Some of the questions over the foray of the United Breweries Group into the wine sector may be answered by the company's announcement that it will set up a bottling facility in Baramati, Maharashtra, at a cost of 5 million euros.

Baramati, incidentally, is the home district of the country's Agriculture Minister (and also a wine industry pioneer), Sharad Pawar. The facility, evidently, will be used by UB Group to bottle the products of its latest international acquisition, the French wine manufacturer, Bouvet Ladubay.

"The wine market in India is set to grow exponentially and we thought that this was the right time for a company our size to enter the market," The Indian Express quotes UB Group Chairman Vijay Mallya as saying. The company had acquired Bouvet Ladubay, the wine subsidiary of French champagne major Taittinger, from the American private equity firm Starwood Capital.

As part of its efforts to allow Indian consumer access to Bouvet wines, the company will initially be importing them from France in bottled form and then over a period of time, start bringing them in bulk to be bottled at Baramati, where its subsidiary, Baramati Grape Industries, is located.

Mallya clarified that the company would not set up its own vineyards, which could mark its entry into the agri business. "I think the job of growing grapes is best left to farmers. This acquisition helps us get access to world-class wine making technology. What we propose to do is to pass this technology to the local farmers to create world-class wine grapes," he said.

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