High on life and wine

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A globetrotter and wine connoisseur, Shagun Gupta’s penchant for a life of luxury and indulgence is unapologetic. “I love luxury products and I love to surround myself with beautiful things,” says the director of Grape To Glass, a company that distributes some of the finest quality wine accessories around the globe.

So what made her pursue her love for wine? “My husband and I are both wine lovers. So when we had the opportunity to take up a business related to it, we jumped at the opportunity. It is a market that has a lot of potential for growth. While people in India take their wine seriously, they are yet to reach a stage where the wine accessories play an equally important role,” she says.
Shagun admits that while she is a wine lover, it wasn’t love at first sight. “I remember hating wine the first time I tried it. But over the years I have developed a palate for it and besides, not everybody likes all kinds of wine. One needs to identify one’s type. But once you do, there’s nothing better than wine. It’s just mildly intoxicating and uplifts the mood like no other beverage in my view.”
Giving us an insight into her frame of
work she continues, “The glass in which you drink your wine affects its taste. The length of its stem and the breadth of its base dictate the flavour of what finally touches your lips.”
After exploring the wine industry a little more in depth, Shagun plans to pursue her love for jewellery and high fashion. Being brought up in a family of jewellers and married into one that owns emerald mines in South Africa, it comes naturally to Shagun who has herself studied gemology from a university in London. “Designing jewellery has always been a passion but I haven’t had the time to pursue it aggressively yet. I plan to do it soon,” she says.
And that’s not all. “I also want to bring high-end international fashion retail to the country. Much like Kitsch, started by sisters Priya and Charu Sachdev. There are very few options available for women who want to indulge in high couture and high fashion brands,” says Shagun who considers Milan as her fashion temple.