Wine in India

I am certainly no expert on wine, however I do have an appreciation and a reasonable amount of experience with it. I sorely miss the wonderfully unique flavours of the antipodean wines that I am used to. Buying the same here, I am looking at up to a 500% mark up on what I would pay in New Zealand for the same, with the available international range being very limited and fairly mediocre.

This annoys me no end, and results in my reluctant avoidance of purchasing wine here on the whole, except for the occassional locally produced version which I personally find unsophisticated, yet drinkable.

Wine in India remains a status symbol, with the majority of purchasers being the very wealthy (a glass of locally produced wine costs circa 2 to 3 days average salary), with a distinct lack of general wine knowledge being noteable. The amount of times I have ordered a Sauvignon Blanc and ended up with a Chardonnay - with the waiter insisting that it is a Sauv is just frustrating. All white wines are not the same India!

This situtation is purely due to the newness of the product, as the vast majority of Hindu and Muslim people chose not to drink; with the Brits having left their mark with whisky being the drink of choice for those people who do enjoy a tipple.

Local producers have done astoundingly well for a 'new market' and there is much excitement in the local industry, with international winemakers salivating at the market potential. There have been a fair amount of burnt toes to early entrants from the international labels, with market inception being a slow and costly process to date.

With local producers retaining 80% of the current wine market, the international wine exporters watch and wait in anticipation for the youth of today to mature who have access to international media and trends, who are an enormous emerging sophisticated consumer class, and who are steadily picking up on the desirability of wine - creating a very attractive growing market for the industry.

The existing uneven tax structure, duties and tariffs pose the biggest hurdle for those attempting to bring wines into India. Each state has its own tax structure, with Maharashtra (the state which currently consumes 40% of local and international wine) having taxation rates that are 100 to 200% higher than in other states.

Heartening news which I read in todays newspaper is the Maharashtra state governments newly issued notification that the maximum retail price (MRP) on beer and wines is to be shown on the bottle, including sales tax and VAT. This will stop the common practice of retailers varying the VAT calculation, and the subsequent huge fluctuation in prices from shop to shop. Five star hotel restaurants being the biggest culprits as they price their foreign wines at five to ten times the retail cost, despite being permitted to buy a fair amount of liquor duty-free.

Steps such as these new reforms will ease the way for those looking to enter. There are currently a handful of successful local importers and distributors who seem to be leading the pack in terms of achieving returns to the international labels. I would strongly advise joining with a group of local winemakers, to spread the risk and to partner up with an existing local reputible distributor to enter this market to ensure the best and quickest route for success.

The government will continue steadily making the necessary reforms to support the international players, and indeed the market potential for wine sales in India remains enormously attractive. The metropolitan areas all boast wine appreciation groups, and I look forward to the day when there is a suitable readily available selection to chose from, which is more fairly priced.