Official media resources for Sovna Puri. Bio copy, brand assets, and contact details for editorial and press use.
Students Taught
Years Teaching
4.9
Google Rating
Google Reviews
Future 50
Winner
WSET Approved
Programme Provider
Short Bio -- 60 words
Sovna Puri DipWSET is India's leading WSET Certified Educator and a WSET Approved Programme Provider with over 15 years of teaching experience. A WSET Future 50 Award winner, she is the only Indian selected from 600 global nominees across 14 countries. She has taught over 15,000 students across WSET Wines and Spirits courses in India. Previously Assistant Head Sommelier at Michelin-starred Benares, London, and Head of Tastings and Training at Sula Vineyards.
Long Bio -- 120 words
Sovna Puri DipWSET is India's leading WSET Certified Educator, a WSET Approved Programme Provider, and one of the most recognised wine and spirits educators in Asia. In 2019 she became the only Indian to win the WSET Future 50 Award, selected from 600 professionals across 14 countries by the Wine and Spirit Education Trust and the International Wine and Spirit Competition.
Her career spans Michelin-starred restaurants in France and London, where she worked as Assistant Head Sommelier at Benares, tasting 50 to 80 wines daily. She then spent seven years at Sula Vineyards as Head of Tastings and Training, conducting over 1,500 tastings. Since completing her WSET Level 4 Diploma, she has taught over 15,000 students across WSET Wines and Spirits courses in India, running India's first all-women WSET course in partnership with The Lalit Delhi.
Sovna Puri's journey through wine and spirits spans two continents, a Michelin-starred kitchen in London, seven years leading tastings at Sula Vineyards, and over 15,000 students taught across India. Her path from assistant sommelier to WSET Future 50 Award winner is the story of what happens when deep expertise meets a genuine passion for teaching.
Read Sovna's full storyFour stories Sovna Puri is available to discuss, provide expert comment on, or be profiled for.
India is the world's fastest-growing wine market but its wine education system is still catching up. Sovna Puri is systematically training the professionals who will serve the next generation of Indian wine drinkers, building a WSET-certified educator pipeline in a country where wine culture is only just beginning. The angle: the economics and cultural shift behind India's coming wine moment, told through the person at the centre of it.
She tasted 50 to 80 wines a day at a Michelin-starred restaurant in London, then spent seven years running over 1,500 tastings at Sula Vineyards, one of Sovna's most formative wine education roles. That foundation led her to complete the WSET Level 4 Diploma and build her own WSET-certified education business, taking everything she learned across two countries and two decades into the classroom. The angle: what a career built on world-class experience looks like when it turns fully toward teaching.
When WSET and the International Wine and Spirit Competition announced their Future 50 award winners, 50 professionals selected from 600 nominees across 14 countries, one Indian made the list. Sovna Puri was not just the only Indian. She was the only educator from the entire Asian subcontinent. The angle: what it takes to be recognised globally in a field where India is still treated as an emerging market.
The global wine industry has a well-documented elitism problem. In India that problem is compounded by gender. Hospitality is male-dominated, wine service even more so. Sovna ran India's first all-women WSET course in partnership with The Lalit Delhi and has been quietly building a cohort of female wine professionals now working in five-star properties across the country. The angle: what inclusive wine education looks like in practice, and why it is producing confident, qualified professionals across Indian hospitality.
FIRSTS IN INDIAN WINE EDUCATION
Conducted India's first ever all-women WSET Level 1 course in Wines at The Lalit Delhi, July 2019. Both the course and the educator were women, a historic double first.
Conducted India's first ever online WSET Level 2 in Wines, July 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, when most educators had paused teaching entirely.
Part of India's very first batch for the WSET Level 3 Award in Spirits, passing with Merit (2023).
Took her teaching international for the first time in March 2024, conducting WSET Level 2 in Wines at Bandos Maldives under her own Approved Programme Provider status.
Invited to California as one of 20 global educators for the Capstone California immersive educator programme, the only Indian in her cohort.
JUDGING AND COMPETITION
Wine Judge, International Wine Challenge (IWC), London (2023).
One of the world's most prestigious wine competitions. Sovna is among a select group of Indian professionals to have judged at IWC London.
Inaugural Jury Member, ProWein India Challenge and ProSpirits Challenge (2024).
Held at Four Seasons Hotel, organised by Messe Dusseldorf India.
Wine Judge, India Wine Awards.
An annual national competition recognising excellence in wines available in India. Sovna has served as a jury member, appraising wines across categories with India's leading wine professionals.
PUBLISHED WRITING
"There is More to Spain than Sangria!"
Cover article on Spanish wines, regions, and grape varieties. Autumn 2019, Vol 15 Issue 4.
"Taste the Stars!"
Feature on the history of Champagne and its place in wine culture. Summer 2020, Vol 16 Issue 3.
"To Decant or Not to Decant"
A practical guide to decanting wines and when it matters. Sommelier India, 2019.
SOCIAL MEDIA AND DIGITAL REACH
140,000+
INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS
Recognised as one of India's Best Wine Influencers by FeedSpot (2025). Sovna's content reaches wine professionals and enthusiasts across India and internationally every day.
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