Still barely 3o years old, Musto has been a sommelier here for


only three years but has been working in wine for 12; he was barely of drinking age when he started studying with the Wine & Spirit Education Trust in London. He modestly says that for him, as for many of his compatriots who didn’t get straight A grades at school, hospitality was his “only option”—but he seems to have been getting straight As ever since and has embraced his profession wholeheartedly. Achieving the highest score for a student in Southeast Asia the year he sat his WSET Level 3 exam won him a scholarship to Champagne. One of his colleagues at Velaa, Imma, has also reached WSET Level 3, and equally admirable in its way is that 90 percent of the food-and-beverage and front-office staff at Velaa have at least a WSET Level 1 qualification. Ibbe, the young waiter who served us one evening at Athiri, was well able to extol the virtues of the Leclerc Briant Rosé NV, the 2020 Schloss Gobelsburg Riesling, and the 2018 Château de Meursault Clos du Château that we’d requested. The commitment of the owners and managers to staff development and training is exceptionally high and is reflected in the exemplary standard of the service that the staff offer. Even when the resort was closed for its four months of refurbishment last year, all of the staff were paid, and the owners asked Milgate to select some 30 of them—not only chefs, sommeliers, and servers, but butlers, gardeners, hairdressers, and spa staff—who were sent all around the world to refine their skills, learning from the very best in their field. It may not be quite so surprising,


Previous page and above: The Tavaru Wine Cellar and Restaurant, with a private tasting hosted by one of the resort's well-qualified sommeliers.


therefore, but it is still telling— especially in an industry with such high staff turnover—that many of the staff have been at the resort for years, some ever since it opened, and several spoke with seeming sincerity of belonging to the “Velaa family.” The English spa manager (one of those there from the very start) contrasted the accessibility and attentiveness of Velaa’s owners, who visit the island four or five times a year, with the impersonal, impenetrable layers of management in a large multinational hotel group—a difference as stark as that between the congestion and pollution of the beach in the seaside town where she grew up (when it was possible to be on it at all) and the pristine solitude of the beach surrounding Velaa.


Aragu Restaurant In glorious isolation, at the end of a long wooden walkway over the shallow aquamarine waters of the lagoon, sits Aragu Signature Restaurant and Cru Champagne Bar. While real rays and small black- and white-tipped sharks (not dangerous, I was assured at the dive center by Fazeel, another member of staff there from the beginning) swim underneath, a whole glide of brightly colored flying fish, not real, fortunately, soar suspended through the spacious dining room. The Aragu wine list is the most extensive at the resort.


It may not be the largest in the Indian Ocean, but it still runs to some 30 pages, offering around 1,000 wines—and it may well be the most exclusive; it is exceptional for the depth and height of its selections, as well as for its suitability to the affluent clientele and the cuisine (which is described as “contemporary European with an Asian twist”).


THE WORLD OF FINE WINE | ISSUE 79 | 2023 | 157


All photography courtesy of Velaa Private Island


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164  |  Page 165  |  Page 166  |  Page 167  |  Page 168  |  Page 169  |  Page 170  |  Page 171  |  Page 172  |  Page 173  |  Page 174  |  Page 175  |  Page 176  |  Page 177  |  Page 178  |  Page 179  |  Page 180  |  Page 181  |  Page 182  |  Page 183  |  Page 184  |  Page 185  |  Page 186  |  Page 187  |  Page 188  |  Page 189  |  Page 190  |  Page 191  |  Page 192  |  Page 193  |  Page 194  |  Page 195  |  Page 196  |  Page 197  |  Page 198  |  Page 199  |  Page 200  |  Page 201  |  Page 202  |  Page 203  |  Page 204  |  Page 205  |  Page 206  |  Page 207  |  Page 208  |  Page 209  |  Page 210  |  Page 211  |  Page 212  |  Page 213  |  Page 214  |  Page 215  |  Page 216  |  Page 217  |  Page 218  |  Page 219  |  Page 220