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She was privileged to conduct The Aman Experience, a Delhi Wine Club lunch last month at the Tapas Lounge at Hotel Aman in Delhi. Besides a few other introductory events at the recently opened super-deluxe hotel property on Lodhi Road, she had also organised similar events earlier with Alessia Antinori of Antinori, Frederic Engerer, President of Chateau Latour, Vanya Cullen (one of the Australian judges at the India Wine Challenge held at Hyatt Regency in New Delhi last November), Jean Guillaume Pratts, CEO of Cos d’Estournel, Egon Müller of Mosel, Germany, to name a few. All these events were organised at her previous job at the Hilton Hotel in Maldives before she decided to take up the challenging assignment in India.
She is Faiella-Kavita Devi Faiella, a lady sommelier extra-ordinaire, the cellar master of the Aman, the latest arrival in the super-premium luxury hotel segment in Delhi, which is galloping to catch the number one spot as a wine destination before the post-recession season sets in.
I had met Kavita in Italy during a couple of wine educational tours generally organised for journalists and sommeliers. So when I met her at the hotel, where I was expecting to see an Indian lady sommelier because of the Indian name, I was surprised to see her. I was also happy to know she would be helping the Aman in their endeavour to make it a customer-friendly wine programme. From what I know of her, she would certainly take the Delhi wine scene a notch or two higher.
An offer she could not refuse
When she was offered the position as a sommelier at Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck 3-Michelin star restaurant in Berkshire in UK, after working in Maldives for a couple of years, one would have thought she would jump at the possibility of working with the celebrity chef whose restaurant is so busy that his PR lady travelling with him once told me in Spain to contact her for an earlier booking if I wanted to have a meal earlier than six months.
An unexpected position was also offered as the regional cellarmaster for Aman Resorts in South-East Asia. ‘Both are obviously dream jobs for a young sommelier, but it was the lure of Asia and its amazing potential that saw me packing my bags and for Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia and Laos,’ she admits candidly.
Breaking into Asia
 Her first assignment with Aman Resorts was working with Alejandro Ortiz, Miami based wine consultant who had already been busy rolling out the new wine programs in all the twenty Aman Resorts properties across the globe. During my chance meeting with Alejandro in Jerez, Spain, at the sherry and sweet wines show, Vinoble, he had shared with me the philosophy and strategy Aman had placed to position wine in the upcoming property and was scouting around for more sherry labels- which he wanted to introduce by the glass, a dozen of them! This would mean she would be helping someone as passionate as her about wines.
At the Aman, Delhi
So is she happy being here? I ask the dumb question. ‘Obviously Aman is one of the most respected luxury brands in the world and I have enjoyed visiting many of the properties and introducing wine to the staff who are so keen to learn,’ she says, adding , ‘it is this aspect of my job that I find most rewarding. Training the staff about how far the wine has travelled to reach them and convincing them how lucky they are to be in a position to complete the final part of the journey from the cellar to the table.’ She loves opening up wines for them to taste-the wines they would never have ever dreamt of trying.
‘I am really excited about being in India as I believe that it has amazing potential when it comes to wine. Everyone is so keen to experience the newness and the excitement, and that, for a sommelier is the best place to be. I am able to show something different that makes coming to work everyday worthwhile.’
‘What do you think of the guests coming to the hotel in terms of wines and its knowledge? ’I think the Indian guest is also very interested in being educated about wine. That’s why in our wine list you will see a lot of general information on the regions, grapes and wine makers that will help guide the guests and hopefully remove a bit of the intimidation that surrounds wine.’
‘I don’t not want the wine lists at the Aman to seem scary, I want them to be approachable and more about the stories behind the wine than the facts and figures,’ she says.
‘The beauty of the wine world as a whole, whether it be the spectacular wine regions or passionate wine makers, the whole concept is so new and exciting that I hope our guests are able to experience at some level, their fascination with a world that is so foreign and yet so magical.’
