Today is Day 5, the last day of the WSET Level 3 course, being conducted by the Tulleeho Wine Academy, with Charles Crawfurd, one of the only 300 odd Masters of Wine as instructor, and before we move on, it's worth looking back at what's preceded this.

To start with, ITC gathered their leading wine professionals in each region for an intensive five-day course, conducted by the Tulleeho Wine Academy. Eighteen of these were then hand picked to undertake the WSET Level 3 course. But before this could start, they were put through a 45-day intensive program, conducted by Niladri Dhar, ITC's in-house sommelier. Bear in mind that these 18 have been hand-picked and drawn from ITC's luxury hotels from across India, and have been away from their hotels (and families!) for a substantial period of time, which only goes to underscore the seriousness with which ITC is preparing its chain, to be India's premier destination for fine wine with world beating service.

It's not only been noses to the grindstone though. The chosen few have had the good fortune to taste over 100 top wines from around the world over these last few weeks, as they prepare for what is going to be an important part of their assessment, the blind tasting of two wines. Their assessment itself via a sealed examination paper, which was dispatched from London, where WSET is headquartered, is in three parts, a multiple choice objective exam, a short answer based exam and then finally the blind tasting.

No matter what the results, these 18 F&B professionals are going to go back to their hotels as torch bearers of ITC's march forward in food and wine - as India's wine culture grows apace.

-- Team Sommelier India