India raises its glass
Media Archives
India’s Emerging Wine...
Painting portraits with...
Investors toast Ind...
India raises its glass
The glass that...
A fine wine...
Direct Coverage on...
FBD: Indian wine...
City says it is fine...
Subhash Arora, pioneer...
Report business-today
a nation hits the bottle
India is uncorking...
FENAVIN Y ESPAÑA...
Italian wines a huge...
Wine Culture: High on...
In India, it's wine's...
Swirl of sophistication
Sommelier India
'WINE'ING WAYS'
Lessons in wine…
Aficionados Acknowledge…
Uncork the bubbly…
Avtar S. Sandhu…
Aussies Shake Up…
Cup of ambrosia …
7 Fine Wines
French Wine For The …
Taking it to heart
A Whiff Of Bordeaux's …
1 2
Posted: Thursday, 29 September 2011 17:43
   India raises its glass

INDIA AND CHINA HAVE POTENTIAL TO BE LARGEST WINE PRODUCERS, SAY EXPERTS

By NANDANA DAS in NEW DELHI

India is fast becoming “fine” with wine that has traditionally been mocked as being a ladies’ drink by a large majority of the populace who prefer hard liquors and beers.

The country, which has a long tradition of winemaking, is becoming “one of the largest potential producers of wine, say industry insiders. Notably, it is only recently that Indian wines are competing with more established winemaking regions, including the UK.

According to a report by the UK-based International Wine & Spirit Research (IWSR), the wine industry in India will grow at 25-30 percent annually till 2025. In fact, the country has become the 10th largest growing nation for wine consumption, in value and volume terms, for the period 2009-13, according to the IWSR 2010 study.

In its estimate, India and China will soon become the world’s two fastest growing players, and in the course of time, will be among the largest market of cheaper wines for the rest of the world. The IWSR report ranks China as the world’s seventh largest grape-based wine producer and domestic production is increasing with government support for the new vineyards.

India, it is being said, now has the appetite to make commercial wine. Consumption in India increased by 170 percent from 2004 to 2010, and total surface area under vines doubled between 2007 and 2010, with predicted expansion of another 56 percent by 2014, according to IWSR.

The Indian Grape Processing Board, a subsidiary of the Ministry of Food Processing in India, says it has set a target of 35 million liters (by the end of 2015).

“What is important is that a New World is being born – mainly China and India,” says Robert Beynat, chief executive of Vinexpo, which organized the world’s biggest wine and spirits exhibition in Hong Kong in 2010.

Indian wine is also being sold in the UK’s supermarket chain, Waitrose. On its website, it describes Ritu Viognier as a ‘crisp, aromatic white wine with fl oral and peach aromas.” It is produced by United Breweries, the huge Indian brewer that also makes Kingfisher lager.

This is “quite a feat” for India given the fact that viticulture in the country is relatively new, and various other factors such as religion and social inhibitions are at play.

Until lately wine did not fi gure very prominently on Indian menus. But now, sauvignon blanc, Riesling, chardonnay, merlot and shiraz are increasingly accepted in the country.

“It’s only been 20 years since we started making wines and 10 years since the government liberalized the imports in 2001,” Subhash Arora, president of New Delhi-based Indian Wine Academy, says.

There are in all 67 grape vineyards in India mostly concentrated in Pune and Nashik in Maharashtra and off Bangalore in Karnataka. Also there are some small “unoffi cial” vineyards.

Champagne Indage has been the pioneer in making French style wine in India. Grover Vineyards and Sula Vineyards too have made smart strides. Recently, companies who fall under the Indian Made Foreign Liquor category such as Diageo, United Breweries and Seagrams too have ventured into making wine. Sula Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc 2010 was given a silver medal in the Decanter World Wine Awards 2011.

The website of Champagne Indage says its manufacturing facility at Narayangaon in the western state of Maharashtra has a production capacity of 15 million liters and a bottling capacity of 15000 bottles an hour. The Sula website says the four wineries it owns have a combined capacity of 5 million liters. Besides having a wide distribution network within India, Sula exports, and also imports and distributes wines from top global producers.

