NEW
DELHI - It is no longer sacrilege to raise a tulip glass
of "India-made" sparkling wine and toast a "sante",
cocking a snook at those who swear only by Bordeaux. The
wine-drinking culture, stoked by plenty of choices from
local vineyards, is bubbling in a country where whisky
has held sway long after the colonists left for England,
a trend that is being whole-heartedly welcomed by
India's winemakers.
At the Wine Festival held recently by
Chateau Indage at Amby Valley, Sahara's show-piece hill
town, wine lovers of every hue, as well as the
cognoscenti and the beautiful from Mumbai and Pune,
mingled together in the heady atmosphere of wine
tasting, sipping
everything from Riesling to Pinot Noir,
Cabernet Sauvignon, and cocktails like sangrias - all
with a robust disregard of the March hot sun beating
down on the winter-dry Sahyadri range. But the excellent
wines, locally produced or bottled from imported
classics at Indage's production hub, Nayangaon, erased
the initial discomfort.
According to industry
buzz, India's wine market is growing fast, at around 30
percent a year. Upmarket bars and eateries which in the
past stocked only a limited number of brands have
multiplied their orders for newer brands. Indigo,
Mumbai's fine dining restaurant which became the first
Indian restaurant to win the coveted French wine guide
"Wine Spectator" award last year, stocks at least 220
varieties of wine. At parties these days, it's de
rigueur to serve wines alongside the traditional
favorite, hard liquor. The knowledgeable hostess makes
it a point to chill a Chardonnay in the fridge or serve
Shiraz at room temperature for the right taste to come
out. What's more, there is a genuine desire to know more
about wine drinking and how to serve wine, in which type
of glassware, etc, as illustrated by queries to websites
exclusively designed for that purpose.
Experts
observing this trend opine that the appeal of wine, as
against the traditional gin and tonic, whisky, vodka or
rum, is a result of a combination of factors. For one,
the urban young professionals, who are increasingly more
fitness conscious, are well aware of the findings of
international health experts who vouch for the
salubrious effect of a glass of wine (not in excess) on
youthful looks and a sound heart. Its alcohol content is
less and even women who avoid any kind of hard liquor
don't mind a glass of wine. Besides, with a greater
disposable income, people are travelling more and being
exposed to international cuisine and trends and their
outlook is changing. Also, due to the greater
availability of products in the market today, consumers
now have a choice.
But those in the know will
also point out that wine is not something introduced by
the West to the country. There is enough reference to
Soma - an intoxicating or hallucinogenic juice or
substance, offered in Hinduism by the Brahmans in
sacrificial rituals - in the scriptures of the Vedic
age. European travellers to the court of Mughal emperors
praised the wines of Hyderabad, Surath and from royal
vineyards of Kashmir and Baramati in Maharashtra.
But late in the 19th century, like other places
in the world, the vineyards were destroyed by pests. In
recent years, entrepreneurs like Sham Chougule -
chairman of Indage group - the Grover vineyards and the
Sula vineyards, who are the foremost wine producers in
the country, have tried to revive the old tradition. The
Pune-Nasik belt is particularly conducive to growing
grapes and the Indage group brought rootstocks of
Chardonnay, Ugni Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot
Noir from France for their vineyards at a height of
about 850 meters above sea level.
The
Maharashtra government, too, is taking advantage of
wine's newfound popularity, and there is even talk of
developing wine tourism - already very popular in wine
regions like Bordeaux in France, Napa Valley in
California, the Yarra Valley in Australia and the
vineyards of the Cape in South Africa.
And why
not, when India is even exporting wine these days, said
Sudip Purkayashtha, commercial manager of exports at
Champagne Chateau Ltd. "We are getting more and more
enquiries from abroad for brands like Tantra and Soma
[names only used for markets abroad while over here they
carry the French names]," he said.
For example,
a first-time visitor at Amby Valley was Oliver Dixon,
trade manager of wine at Maritime & Mercantile
International, Dubai. "We don't have any Indian wine
available in Dubai and now we are here to explore the
possibilities," said Ashwini Mehta, president of Western
Liquors Inc, California. "We are going to put Indian
wine in the cellar for sure." This coming from someone
with business near the famed Napa Valley is a stamp of
approval for India indeed.
Purkayashtha added
that if the government considered reducing tax, "it's as
much as on hard liquor" both consumption and exports
will increase more.
He, however, endorsed
Dixon's view that to stand on its own Indian wine will
have to prove its quality in a sustained manner. It's
not enough to sit on the exotic value and be slack after
the initial break-through, because the international
customer of today, whether at home or abroad, is much
more discerning and knowledgeable. As restaurant owner
Ritu Dalmia says, Indians today don't just ask for red
or white wine, they ask for brands.
Reports
claim that in 10 years, India's wine industry will grow
to an output of five million cases a year - meaning 60
million bottles - or a 10-fold increase from now. Grover
is said to have produced 500,000 bottles last year and
this year the production is slated to be 600,000. Grover
also exports wine to Indian restaurants in Britain and
France and last month the firm's Sauvignon Blanc and
Cabernet Shiraz hit the shelves of France's prestigious
Galleries Lafayette store.
Despite the evident
growing interest, however, India is still far from being
a wine-drinking country. With six million bottles sold a
year, its annual consumption is .006 bottles a head
against a world average of five bottles. As for
importing, India currently brings in 72,000 wine cases a
year - accounting for a mere 4.5 milliliters (ml) of per
capita consumption of the billion-plus population,
compared to China's 375 ml.
But, so far, the
mood and performance on the wine front has been upbeat
and appears poised for success indeed. Sante!
everything from Riesling to Pinot Noir,
Cabernet Sauvignon, and cocktails like sangrias - all
with a robust disregard of the March hot sun beating
down on the winter-dry Sahyadri range. But the excellent
wines, locally produced or bottled from imported
classics at Indage's production hub, Nayangaon, erased
the initial discomfort. 