Bottle with a story
How does she handle a guest who does not know much about the wine jargon but is keen to learn more about wines, I ask this woman of substance who has achieved a lot during the first quarter century of her existence, none of which in India?
‘I guess I have the same approach when I am talking to a table about a wine choice. People have grown up eating food and are therefore very confident when it comes to choosing from a food menu. But wine is something they might have embraced only over the last few years, so it is only natural for them not feeling as comfortable with a wine list. Therefore, I like to talk to the guests not only about the facts and figures but more importantly the story behind each bottle and the beauty that lies in each glass.’
Love for Italia
 Kavita and I share a common love-Italy! But how did she fall in love with Italy when she was from Australia and how was the switch from medicine to wine, though both are related to health, I ask? ‘When I was studying medicine at university, I went for a short break to Italy. On arriving there, I completely and utterly fell in love with the Italian way of life, their love of food and wine and unique approach to the table,’ says Kavita.
So she decided to stay there longer than the one month she had originally planned, deferring her studies to stay for seven more months! ‘I worked in a wine bar in a beach town close to Bologna in the region of Emilia-Romagna,’ she recollects.
What happened next is not hard to guess. ‘On returning to Australia I told my family that I no longer wanted to be a paediatrician anymore but wanted to pursue a career in wine instead,’ might have been the logical step.
Days in Australia
Kavita started to work in some of Australia’s most well- known restaurants where she had the opportunity to work with some of the country’s most influential chefs such as Steve Manfredi and Niel Perry. ‘While working with Tim Connell in Sydney I was offered a scholarship to study and become a certified sommelier which I did over a 2- year period. After completing this qualification I was approached by Ron Gorgiou MW, to be the head sommelier of the Hilton property in the Maldives. This was very much a defining experience for me, as my first role working as a sommelier in Asia,’ explaining how she ended up in Maldives.
On to Maldives
How was it working in Maldives with different types of people hanging out? ‘Although the majority of guests whom I served there, were dripping in diamonds and had garage full of fast cars, I was able to maintain my philosophy and make wine a beverage for everyone- from socialite fashionistas to honeymoon couples.’
 What sort of wine portfolio did she handle there, I wanted to know? ‘I used to manage a wine list of 900 labels and approx 30,000 bottles of wine at any one time on island across 7 restaurants and 3 bars, including the world’s first underwater restaurant. Prices ranged from $35 to $19,000 for a magnum of 1947 Mouton Rothschild. And everyone from royalty to rock stars dined in the underground wine cellar.’
Besides managing the wine portfolio, Faiella was also responsible for training an F*B team of 85 and a direct wine team of 8, the majority of whom were strict Muslims. ‘So you can imagine how interesting the wine training would have been! The difference between full bodied and light bodied wines was explained using full and skim milk. Tannin was tasted in strong tea and the ‘Le Nez du Vin’ was my best friend!’
Does she regret leaving the job in Maldives, and what were the high points of her previous job? ‘It was an amazing experience that I would never trade for anything else-not even for a moment. One highlight in particular, was a trip sponsored by our house Champagne owner, for which I had three of my wine team accompany me to France; two of them had never left the Maldives. On the first day they were drinking 1914 Pol Roger in the caves of Champagne. Not only did I get to experience their first impressions of the world of wine, but was also witness to their first train ride, a night club and a 3 Michelin star restaurant- the list goes on!
At the Aman
 At the Hotel Aman, you can find Kavita, running around as if she is on skates from the Lodhi, to the Aman, to the Tapas Lounge and the wine cellars. If you are sitting at the bar stool or with a bunch of friends in the private dining area, she would gladly talk to you about wine and-if you she is in a good mood- even about Italy, and her various experiences. She might even privately admit to you that she is more into the Mediterranean region wines than say, Napa or South Africa!
But one thing is for certain; you will come out a wine-wiser person and would have somehow enjoyed your wines more, on this occasion- thanks to Faiella, Kavita Devi-the Cellar Master at the Hotel Aman, Delhi.
Subhash Arora |