Gangan Sharma, sommelier and wine educator at New Delhi-based Wi-Not Beverage Solutions Pvt Ltd, says, “By the end of 2011, it (wine production in India) is expected to touch 18 million liters. “However, a lot of ground has to be covered,” he hastens to add. Sharma also expresses optimism that China and India will very soon taste each other’s wines. “Chinese wines are certainly worth tasting and I am sure Indians would love Chinese wines,” he tells China Daily Asia Weekly. “Moreover, 2011 being the year of India-China Exchange, we anticipate the entry of some Chinese wines into our country soon.”

“The quality of Chinese wine has improved over the years,” Cecilia Oldne, head of international business at Sula Vineyards, told local media some time ago. However, Kapil Grover whose Bengalurubased Grover Vineyards produces 240 million bottles a year, says things are not as simple as that. “The wine industry in China is worth $120 billion, whereas in India it’s only $1 billion. Moreover, grounds of cooperation between the two countries for wine business are not ready yet,” he says. “It will take some years for India to be on a par with China where the number of regular wine drinkers is very high,” Grover says. “In India, only 2 percent of, say 20 million people, drink wine.” In 2006, wine consumption in China made up 62.7 percent of the wines sipped in Asia. It is estimated that by the end of 2011, it will rise to 69.2 percent.

In 2008, China, including Hong Kong, posted the highest worldwide growth: 8.720 million more cases of still light wine drunk in one year. This trend continued in 2009 with growth of 5.29 million 9-litre cases and should continue to increase to reach more than 100 million 9-litre cases by 2013. Kapil Grover’s daughter, Karishma, who is also actively involved in the family business, says, “As things stand today, we are way behind China where liberalization started 10 years before it happened in our country. Moreover, our business experience is that the people in the Chinese wine industry do not encourage foreign entrepreneurs to expand in their country. They prefer doing business with their own people.” However, Indian Wine Academy Chief Arora says, “For Chinese companies, cheap wines could be a way to enter India. They can sell their wines through many Chinese restaurants across the country.”

“A relaxation in import duties by the Indian government is on the cards, which should also make things easier. Reducing the import duty will make the Indian market more open toward international wines,” says Sharma. He is also optimistic about the industry in India. “What is signifi cant is that the country is fast growing and catching up with the leaders,” says Sharma. “Compared with just six in 2000, India now has 73 wineries. Between 2001 and by 2007, it grew ten folds before slowing down because of global recession,” Sharma says.

Some state governments are chipping in to support the wine industry. Maharashtra, for example, has awarded wineries the status of food processing industry instead of alcoholic beverages and has also abolished excise duty on wines. Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation has set up wine parks at Sangli and Nashik at a cost of Rs2,500 million ($54.9 million). The central government has fi nalized setting up the National Wine Board (NWB) at Pune. The overall outlook has been buoyant for some time in Asia including China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, India, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia. “Wine consumption in Asia has touched an all-time high”, Vinexpo Asia-Pacifi c Chairman, Dominique Hériard Dubreui, told a conference recently.

Players like Grover Vineyards and Sula Vineyards are gearing up to take up the challenges and rise to world standards. According to industry insiders, a number of wine producers in India are already in touch with importers across the world.

“Wine has always been seen as über chic, a drink for people who have money and wealth. But now there is a dramatic change in the middle class where there is a fairly high increase in incomes,” said Wine Park founder Vishal Kadakia at a recent conference.

“The potential is great because the total consumption of alcohol is over 500 million cases,” Arora tells China Daily Asia Weekly. Arora also seeks to highlight the fast and vast changes taking place in a country of 1.2 billion people, where the middle class is surging, and values and tastes are changing.

“Indian wine culture is breaking free from rich and elite people to reach out to the middle-class,” he says, highlighting that the educated middle-class in India is far more mobile than ever and exposed to western tastes.

As more and more Indians travel overseas, adopt new lifestyle patterns and yearn for the good things in life, domestic wine consumption too has correspondingly increased. Wines made in India are priced between Rs450-700 and imported ones could cost upwards of Rs 2,500.

“Over time, many of the drinkers of hard liquors will be converted to wine drinking because the majority of the population is under 35 and as the young people grow older, more and more of them, especially in the middle class, will be converting to wine, including women. Investments have started coming in,” adds Arora

This country is a long way from becoming a wine destination, but given the progress that local vineyards have made in just over a decade, the future looks brighter.

Email to Friend

 

 

 
Developed & Designed by Sadilak SoftNet
© All Rights Reserved 2002-2012