Soumen Dey

Soumen Dey: I pick wines for the hotel cellar, and also train the staff I supervise in the Pan Asian Restaurant, helping them pair food and wine. At present, I am studying to be a sommelier as well.

OT: How did you come to be a wine custodian?

Soumen Dey: The service industry was something new in my family, as my father had been a government employee. Some people from my school, my seniors, had gone into the hospitality industry. They said this was an extremely interesting profession, in which one got to meet people from around the world. I was doing BSc at this point, but thought I would do a correspondence course in hospitality management as well — it could take me into a variety of fields, such as marketing, not just to hotels. While doing this course, I became interested in wines.

Once I got the job at ITC Sonar, seeing my interest in wine, the head of the department, the F&B (food & beverages) manager nominated me to be the wine custodian. This turn in my profession became an extension of my personal interest.

OT: What drew you to wines?

Soumen Dey: Well, I thought, what is it about wines that makes them so special, their flavours so subtle? For instance, a wine made in Italy could have a faint coffee flavour, even though the vineyard may be a hundred miles away from the coffee plantation. These things intrigued me very much. During my three years doing hotel management, I trained myself to learn about wine, gathering notes, keeping a journal for my own reference, consulting wine encyclopaedias.

OT: Any interesting stories you’d like to share?

Soumen Dey: While doing my Level 2 in Bombay, we used to have daily tasting sessions  —  we’d have about 30ml of wine from 25–26 bottles. This was to train us in distinguishing tastes. But by the end of the day, our taste buds were puzzled. We felt a little intoxicated and sometimes it was hard to identify the wine.

One day, we had to taste two chardonnays, both from Burgundy (in France). We had forgotten which wine was poured before which and none of us could tell them apart. At this time, our teacher Sanjay Menon, the renowned wine importer, walked in and said, “You can’t distinguish these two?” Then he just had a sniff of each glass and correctly identified the wines. That’s an amazing nose. I hope to be like him.

OT: Are guests in India happy to ask for suggestions or do they have clear preferences?

Soumen Dey: Out of hundred, maybe eighty guests want some advice from the person waiting on them. The others ask for the wine custodian. Usually, European and Australian guests make their own choices, while Indians and Americans ask for suggestions.

Indian guests, I find, are becoming more receptive now to the culture of ‘wine and dine’ in their social and professional gatherings.

OT: Which wine countries would you like to visit?

Soumen Dey: I would love to visit Côte Mâconnais, Alsace and Loire Valley in France, as well as the Peter Sangiovese vineyards of Tuscany, Italy.

OT: Any surprising requests from guests?

Soumen Dey: Rarely, but yes. Guests do occasionally ask for ice wines (made from grapes frozen while still on the vines) and oloroso (a fortified Spanish wine). If they ask for a particularly unusual wine, we try to find one that is closest to that.

OT: Is talking about wines as important as recommending something?

Soumen Dey: Certainly. A small percentage of our guests — maybe 15–20 out of hundred — loves to talk about wines. And I like these conversations. After all, when the guests are more educated about wines, it also means higher sales for us. So I’m happy to spend time with them.

Soumen Dey, Wine Custodian, Pan Asian restaurant, ITC Sonar, Kolkata, JBS Haldane Avenue (Opposite Science City);  033–23454545; itchotels.in