The Peerless Uma Chigurupati of KRSMA Estates – Sommelier India 2018 Person of the Year

Uma Chigurupati of KRSMA Estates – Sommelier India 2018 Person of the Year

You have seen her on stage, elegantly dressed in a sari at a KRSMA launch or sitting in on a vertical tasting of her wines. She’s on the cover of magazines, featured in articles, pictured running in the snow in Antarctica or in the heat of the Atacama Desert – even attending black-tie dinners. But all this does not tell you the whole story of Uma Chigurupati, co-founder of KRSMA Estates, India’s award-winning boutique wine producer. Indeed, wine producer is just one of her many roles, and one that she is most proud of.

It is 44°C in Hyderabad on Day 1, as I meet Uma at Hyderabad’s Swarna Bharat Trust, a corporate initiative to help young people develop employment-friendly skills. If decision-making in KRSMA occurs with hands on, corporate exactitude, it is because this is a major part of Uma’s life: her day-to-day role at Granules India, the successful pharmaceutical company started by her husband, Krishna Prasad Chigurupati 30 years ago, and her work in the field of social responsibility stems from it.