Congratulations to Abhinay Jhaveri, SWS, for achieving highest honors in the Spanish Wine Scholar exam with West London Wine School.
About Abhinay:
I’m originally from Bombay, India, but have spent a significant chunk of my life living in the US, UK and France. I used to work in management consulting when living in France, which is really where my love of wine blossomed. I also got the chance to travel all over Europe at the time, discovering wines from Germany, Hungary, Portugal and, of course, Spain.
As a wine enthusiast who is on his way to becoming a wine professional, what I enjoy most about wine is that it’s so diverse, dynamic and surprising: you’re always learning something new about wine in general, winemaking techniques or simply tasting something completely new and unexpected. I would love to share this passion with other people, especially in India, where wine is not the drink of choice for the market at large, and most people find it intimidating and inaccessible. Keeping this in mind, I aspire to enhance my knowledge in wine (both theoretically and practically), and give the Indian market the confidence to choose and enjoy wine as their go-to drink.
I have completed the WSET Level 3 as well. The SWS program complemented my WSET studies by allowing me to dig deeper in the world of Spanish wine (which is otherwise limited to a chapter alone). I plan on pursuing the FWS next, given my time in France and exposure to French wine.
The SWS program has opened up the world of Spanish Wine to me, and has given me the confidence to promote Spanish wines in India, where there is a lot of potential interest. It has also given me a wealth of knowledge on the diverse offerings Spanish wine has beyond the classics from DOCa La Rioja and DO Cava, and increased my thirst to explore more of Spain.