{"id":46086,"date":"2026-09-18T13:20:38","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T11:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vinexposium.com\/industry\/lessons-for-success-in-asia\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T14:09:02","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T12:09:02","slug":"lessons-for-success-in-asia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vinexposium.com\/en\/actus\/faces\/sonal-holland-mws-full-circle-moment\/","title":{"rendered":"Sonal Holland MW\u2019s full circle moment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Author: <\/strong>Nimmi Malhotra<\/p>\n

The V d\u2019Or winner discusses her journey, representation and the Indian market from its embryonic roots to where it stands today.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Master of Wine Sonal Holland<\/strong> walked on stage at the V d\u2019Or Awards in February 2026 to accept the prize for Best Education & Transmission in the wine category, she was, for once, lost for words. She is India\u2019s first (and only) MW, but the award recognised her for more outward-facing work: her efforts to champion women in wine<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the podium, she started with something close to: \u201cI was not expecting this. I wish I had prepared a speech,\u201d before recovering to speak eloquently about the strength of women in India and the importance of representation. Her moment of surprise sits in sharp contrast to the clarity with which she has approached her career: methodical and purposeful but not without <\/span>risk<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLife always looks great in hindsight,\u201d she says now. \u201cYou can look back and say, I knew it all. The truth is: at the time, it was a risk, and I just deep-dived into it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Portrait Photo credit: Courtesy of Sonal C Holland MW<\/p>\n

From middle-class to Master of Wine<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Holland did not grow up around vineyards, cellars or grand cru bottles. She describes her upbringing in Mumbai as middle-class, traditional yet progressive, with a father who instilled in her a lifelong fixation on excellence. Holland internalised that as a personal metric that she calls her 95<\/span>th<\/span> percentile rule: she aimed to be in the top 5% of whatever field she entered.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After an early career in hotel management with the Taj and Oberoi groups in India, she moved into a sales and marketing management role with the international recruitment company Kelly Services. \u201cI was following the traditional roadmap to success: the corner office, high salary and path to CEO,\u201d she recalls.<\/span><\/p>\n

The turning point came when her husband<\/strong>, Andrew, whom she met while working at the Oberoi Hotel, drew her attention to the wine industry. He was the first to identify her clear, confident articulation as an asset in what he called \u201can industry that demands people who can communicate either the spoken word or the written word.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At the time, she thought he was joking but decided to take the advice seriously anyway and set herself a goal with no precedent: to become India\u2019s first Master of Wine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The qualification took a decade to achieve<\/strong>. Roughly four years working through WSET levels, followed by six years on the Master of Wine programme. It was not a clean run; Holland failed her tasting paper three times and had to resit the theory exam. But she wasn\u2019t deterred. \u201cThere were many make-or-break moments, but I never gave up. I didn\u2019t take a single year off,\u201d she says. <\/span><\/p>\n

From a virgin market to a wine ecosystem<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Wine in India was \u201cvirgin territory.\u201d Her decision to enter rested on three converging factors<\/strong>. The first was a narrow but real consumer appetite<\/strong>. \u201cWine was seen as an elitist beverage poured almost exclusively at luxury hotels,\u201d she says, but she sensed it could reach a far wider audience. The second was an absence of real wine expertise<\/strong> \u2014 expertise she was about to acquire \u2014 and the third was simply her strong communication skill set<\/strong> that the industry needed. \u201cI wasn\u2019t looking to do something that had already been done. I was looking for an untapped opportunity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That instinct for white space rather than crowded markets has stayed with her ever since. \u201cIndia is not a mature market, and the industry doesn\u2019t have depth,\u201d she says. \u201cWhere there is no penetration, you must build breadth.\u201d After becoming a Master of Wine in 2016, she tried her hand in several projects at once rather than specialising in one. And, in the end, she built something closer to an ecosystem.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She had already founded Sonal Holland Wine Academy in 2009, while still studying. In 2016, she launched SoHo Wines Consulting<\/strong>, an advisory arm for international brands entering India. Several more ventures followed in close succession: the India Wine Awards in 2017; India Wine Insider \u2014 the country\u2019s first consumer-landscape report on the Indian wine market produced in partnership with Wine Intelligence in 2018 and Vine2Wine in 2019, a wine outlet run as a shop-in-shop inside Food Hall, Mumbai.<\/span><\/p>\n

The pivot to digital and regional India<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

