|  Could you tell us about your career background and how you became a sommelier?
I came back to India in 1999 when I was the Head Sommelier for P&O cruise liner . I had 18 European sommeliers working under me at that time.
But how did you qualify to be one?
I was brought up and raised in Delhi . After my graduation I did my PG diploma in Catering and Hotel Management from B.C. Roy College of Catering in Kolkata. When I went overseas to work for P & O cruiser liner , I was fortunate to have been taken under his wings by Collin Hutchins, MW who became my mentor. With his guidance I completed 3 levels of the courses conducted by the London Wine and Spirits Trust. I was so committed to the studies that I never got less than A or A+ grade.
If you finished the Level 4, you could become eligible for study as a Master of Wine and you could become the first MW from India …
Becoming an MW is very much on my mind. Fortunately, I don't have to clear Level 4 because of my relevant work experience of over 3 years. I have been already informed by them that I may join as a student for the 2008 session. This year's admissions have been already closed.
So you will have to take leave from the Taj to do the MW which could be a long affair and you would need to be there in London for part of the time anyway?
Well, whatever I do will have to be under sponsorship from my company. We have properties outside India . Perhaps, I could get a transfer to some of these hotels. Let us hope and see.
As an Assistant F & B Manager what role do you play in the wine area?
Previous to joining the Taj group I was in MBD Radisson Hotel from where our COO. Mr. Abhijit Mukherji picked me up. I was also offered the job by the Oberoi group as a head sommelier at that time.
Why did you not grab that offer? Oberoi is also and excellent hotel group to work for, especially in wines.
See, there my job would have been only in the area of wines. My goal is to become a GM like our Mr. Sarabjit Singh. I want to be a Ronnie Lobo. ( Ronnie is an ex-Taj employee currently holding a senior position with the Radisson group. His knowledge of wines is exceptional, though he is a very low-key & introvert manager-editor ) .
I joined the Taj group as the group sommelier. Though I am an employee of IAHCL, Mumbai, my responsibilities are to handle the activities at the Palace in Delhi where I handle all areas in wines and spirits.
How many wine labels do you have in the Taj Palace ?
We have a total of 498 labels. But you will find between 500-600 at any given time as we keep on experimenting with the new labels too.
Isn't it too cumbersome to handle inventory? The word on the street is that you do not have the listed labels actually in stock?
Inventory management is a huge task. But we have computerised systems that give us the complete status at any given time. In fact we are centralised and I can see the inventory at any of the Taj's properties in Mumbai and so can they mine.
We constantly monitor the wine sales and inventories. Our promotional policies are also based on the stock movements. At times, we may not have the listed vintage. But we offer an alternate one to the guests. Rarely would you find a label you order, not in stock.
How many vendors do you deal with?
We deal primarily with five bonders: Brindco, Global, Sonarys are the major ones. We also deal a lot with Mohan Bros. who handles our requirements of Moet & Hennessey though we deal with Remy Martin directly. TT &G is another of our bonders. Between them we pretty much meet our requirements.
Who decides the wine pricing policy of the hotel?
The wine purchase are in principle approved in Mumbai for each financial year by the CPC (Central Purchase Committee) headed by our VP, Ms. Shirin Batliwala. They negotiate the price in Mumbai, so that is not our turf. I decide the selling prices based on the marketing and international trends. We are an international chain now and it is easy to get the facts and figures from abroad. The trends keep on changing too. Having travelled to 55 countries, I find it easy to stay on top of the market and the current trends.
But how do you decide the mark ups?
We base our prices at an average of 40-70% beverage costs. The value wines are at 40%. Expensive ones can be at 70 or even at 75% as we want them to move also and not stay on the wine list only. For instance we may go for a Margaux at 75% and Sassicaia at 65%. A Petrus might be 70%, perhaps. We certainly want to be lower than other similar 5-star properties in the market.
What sort of wine promotions do you carry out in the hotel?
First of all we sell wine by the glass at very low prices. We offer at Rs. 400 a glass or Rs. 500 a glass. Our decent wines, not entry levels, cost at Rs. 2000-3000 a bottle. So we offer them at the same price by the glass and do not charge a premium.
What is your standard measure for a glass?
We always sell at 5-glasses to a bottle basis. Even if there is a promotion, our standard measure is 150 mL.
Going through your list you have just handed me, let us take a Tarapaca for instance. You sell it for Rs. 1800. Your buying price cannot be more than Rs. 400 duty free, including Rs.150 as the excise duty. If we calculate, it works out to less than 25 % beverage cost. Isn't it?
 Well, I don't know the cost but I think it is above Rs. 400 to start with. But there could be some exceptions at the lower end wines. But if you look at our promotional prices, we even offer them at Rs. 300 a glass. For instance, our current offer of Rs.300 a glass at Masala Art includes Casa Lapostolle, Chablis Domaine Long De-paquit, Cabernet Sauvignon Benziger etc are very affordable. The Tea House offers the Tarapaca Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer from Schlumbergerce etc. for the same price.
I do the food and wine pairing too so that the customer can get an idea of which wines to choose for the food he is ordering. Our offers detail these pairings.
We do the same thing for the more expensive wines at the Orient Express too, since the food is more expensive and the clients do not mind paying more. We do promotions there at times, with rare wines. For instance, a customer may never want to order a full bottle of Margaux or even a Cos d'Estournel. We give him an experience of tasting these wines. For instance, our 4-course meal at the Orient normally costs 3150++. We offered a package at Rs.4500++ which includes four glasses of the premium wines I am talking about.
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