|  Reva K. Singh is a the editor and publisher of Sommelier India Wine Magazine, India’s first print publication dedicated to wine and the culture surrounding it with an online version as well. She is a veteran of the Indian magazine industry.
Although Reva lives at walking distance from my house, I met her at a friend’s son’s wedding several years ago when we were sitting at the same table. She told me that she had been working with the Oberoi Hotel’s in-house magazine for several years and was planning on starting a wine magazine- considered a novel and risky venture at that time. But she went ahead with the help of her son in the USA encouraging her and even investing in it whereas husband Kulbir Singh was willing to extend her a helping hand in the management.
Prior to publishing the magazine, Reva edited The Oberoi Group Magazine for six years raising it to a level of excellence comparable to the best international hotel magazines. She has led or been on the editorial team of several high profile publications in India and abroad over her 30-year publishing career.
Reva has also made a formidable reputation for herself in the Indian wine industry. In 2009 she organized the Sommelier India Wine Competition (SIWC) for Indian wines, of which she was co-chairperson with Steven Spurrier.
She is on the Board of Wine Advisors for The Wine Society of India and also a member of the UK Circle of Wine Writers and the International Wine and Food Society, Bombay. Most recently she served on the international jury of the Santiago Cata d’Or Wine Awards, a prominent wine and spirits competition in Chile. She was invited this year in August to join an international panel of judges for the Michelangelo International Wine Competition in Cape Town, South Africa.
‘As editor and publisher of Sommelier India, I get the privileged opportunity to travel to the wine regions of the world and taste a variety of wines. This has built my knowledge base, knowledge that I gladly share with my readers through the pages of Sommelier India, which is regarded as India’s window on the world of wine’. In fact, to her credit, Reva Singh has not succumbed to the lure of adding spirits in her magazine that would make a better commercial sense. Till date, it continues to be the only print magazine in India, dedicated only to wine.
 Reva enjoys travelling and entertaining. She has a great love for books and has made an enviable collection of books on wine. Before entering the word of publishing and wine, Reva taught English Literature to undergraduates for six years, and books remain a strong interest.
Reva was born in Delhi but grew up in Shimla where she spent eleven years at Tara Hall, an elite boarding school for girls run by Irish Catholic nuns. She attained her Bachelor and Master of Arts in English Honours from Miranda House, University of Delhi, and subsequently capped her experience as a journalist by attending the Radcliffe Publishing Course and receiving a certificate in The Business of Publishing from Harvard University. She relinquished her desire to join a PhD programme in Cultural Studies when she founded Sommelier India Wine Magazine and elected instead to be a student of wine.
Sommelier India is a well established print wine magazine with a consumer bias that keeps the subscribers well-informed about the Indian wine industry and the world of wine, thanks to the dedicated efforts of women like Reva Singh whom we are glad to include in the first-ever edition of WOW-Top Ten Women of Wine in India.
Subhash Arora
Subhash Arora
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