The English-speaking world's second-largest wine publication, Wine Enthusiast, has put India on the cover of its August edition. Obviously the outcome of the interest created in Wine Enthusiast Editor & Publisher Adam Strum during his Christmas 2005 holiday with his family in India (the Delhi Wine Club had then hosted a dinner in his honour), the seven-page cover story has been written by delWine Editor Sourish Bhattacharyya.

You can read the complete story some time later on www.winemag.com, the website of the New York-based publication. We'll alert you when it is uploaded. We suggest that you put the website on your 'favourites' list. It is content-rich, with loads of articles written and designed for, as the magazine's title suggests, wine enthusiasts.

In his monthly signed letter to his readers, Strum asks a very significant question in these times when wine-producing countries are struggling with over-production: "Just imagine if a country of more than 1.2 billion people suddenly became a wine-drinking culture. How would that affect the international wine scene?"

He says: "The excitement about wine is palpable. I experienced it again and again during a recent trip there. The high-tech boom has generated astonishing discretionary incomes, and much of it is devoted to the blossoming wine culture in the best restaurants, hotels and shops."

Strum has many good things to say about Indian wines. "One thing that struck home was that they were true to their varieties," Strum writes and then goes on to lavish praise on the Sauvignon Blanc from Grover Vineyards and Sula, the Ivy Brut and the Vinsura Zinfandel, besides Grover's La Reserve and Sula's Dindori Reserve Shiraz.

Strum devotes a paragraph to ITC Hotels, especially to its Chief Executive, Nakul Anand, who, he write, is "leading an epicurean revolution" with Bukhara and Dum Pukht. He then goes on to say: "All of Anand's restaurants have extensive wine lists featuring wines from around the world as well as from India." That's high praise from the man who made Americans discover the joy of wine.