The next inflection point came with the pandemic. Sitting at home in 2020, Holland grappled with the question of legacy and came to realise it meant \u201cmaking a meaningful contribution that moves the industry forward in some way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Home consumption had taken off in a big way during COVID-19, and she reasoned that if she could share her knowledge with even a small subset of the country\u2019s 1.4 billion population, she could reach a sizeable market and make a real impact.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She started with short-form wine education videos<\/strong>: quick, jargon-free, myth-busting clips under a minute long in her trademark unapologetic, straight style, first on TikTok, and then on Instagram, once TikTok was banned in India. Two years later, she extended the format to Marathi and Hindi, a move she frames as central to \u201cdemocratising\u201d wine beyond the metropolitan audience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a quiet eureka moment,\u201d she continues. \u201cA way to demonstrate that wine is not just for the elites; it is not only for the ones who can speak good English but for everyone.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Holland\u2019s social media presence has since grown to over 1.5 million followers<\/strong>. The regional content opened up the tier-two and tier-three city markets, where wine knowledge is often limited to broad categories of white, red and pink, but where she found \u201ctremendous enthusiasm\u201d for learning wine etiquette and lifestyle. When Holland hosted events in cities like Chandigarh, Punjab, the acceptance rate was roughly 85%, compared with the 25% she typically sees in metro cities. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sonal With students at the Sonal C Holland Wine & Spirit Academy
\nPhoto credit: Courtesy of Sonal C Holland MW<\/p>\n

One more dimension<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Gender, she insists, was never a factor in her plan. The press coverage at the time framed her Master of Wine as a female achievement<\/strong>, but for her, the title was the goal. \u201cI just wanted to become India\u2019s first Master of Wine.\u201d Being a woman, she says, was simply \u201cone more dimension to it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Only later, through her academy, where 50% of students are women, did she fully grasp how different other women\u2019s realities could be. Young women studying there would often appeal to her directly and ask, \u201cMa\u2019am, I really want to pursue a career in wine. Would you mind talking to my parents?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Parental resistance and social stigma around working with alcohol are common in India, she points out, as are pay gaps, unequal opportunities and a pervasive sense of being sidelined. That led her to launch a Women in Wine Innovation & Leadership scholarship program in 2024, helping 15 women enter the wine trade through subsidised wine education. It was this work that brought her back to the V d\u2019Or stage in February.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was deeply gratifying to see this cause gain recognition on a global stage,\u201d she says, recalling the evening. \u201cA larger representation of women in the Indian wine industry is a cause close to my heart. It has inspired me to continue championing opportunities for women in the beverage industry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Building past herself<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

The story is tidier in hindsight than it was lived. Holland is candid that the MW title did not generate work on its own. \u201cNobody asked for a Master of Wine,\u201d she says. \u201cIf I had not stepped out of the house and gone to look for work, I would have ended up jobless.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Much of her breadth-over-depth approach was also an act of self-preservation. Some of her ventures failed. Others stuck. Yet 10 years on, she remains the country\u2019s only Master of Wine \u2014 a role that can only stretch so far in an industry of India\u2019s size. Last year, she was invited to consult on the wine list for the national carrier, Air India. She is now also a co-organiser of Vinexpo Discover India.<\/span><\/p>\n

She concedes that the bigger question of how one person can scale a personal brand into something larger than herself remains unresolved. \u201cThat is exactly the question I am asking myself,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

About Nimmi Malhotra<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
\"Portrait

Nimmi Malhotra<\/p><\/div>\n

Nimmi Malhotra<\/strong> is a Singapore-based writer and editor covering wine and spirits for leading international publications. A regular speaker and moderator on Asian drinks cultures and a wine judge at the Decanter World Wine Awards, she brings two decades of experience across publishing and the alcohol industry. She holds the WSET Diploma and a master\u2019s degree in marketing from Monash University, Australia.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author: Nimmi Malhotra The V d\u2019Or winner discusses her journey, representation and the Indian market from its embryonic roots to where it stands today. When Master of Wine Sonal Holland walked on stage at the V d\u2019Or (\u2026)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":46089,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[344],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faces","format-article"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSonal Holland MW\u2019s full circle moment – Vinexposium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vinexposium.com\/en\/actus\/faces\/sonal-holland-mws-full-circle-moment\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sonal Holland MW\u2019s full circle moment – Vinexposium\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Author: Nimmi Malhotra The V d\u2019Or winner discusses her journey, representation and the Indian market from its embryonic roots to where it stands today. 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