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EXPORT & IMPORT

Being a family winery owner, would you wed anyway. But it is a fact that the industry
try to conquer the Indian market? survived in most States due to e-Commerce
Sula Vineyards is the leading importer in In- and online sales and home delivery, which is
dia, followed by Grover Vineyards, a family wi- still frowned upon.
nery but used a lot of private equity funds. Fra- The industry would love to move to virtual
telli is primarily a family-owned winery with 3 e-shops, and one hopes after the pandemic, it
families owning it. They are quite aggressive would take a more pragmatic view and allow
and hope to conquer the Indian market. But such sales under the government rules. The
the road is extremely tough. wineries should be allowed direct selling to
their wine club members to help facilitate the
Every 2nd bottle of whisky will be sold in availability of wine, this is crucial to enable
India this year. Can you compare this statis- sales.
tical fact with wine consumption? Wine Clubs are not allowed to sell wine.
Indians have been drinking alcohol for cen- There is a faint possibility that they might be
turies. In fact, we are known to have imbibed allowed to sell, this will help them educate and
wine (in some fermented juice form) for over sell at the same time - for example, the Wine
5000 years. It is virtually unknown that we Society in UK is doing an excellent job. But this
used to also make wine till the 1880’s when is unthinkable in India.
phylloxera hit and destroyed our vineyards Supermarkets sell wines but not in all states.
and the British rulers at that time did not en- Delhi does not allow it.
courage the replanting of the industry and it Wine in Cans is the latest packaging con-
practically died with resurgence starting in cept started barely 2 years ago - 3 wineries are
small numbers in the 1960’s with the produc- already using it. A cascading effect will soon
tion of wine as we know it broadly, starting in start as the market picks up.
the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.
The first quantum jump was taken in 2001 India also produces and even exports its
when the State of Maharashtra where table wines!
grapes have been grown and exported for The majority of wine production, ho-
decades- India is the 8th largest producer of wever, is concentrated in two south Indian
grapes in the world. Import of wines was freely states, Maharashtra and Karnataka at 2500
allowed in 2002, thus opening the channel for hectares.
foreign wines. Inspired by the increasing global interest in
With current consumption of about 4.5 mil- Indian wines, especially in UK, a new start-up
lion cases, it is still insignificant though the called “Wines in India” has been floated by
growth has been around 15% every year. But Chris Holland, Mayank Gupta and Nilesh
it is still at less than 2% of the total liquor con- Kamble with the stated objective of impor-
sumption. ting wines exclusively from India. The initial
Indian wine portfolio focuses on six produ-
Will the focus of the wine trade move to cers from the Nashik region - Charosa, Fratelli,
virtual e-shops? Will there be new types of Vallonne, York, Reveilo, and Good Drop Wine
businesses that will offer wine in different Cellars. Mysteriously missing are two of the
ways than in the past? top and the oldest producers Sula and Gro-
Unfortunately, every State‘s government ver - perhaps because they already have well-
has been vehemently opposing online sales -established exclusive distribution in the UK
and even wine discounting in many States. market and could not legally entertain a new
Advertising of alcoholic products is not allo- importer even if they wanted to. ƅ
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