India Wine

Chausa . “We thought if France, Italy or Australia had made a mark for themselves as leaders in the wine industry, essentially because of their abundant grape produce, why don’t we try out our skills with the huge quantities of mango grown in this region?” said Neelima Garg, who led the research team. “Just as each of the mango varieties taste different, each of the wines too varies in taste as well as in flavour,” added Garg, who has been working on the project for the past two years.

The main problem researchers in Lucknow faced was treating the viscous mango pulp to make it thin enough to pass as wine. “The process of fermentation is not very tough, as mango contains huge quantities of sugar, which is the basic source of alcohol, but balancing the viscosity is what needs to be done very carefully,” she said.

The alcohol content in the slightly yellow, sweet drink is 8-9 per cent, which is lower than the alcohol content of a typical wine made from grapes, that generally ranges from 10-15 per cent. Researchers in Lucknow and elsewhere are hoping that India’s ‘wine adventure’ could include more exotic wines made from mangoes, blackberries or even apples.

Manish Kasture, for example, who is part of a team of scientists based at Dapoli University in Maharashtra, is applying for patents on wine made from cashew apples and blackberries.

Now, a wine from mango! - Hindustan Times

Indian wine market warming up to international labels - Livemint

In the wake of state level cabinet meeting that took place recently to address the wine taxation policy issues, the Maharashtra government is likely to reduce the K-form and the excise duty levied on out-of-state domestic wines. The meeting was held between All India Wine Producers Association; senior state and central government officials including the Sharad Pawar, Union Agriculture Minister, as reported by www.indianwineacademy.com.

Maharashtra govt likely to rationalise tax on out-of-state domestic wines - HospitalityBizIndia

A Lazy Sunday sipping Wines of York - Sommelier India (blog)

The current wine-making season in Maharashtra has done little to boost the sagging spirits of wine producers in the state. A whopping 30 million litre of unsold wine is bound to leave them high and dry, forcing them to significantly reduce crushing targets for the next season. Winemakers say even if they manage to sell half of this in the coming season, there?s not much they can do with the rest, considering that the government has been pussy-footing a policy suggestion that would enable distillation of the surplus grapes and excess wine into brandy.

With the new season beginning December, over 9,000 acre of wine grapes have already been planted. This means around 45,000 tonne grapes would be available for crushing next season. However, the current surplus would ensure that less than half of this, i.e. 20,000 tonne, is crushed, resulting in another excess.

The issue of surplus wine compelled the All India Wine Producers Association to bring wine manufacturers in the state together to form wine clusters and distill the surplus grapes and excess wine into brandy on a pilot basis. Three clusters have been planned in Nashik, Pune and Sangli.

The association has been demanding a permanent ?pot still distillation policy? for surplus grapes and to liquidate excess wine stock. However, the government is yet to respond to their demands, says Jagdhish Holkar, president, All India Wine Producers Association. ?The definition of brandy needs to be defined in the way it is defined globally. Globally, brandy is defined as the ?end product which is 100% from wine spirit, produced by ?pot still distillation method?. However, in India, this is done from molasses, which is not grape spirit,? explains Holkar.

Maharashtra winemakers get a hangover from surplus grapes - Financial Express