Lalit Delhi organises WSET Training Course for Only-Women Staff

Photos By:: Adil Arora

Eight women underwent the training after 2 of them cancelled out at the last minute due to unavoidable circumstances. 6 of them are from OKO and 1 each from Kitty Su and 24*7 Coffee Shop.  Sovna Puri, wine educator of national repute came from Mumbai especially to conduct the course. The Corporate Sommelier, Charles Donnadieu came up with the idea of organising an all-women training course. ‘OKO has an all-women staff and so I decided to first get them trained exclusively and adding one from the Coffee Shop and one from Kitty Su. Currently OKO is hot destination for food as well as wine and it will help to have the staff motivated in wine and a bit knowledgeable and serve the customers better,’ he added.

He adds, ‘I suggested it to Mr Keshav Suri, our Executive Director and he was very enthused about it. Mr Ravindra Kumar, our Corporate F * B Director who is very supportive of wine training programs gave an immediate thumbs up. Having the Corporate Learning & Development Manager at The LaLiT Suri Hospitality Group as a lady- Ms. Richa Singh, made my job much easier.  I had already made Ace Beveragez commit to sponsor a couple of training programs when the time was right and they said an instant yes to that and Voila!’ He is very excited that The Lalit Hotel is the first hotel or perhaps any group in India that has taken this initiative.

For the programme, Charles who feels that the staff should get to taste the expensive wines that they serve to the guests and not the entry level wines that are usually served in such training programmes, volunteered to open the hotel cellar for high quality wines.  Wines served were:

Durvillea Sauvignon Blanc (New Zealand)
Kendall Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay (California)
Durvillea Pinot Noir (New Zealand)
Chateau Lamothe Vincent Bordeaux Supérieur (Bordeaux)
Phoenix Estates Cabernet Sauvignon (South Australia)
Calvet Sauternes

Richa Singh is very excited about this project. Conceding that the wine ideas disseminate from Charles, she said she was very happy to organise this particular training obviously because of the women staff but she works closely with Charles and Ravindra to ensure all trainings in wine are carried out as fast as possible. ‘It is my job to get all training programmes happen,’ she said with a confident smile.

Sovna is a well known name as a wine educator, primarily from working with Sula Vineyards where she has been conducting WSET courses for a long time. In 2016 she decided to go solo but handles their programmes which are held around once a month on All- India basis. She is soon to conduct a course in Nashik and Pune this month.  Now a free-lancer working also with Madhuloka, Bangalore she has conducted over 50 such programmes with groups that include private parties also. ‘Possibly closer to 100, I don’t even remember’, she told delWine during the lunch break. She finished her WSET Diploma last year from London at the same time when Sumedh Singh Mandla, now Managing Director of VBev completed his from Hong Kong, making them as one of the ten having the distinction. She is naturally a WSET qualified educator.

Charles is an introvert who likes to work on wine promotion quietly, besides this project. He has involved  Sula , York , Fratelli & Grover for training in almost all the Lalit properties wherever their wines are listed- starting from June and ending July this year. Next month the same exercise will be repeated with the partners for imported wines. Last year in February & June the hotel sent more than 20 f & b managers to participate at WSET 1 & 2 coursed in Delhi and Mumbai. On weekly basis the Power Point Presentation on a  wine topic is selected by him and shared with all the properties and he conducts regular training for the staff. Next week the hotel is organising a course on IWBS- the Indian version of WSET, with the Wi-Not team, in which management trainees from The Lalit Suri Management Academy will participate.

Indian Wine Academy and delWine actively support bringing women to the fore in the Indian wine industry and in fact instituted for the first time in India a Top Ten Women of Wine Recognition in 2013 and this year awarded them at the delWine Excellence Awards at Hotel Pullman New Delhi Aerocity and wish to congratulate Team Lalit for the maiden venture and hope the others in the hospitality industry and wine educators will follow the lead.

Subhash Arora

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