Wine In India

The Chilean National Day celebrated at the Claridges Hotel on 22nd September has never been so sweet and fruity before. The Chilean born celebratory drink Fresita Frizzante with infused strawberry flavour and an Indian fruit wine- Luca Lychee Wine from Nirvana Biosys welcomed the guests as they entered the Maharani banquet room. I had been hearing about the launch of Lychee wine since January this year but did not have a chance to taste it so this was a good opportunity to add it to my portfolio of tasted wines.

Let me correct myself- I had been to the wine manufacturing facility in Haryana a year earlier and had tasted the lychee wine under production. Dr. J P Gupta, CMD who is a fellow alumnus from IIT, Delhi from my era and took me around, felt it tasted delicious. But I felt uneasy and found it slightly unpleasant with bitter after-taste as if the kernels had been partially crushed along with the fruit. He did concede there might be a problem with some chemicals they were using for filtration (I think) and that the problem could be manifesting itself on the palate as a result.

There was yet another reason for the curiosity. A food website imagesfood.com that keeps on dumping seemingly daily, news into my Inbox, announced the ‘Lychee marries Wine’ wedding on in its Product Watch section on January 4 with the message, ‘Nirvana Biosys, one of the leading wine manufacturers in India, has recently launched its much awaited lychee wine under its flagship brand Luca’. This would make it the first wine manufacturing facility in Haryana to make fruit wine too.

Lychee wine is difficult to produce on consistent basis even in countries like China which have been making it as a full bodied golden colour, rich, dessert wine since long. Luca Lychee wine did not disappoint. It was clean, fresh, tasted of ripe lychees and the gentle sweetness would make it a fine match with spicy Indian vegetarian cuisine. It wasn’t very crisp but wasn’t fat either. It did not bother me that one of the visiting Chilean producers who keenly waited for it, kept the glass aside after a sip, finding it too sweet. Tandoori fish and chicken in the shape of tikkas or tandoori with spices in the marinate, would have made a perfect match for him.

Attain Sweet Nirvana with Lychee Wine - Indian Wine Academy

In Bangalore, arguably India?s wine capital, wine appreciation courses see robust participation. Wine club memberships are all the rage and wine-paired dinners offered by restaurants are trendy. Wine retailing even hit a new high when the government, in a progressive move, started granting hassle-free inexpensive licences to restaurants and taverns to serve wine.

But if you are out at dinner and ordering a bottle off a Bangalore restaurant?s wine list, get ready to be shocked.That Napa Valley Californian wine priced at Rs 6,000 is the very same that retails at under $20 in an American supermarket. Such are the hefty duties, litre fee, freight charges, importer and retailer margins and restaurant mark-ups that get added on to the cost of your bottle. At such prices, drinking decent wines can only be an indulgence for India?s upper crust.

If you are ordering an Indian wine, say a Satori Merlot from the country?s largest winemaker Sula in neighbouring Maharashtra, be prepared to still pay the heavy Rs 300-litre fee and then the margins and mark-ups. Likewise, if you were across the border and ordered one of the wines grown in Karnataka?s Nandi Valley or Krishna Valley, say a La Reserve Cabernet-Shiraz from the country?s second largest winemaker, Grover, ready to pay the same premium.

Welcome to the convoluted world that is wine economics in India. On the one hand, local governments such as Karnataka and Maharashtra are ostensibly trying to give a leg up to their home-grown wine makers by promoting wine drinking. On the other, both these governments, which account for the bulk of wines made in India impose a bulky Rs 300-litre fee on wines made outside their states ? a face-off which is mostly aimed at taxing each other?s wines ? under the guise of protecting their own grape farmers.

Why wine in India gives you sticker shock - Indian Express

Among all the reasons that are often cited for the appallingly slow rise of the popularity of wine in India vis-à-vis other countries, which were equally new to this beverage (like China, for instance), the one that is most commonly overlooked is also perhaps the most basic in the entire chain of the process of enjoying wine: availability.

Wine is perhaps the second most bought souvenir on foreign trips, after of course, some junk that resembles the Eiffel Tower and and is peddled to us by street-smart immigrant hawkers.

But socio-politico-economics aside, the reason why wine doesn?t seem to entirely take off in the world?s second most populated nation?who do seem to have a refined sense of taste?is because they don?t know how to get their hands on it. Long ago, when my book Wine Wisdom was released, the by-line read, ?Buying and Drinking wine in India? and almost everyone I met...

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Grasping wine - Financial Express

Loic Denneulin, Country Manager, Sopexa, leaves India after a successful three-year stint. A release from the Val d'Orbieu Group announces his appointment as Market Manager in the Group's Export department. Loic's mission will be to develop the Group activities in North & South America, India, Sri Lanka and Maldives. For the US market, Loic will team up with Victoire Girard based in New York City.

An International Business major, Loic studied at Loyola University Maryland and holds Master degrees from La Rochelle School of Management & Northumbria University. He has 7 years of experience in marketing acquired at Lagardère Global Advertising & General Motors in the USA, and Sopexa where he spent the past five years promoting French wine in India & Singapore.

Loic Denneulin, Country Manager, Sopexa, leaves India after a successful three-year stint. A release from the Val d'Orbieu Group announces his appointment as Market Manager in the Group's Export department. Loic's mission will be to develop the Group activities in North & South America, India, Sri Lanka and Maldives. For the US market, Loic will team up with Victoire Girard based in New York City.

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