At my last book club meeting the thought-provoking topic of discussion was “Making a living vs making a life”, which brought to mind how often people in wine are actually following a passion and making it their life. One hears of movie moguls and investment bankers buying vineyards but very rarely does one hear of someone with a promising career in the Indian army doing the same. Our cover story in this issue is the fascinating tale of a young army officer who went on to become a vineyard owner and collector of priceless wines (pp 16). In another example, Paramdeep Ghumman, migrated to Australia as a software engineer and ended up becoming a winemaker, overcoming all odds to produce prize-worthy wines (pp 30). Back home, Indian wineries are steadily making inroads in the world of fine wine (despite seemingly insurmountable challenges, (pp 54) belying the verdict of naysayers that India, a tropical country, could ever produce wines on par with the best in the world. Grover Zampa