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Longuedoc-Roussillon Eyes The Indian Market

France's most prolific wine-producing region, which has grown out of the shadow of its iffy past, is opening an office in New Delhi to tap the vast Indian market, reports SOURISH BHATTACHARYYA

Longuedoc-Roussillon's export promotion body, Septimanie Export, will open an office shortly in New Delhi , followed by similar forays into Shanghai , Moscow and Sao Paolo, in a determined bid to put the region's food and wine as well as education and tourism products on the radar screens of the Indian consuming class.

Announcing this in New Delhi , Georges Freche, President of the Languedoc-Rouissillon Region and Septimanie Export, said India has a lot of people who are travelling abroad and buying wine. “We expect the number of Indians who drink wine to go up to 50-70 million in the next few years,” Freche declared. But he also sounded a note of caution. “The taxes are very high,” he said, “but we expect the French and Indian governments to sort out the matter.” He was referring to the hopes raised by French President Jacques Chirac's planned visit to India in February.

Speaking to www.indianwineacademy.com after Freche's short speech, his chief of staff, Alban Zanchiello, said the Languedoc-Roussillon's wine producers who had come with Freche to New Delhi as part of the regional delegation had tasted Indian wines and felt that their own products would find a niche in a market already exposed to good wines. “The Indian palate wouldn't get shocked by our wines,” Zanchiello said.

The Languedoc-Roussillon delegation was staying at The Imperial, a premier hotel in the Indian capital, and was impressed by the way the waiters presented and served wine. “It didn't come as a surprise to us because the wine culture is growing out here,” he said. What came as a reassuring surprise, though, was the fact that The Imperial's wine list carried Aime Guibert's Mas de Daumas Gassac, a fine example of a Vin de Pays de l'Herault.

It convinced the delegation to back the Languedoc-Roussillon's efforts to plant its feet in India 's promising consumer market. Zanchiello said it'll be his region's strategy to work with French managers and chefs to develop the market for its wines in India . Explaining the rationale of the region's foray into India , he said: “The European market's too small to sell wine, so we have to be on the right train at the right moment. It is just a beginning, but if we're not here, we'll lose the battle even before it begins.”

After centuries of being seen as a lake for cheap bulk wine fit only to be served from jugs or blended with produce from other parts of France , Languedoc-Roussilon, thanks to the efforts of pioneers like Robert Skalli of Fortant de France, has surprised the world with its potential to make decent, drinkable wines. Vineyards cover over 300,000 hectares of Languedoc-Roussilon, which is three times as much as Bordeaux, and the region is the source of one in ten bottles of the world's wine, and one in three in France.

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