Congratulations to Harnil Mathur, FWS, for passing the French Wine Scholar exam with highest honors!
About Harnil:
I am a Sommelier from the Dry State (Alcohol Prohibited), Gujarat, India and currently residing at Hyderabad, Telangana.
My journey for wines started in 2016, during my 2nd year of Hotel Management studies at Institute of Hotel Management Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition Hyderabad, one of the top ranked institutes in India. Mr. Mithun Bhadekar, from the Faculty for Food and Beverage Service enlightened me in developing an interest towards Wines. Later during our educational visit to a winery in Nashik, India, he gave me an opportunity to taste few wines and apprised me about viticulture and vinification techniques.
My keen interest in wines escorted me to The Court of Master Sommeliers, during their maiden visit to India in 2018, to discover Sommeliers in the fastest growing Indian wine market. I am honored to become India’s Youngest Certified Sommelier at the age of 20, by passing both the Introductory Sommelier Exam and Certified Sommelier exam. I am grateful to Mr. Viraj Sawant, Advanced Sommelier, who helped me in processing my candidature and guiding me for assessment.
Currently, I am promoting wines at ITC Hotels at ITC Kohenur, The Luxury Collection, Hyderabad as Sommelier for the hotel.
The moment of pride, was when I was named in India’s Top 6 Sommeliers at the Indian Sommelier Championship 2019, organized by Institute of Wine and Beverage Studies.
I completed my Introductory Sommelier Exam and Certified Sommelier Exam at the first attempt which was a result of lot of hard work and some serious wine studies. I would like to thank Sommelier Cherian Sonker who helped me and pushed me the most to prepare for the Certified Sommelier exam as well as the French Wine Scholar Certification. I believe in remembering things by making Flashcards and also by making a lot of notes. I aspire to be a Master Sommelier and currently I’m preparing for my Advanced Sommelier Certification by the Court of Master Sommeliers.
The French Wine Scholar is a course which is an intense and deep study on each and every region of France and it has simplified the understanding for one of the toughest subjects in Wine Studies. It has helped me now to talk confidently on French Wines and also prepared me well for my Advanced Sommelier Exam. The French Wine Scholar Course has really introduced me to so many different wines, different aspects of wines and also help to gain and cement the knowledge for French Wines. I am very interested in studying the IWS and SWS Courses. The quality and depth of the program is unmatched. I always have emotional attachment with wines because whatever I am today is because of wines and I would Thank God for whatever he has given me and my parents for supporting me to carry on my passion for Wines.
