

Holland favours wine for three reasons: its suave image, health benefits, and the fact that it’s socially more acceptable. “I sometimes wonder if it can be considered an alcoholic beverage at all,” she laughs.

In 2009, Holland started her eponymous wine academy, hoping to educate youngsters about the spirits business. Back then, though, with wine still consumed in measly quantities in India and the concept of a pure beverage consultant non-existent, she needed to convince major hotel chains that such professionals were needed. Now, of course, Holland reckons that the hospitality sector has matured. There is ample room for sommeliers, bartenders, mixologists and educators — and most of them are women.

Despite wine gaining popularity — it is estimated that India has nearly 300 wine importers and over 100 vineyards — Holland feels that our enthusiasm for wine precedes our consumption. “We need a cultural shift,” she says. “I often see people drinking a Rs 1,500 imported, cheap quality wine simply because it’s imported. They won’t buy a premium domestic wine at the same price.” She is confident about the quality of some Indian wines since she tastes hundreds of them at the India Wine Awards every year, an event she launched in 2017.

At this point, I can’t help but ask her if she thinks that experts complicate wine too much, feeding into the elitist image that the spirit has always been associated with. While difficult to achieve in a fragmented industry like wine, Holland agrees that there is a desperate need to simplify the drink, and make it more fun.

“I’ve been to dinners where European winemakers keep talking about a wine’s recipe, the soil it came from on, and so on,” she says. “The average person just wants to know how they will look drinking a particular wine. That’s why we need to change the way we communicate about wine.”