|
On Wine Culture in India
 'Producers
in Italy make the mistake of assuming that India has a population of 1.1
billion and are ready to take anything that is available. We have to first
spread the wine culture if we are going to make any progress and understand
quality.
Sommelier's role is very important here. Without one, how can you explain
the difference between Spanish, French and Italian wines? In general,
I feel there is shortage of good sommeliers in India.'
'From the short visit I have gathered the impression that there is a
lot of emphasis on sell-in but no promotion at the sell-out point. By
that I mean that there is a lot of focus on finding the importer and selling
to him but the consumer is not being primed to buy or drink wine.
I was at Oberoi for a short while and I was surprised to find no sommelier
who could guide me to the wine I wanted to drink or what I could have
been made to drink. There are 5 restaurants, a big and nice wine list;
but no-one to explain what to drink. That is strange. '
'In a restaurant, it is important to know the characteristics of each
wine so you can advise the customer what he should order with say lamb,
fish or vegetarian dish he is ordering.' He clarified that he was citing
this as a general observation in most of the hotels and not necessarily
singling out Oberoi.
Friends of Wine
'There are two fronts where one has to help the consumer in spreading
proper wine culture. The first one is of course, the proper staff knowledge
where one can do some basic courses in institutions like your wine academy
and then send the finalists to Piemonte for learning of our culture, history
of wines etc.
The other important point is educating the final consumer. Brazil, for
instance, has a Brazil Association of Wine Consumers. They meet every
Wednesday for wine tasting and dinners with wines from different countries.
The 80-90 persons present at the restaurant or other venue have done the
basic courses in academy like yours. The producers from different countries
and regions go there to present their wines- even 2-3 times in a year.
These people discuss various wines and it adds to the knowledge and helps
expand the market. It is not necessary to taste only Italian wines.
At these tastings, these Friends of Wine learn from the producers
directly, the winemaking, the characteristics of their wine etc. This
helps them learn about various cultures too.'
Selecting Intelligent Importers
Before any of these activities take place, it is very important to select
the right and intelligent importer. It can be a very difficult market
in India otherwise. If every producer that wants to come in wants to be
successful, there is not that big a market here.
 Most
importers want to do business of buy-sell like a commodity without knowing
or entering the wine culture. They are very interested in selling and
promoting to the restaurants. But they do not get involved with sell-out,
the selling to the final customer.
The money required for such promotion is neither spent by the producer,
nor the importer. The prices of wine at restaurant are so exorbitant and
they hardly promote their products. This is where our Federation comes
in. With the right and intelligent exporters we are willing to spend money
at the final end so that the customers get to drink more wine and the
market expands.
Also many importers deal with commercial people and not the producers
directly. This is a mistake. Only producers know about the product and
can give support. We invite importers from many countries like Argentina,
Brazil and now even China and Korea.
The objective is to get the importers know our tradition well and then
collaborate with us.
Page
1 2 3
|