I didn’t grow up with wine. Where I come from, most of us didn’t.
Wine arrived in our lives the way new ideas often do in this part of the world - quietly, confidently, and slightly out of context. One day it was just there, sitting on a table between familiar glasses.
I’ve been following that moment ever since.
Along the way, I became a wine writer - the first Indian to win the Judges’ Choice Award at the JancisRobinson.com Wine Writing Competition (2025). I trained formally - WSET Levels 1 and 2, Sonal Holland Wine Academy’s Certified Wine Pro, and specialised programs from Barossa Australia and Capstone Wines - but the real education came from watching how people behave the moment a bottle appears.
My perspective on wine comes as much from advertising as from education. I’m interested in what shapes people’s tastes, habits, and aspirations. For me, wine isn’t just what’s in the glass - it’s where you drink it, what you’re reading, and who you’re becoming.
Because wine, in new markets like India, the Gulf, and Southeast Asia, isn’t inherited. It’s encountered. It reveals aspiration, hesitation, confidence, contradiction - sometimes all in the same sip.
That’s the space The Second Pour occupies: where culture, appetite, and identity meet over a glass that still feels slightly foreign.
Every Sunday, I write 750 words about that intersection. No tasting notes. No shopping lists. Just the small, revealing theatre of people and the drink that keeps surprising them.
If wine is a performance, I’m here for the second act.
Series 1 (2025) is here. Check out some of the posts:
Series 2 launches on 5 April 2026, on this site.
Each post is exactly 750 words. Drop a comment if you figure out why.
Finally, why “Baxicius”? That’s for a blog sometime later.