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 I met David first at London Wine Fair about 10 years ago when I discussed with him the possibility of bringing WSET to India. He was quite interested but I could not fulfill my wish list for two reasons-I thought the program was a bit too expensive for the average Indians who might want to learn the basics but more importantly the programme involved teaching and tasting spirits also and that was against my ‘religion’ - I promote and support only wine as the healthy lifestyle product.
Since then WSET has come a long way, thanks to the organizational efforts by WSET and David Wrigley MW who is celebrating the 20th anniversary of his getting the MW recognition this year. In fact, David and his colleagues are in Delhi, training 15 employees of ITC, who have finished WSET-3 to train them further as educators. WSET has four levels-1,2,3 (earlier known as Advanced Certificate but now discarded due to UK Government requirements and 4 (Diploma). In order to qualify to teach a level a person must be qualified at least a step higher, except Level 4-(Diploma) which may be taught by a person with WSET-4 qualification but subject to accreditation by the Wine and Spirits Education Trust.
‘ITC Hotels have taken a conscious decision to get every employee in the food and wine service in all the restaurants to have at least the basic WSET-1 qualification and each of the restaurants in the luxury hotels would have two WSET-3 qualified persons,’ says Sonal Holland, Divisional Head of Wine and Beverage, who has come from Mumbai to oversee the programme.
ITC is one of the biggest Approved Programme Providers (APPs) in India. In a layman’s parlance, this means a Distributor. There are a few other APPs like Sula, Sansula (Sanjay Menon), Tullee-Ho, Wi-Not and Parson Bros (Kolkata) who are involved currently in conducting courses-mostly up to WSET-3. David clarifies that before anyone gets the APP certification, the company must have a WSET certified educator or should convince the availability of at least one such educator. Interestingly, Sonal Holland who ran a Wine Academy before joining ITC was an APP and a certified educator. She may not practice herself but is the certified educator for the corporate that has set itself the goal of having the best wine trained staff in the country in all its hotels, especially the luxury hotels.
David admits that India is a difficult and uncertain market. Whereas China would have 5000 candidates appear for various levels this year and Hong Kong a mind boggling 4000, India has had only a few hundred, according to him. If one measures the growth by the increase in numbers, the current year (ending July) would see about 50,000 candidates globally, taking one of the 4 level exams. There has been a robust growth if one sees the figures of 43,000 in 2012-13 and 36,000 during 2011-12. UK where the programme was conceived and founded, still provides the maximum number of people at 12,000 although with the fast growth in the Asia countries, the percentage of UK candidates is expected to gradually come down. The US market, where David spent 18 months a few years ago and where the Society of Wine Educators is very strong, has become an important market with 5000 candidates thanks to growing interest among the distributor tier of the trade.
 As might be expected the maximum interest is in WSET-1 and WSET-2 in which 20,000, and 22,000 candidates respectively are participating this year. Level-3 has attracted 8,000 according to the statistics shared by David. The mother of all levels is naturally WSET-4 which Sonal Holland has cleared along with 3 others in India. In fact, she even appeared for her MW exam this year despite working full-time at ITC. There are 1200 new entrants this year for the Level-4. ‘We measure it this way because it is a two year programme; new starters are an equivalent measure to the other numbers,’ says David.
At the dinner at Dum Pukht where Chef Qureshi served some of his specialties that were well paired by Sonal with an un-oaked Chardonnay from Australia and a fruity Pinot Noir from Oregon, the convivial discussion could not bring to a conclusive end whether a WEST-qualified person could term himself as a Sommelier. Clarifying that Sommelier is really the guy who is in the front line of service and that the subject is touched upon in a WSET-1 wine service award, he said that WSET nevertheless, do not use the term formally.
Another confusion that needs to be addressed by the Trust is the misuse of the qualification of many people, especially in level-1 and level-2. Facebook is full of people who mention as their educational qualification WSET wine or WSET qualified. Perhaps, these are level-1and level-2 qualified. This results in deprecating the depth and breadth of the courses at level 3 and particularly 4 (diploma). WSET ought to come down hard on such misuse, if they want the momentum to continue. The certificate should have a clause that the candidate passing a level must mention the level in any public use.
One cannot disagree with David and Sonal that WSET provides important training in wines at different levels. More and more people interested in wine are expected to be drawn to these courses. There is also a dire need to have a course designed for masses which is of a level slightly lower than 1 for the consumers and reasonably affordable. There is a big latent demand in this sector.
For any enquiries you may contact the International Development Director Jude Mullins who is also in Delhi these days and the rest of the team at international@wset.co.uk
Subhash Arora
Tags: David Wrigley MW, WSET, WSET Educator Training Program, Sonal Holland |