cultural shift in indian wine drinking.docx

7/26/2019 Cultural Shift in Indian Wine Drinking.docx

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Cultural Shift in Indian Wine DrinkingMay 07: A growing and more afuent middle class is driving Indias ascimproving in quality and recently has been winning several internationaour guest writer !an "rauc#i who suggests it would be very interesting

$ree# or southern Italian native varieties would thrive and perorm therAUSTRALIA and India have a lot in common starting with a British colonial hiscricket, through to sharing anuary !" as their national day # Australia $ay amassive variance in the res&ective cultures is their drinking ha'its( Australiawhereas India is a whiskey drinking nation, in fact India drinks more whiskeyIndia, the second most &o&ulous nation on earth consumes a mere )()*! litrta'les&oonfuls # &er annum( Even the new comer to wine drinking, hina, iswhile Australians consume around a'out -) litres &er &erson, according to thIndia%s a very challenging country for wine to thrive in( Starting with its im&highest im&ort duty rates in the world( Each individual state then adds its owwine( Some states 'an the sale of alcohol and most of those which do allow iwhere'y the &roducer has to register each individual la'el for a fee of aroundchanges on the such as vintage, it must 'e re3registered( So 'y the time thathas reached a retail store, it costs more than a 'ottle of &remium wine would

The ne+t challenge for wine is the logistics( In a country where it is always hocontrolled trans&ort or storage availa'le( 5hile it is increasing in availa'ility,A further com&lication is a loo&hole to the im&ort duty law( 6or more than a d'een a'le to im&ort duty free alcohol directly from overseas to a value e4uivfrom their guests( So when you go to check out of an Indian 7ve3star hotel yo

Aussie dollars, US dollars or 8ust a'out any other currency other than Indian r9ne would think that these 7ve3star hotels would have 'ecome an oasis forim&orted wines 'eing o:ered( But alas, in my e+&erience most of these estaas in retail, with the hotel &ocketing the 0su&er &ro7t1 generated 'y this 'i;aSo in this surreal landsca&e how does im&orted wine &erform< E+act 7gures a7ve3star hotels 'eing a'le to shi& their own wine in( =owever, a good indicatthe to& *) wine im&orters shi&&ed in 8ust under !/),))) cases of wine, with'eing second with ),))) cases( This drive 'y >ernod Ricard has recently seethe leading im&orted wine country &osition(=owever, over the last decade, des&ite the country%s draconian li4uor ta+ reg

growing steadily in &o&ularity( This is in &art due to the growth of middle3clasof many younger Indians, es&ecially in the ma8or cities( In a country where mon alcohol consum&tion, thousands of &eo&le a year are ac4uiring a taste for&ushed 'y young women, who &refer to see their men drinking wine ?or 'eer@which is so much higher in alcohol( In this way their &artners are less likely towhiskey(In this millennium young women have 'een entering the workforce in India liincome and increased status has slowly 'een lifting the ta'oo on women 'uyma8or cities( It is estimated that less than &er cent of women in India curreyear(

Su'hash Aurora, founder of the very successful $elhi 5ine lu' and the Indiasaid that around .) &er cent of the clu'%s mem'ers are women( Aurora said


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So when ladies go out to outings and &arties, 'efore they would not im'i'e,7ne%(1India has its own via'le wine industry, which isn%t hel&ed much 'y the variouthe largest wine com&any in India is Sula, which sells around ")),))) casesvisitors to its cellar door each year( Launched in !))), Sula has risen from 7rlonger esta'lished rivals( To com&lement its own wines, Sula also im&orts aro&lace is rover Fam&a, which &roduces around **),))) cases a year( Therethe states of Haharashtra which contri'utes around &er cent of wine &rodwhich &roduce the 'alance of the estimated *(. million cases of Indian wineAlong the way hateau Indage, which was &ro'a'ly 'est known outside Indiaand was the largest wine &roducer in India, went into receivershi& in !)*) an

The tro&ical climate in most of India is not conducive to growing gra&es, how*,)))m when &lanted with the right as&ect so as to avoid the hotter winds, vigra&es(

The main varieties grown, like so many other countries, are the classical Euro'lanc, chenin 'lanc, viognier, chardonnay, ca'ernet sauvignon and shira;( Invarieties such as Isa'ella ?called Bangalore 'lue@ and 'lack muscat, 'oth ofwine gra&es( There are also a few native Indian varieties which I haven%t triedana'eshahi(iven the warm to very hot growing conditions in India, I think it would 'e veI'erian, reek or southern Italian native varieties would thrive and &erform timagine one day drinking a very en8oya'le Indian assyrtiko, athiri, &ecorino,lagrein, monte&ulciano, granacha or monastrell( Let%s ho&e that some'ody in&lant some of these varieties that thrive in warmer climates(

A sure sign of im&roving 4uality is the fact that last year, for the 7rst time, Ininternational wine show when the rover Fam&a Art ollection Sauvignon BlaInternational Tro&hy at the $ecanter Asia 5ine Awards, while other Indian wiand 6our Season%s collected four silver medals and 7ve 'ron;e medals 'etwe5hile the Indian wine industry wrestles with cultural and government issues,the UD( In !)*- this amounted to around *),))) cases, or roughly *) &er ce5aitrose 'ecame the 7rst British su&ermarket to stock Indian wine when it lisI can remem'er the days when Australia only e+&orted 3*) &er cent of its wi7gure is around "3) &er cent( So who knows, one day we should 'e a'le tocurry in an Indian restaurant near'y(

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