| For those of us who think that Delhi is the centre of the wine universe, it's time for us to wake up and smell the cabernet. Mumbai is where the action is. It's in Mumbai that the wine market is shaping up, though I believe domestic wine producers are enjoying an unfair advantage. Unfair, because, like the five-star hotels, they are not passing on the humungous benefits they're enjoying, courtesy of the Maharashtra Government, to consumers. That, though, is the subject of another article.
Grover Ready to Shake Up Non-Premium Market From Nashik
Kapil Grover has taken the departure of Abhay Kewadkar, who ran his wine operations, to UB very much in his stride. As a result, he's devoting more time to the operations side of his business. And the launch of Sante, which is what his new bouquet of wines from Nashik, Maharashtra, priced at Rs 225, will be called, naturally tops his agenda.
Unlike Madera and Vin Ballet, its competition in the non-premium segment, the Sante range will be produced entirely from wine grapes. The initial offerings will be a 100% Chenin Blanc and 100% Shiraz . With Sante, Grover has re-written the rules of the non-premium segment, which has so far consisted of wines made from table grapes or grape juice concentrates. As he told us over a glass of Viognier Clairette from his winery, "I cannot sell wine that my father and I cannot drink."
To guarantee quality, the farmers growing grapes for Sante will be required to control their output and follow certain standards. Grover expects to roll out 1,25,000 bottles of Sante, which implies that he will be producing a million bottles this year - the balance 8,75,000 bottles will come from his Bangalore winery.
The significance of Grover's move to Nashik, which is emerging as India's wine capital cannot be missed. International wine producers who complain about the tariff barriers in India can take heart from the fact that similar discrimination is in place even within the country. Thanks to the muscle of Maharashtra's wine producers and grape farmers, the state has been openly discriminating against the only wine brand produced outside Maharashtra , namely, Grover.
Maharashtra's wineries enjoy a tax holiday, but wines from outside the state are required to pay 150% of the manufacturing cost as excise fee. They also have to cough up Rs 2.1 million as registration fee, as opposed to Rs 0.6 million their Maharashtra counterparts have to pay. On top of all this, they have to pay octroi, calculated on the distributor's price, just like the imported brands - the rates range 7.14% in Mumbai to 9.18% in neighbouring Pune.
Having tried hard to make the Maharashtra Government see reason, Grover has figured out that it takes less effort to take the competition on in its backyard. That explains his move to Nashik, where his presence is bound to shake things up a bit.
Menon to Distribute New Nashik Label, Gets Spurrier's Backing
Another bit of interesting news is Mumbai-based importer Sanjay Menon's entry into the domestic market. He's launching Hambhir Phadtare's Bahula Chenin Blanc in Mumbai, marking his entry into the thriving domestic market. Phadtare has spent his life teaching Sociology at Michigan, USA, but Nashik beckoned him back to his old village, Aambe Bahula, where his grandfather was a grape grower.
Interestingly, it was Phadtare, who has been experimenting with wine varietals in Nashik since 1998, who gave Sula's Rajeev Samant his first Chenin cuttings. Now, he's ready to launch his own label and Menon, recently called the Baron of Wine by Hindustan Times (which is interesting because he writes a column for HT 's rival, Daily News & Analysis ), has got Steven Spurrier, the man behind the historic Judgment of Paris, to give the wine his endorsement. Spurrier's verdict: "Pale yellow, lovely floral and fresh pear bouquet, fruity and rounded on the palate with an attractive citrussy lift of acidity, a fine wine for current drinking." Next on Menon's agenda is Reveilho, which is being produced at the Niphad taluka near Nashik. We'll tell you more about it later.
Menon has tied up with Spurrier also to launch the Indian Wine Society in Mumbai. He's in final stages of his talks with Citibank - it took him more than the year to get a handle on the legalities - to float the idea to high net worth individuals on its plastic database. The idea is to make six wines with tasting notes available to all premium card holders every quarter in Mumbai - it's a win-win for both: the bank gets card holders to swipe more and Menon gets to sell more wine. With Maharashtra's laws allowing home delivery of alcoholic beverages by retail shops, it shouldn't be difficult at all.
Talking about societies, Menon has brought the International Wine & Food Society to his home city. Some time back, he did a Syrah vs Shiraz tasting at Indigo. Mumbai's good food aficionados paid Rs 15,000 per person to wash down a perfect evening with 17 wines from top houses across hemispheres - Hermitage, Jaboulet, Chapoutier, Rene Rostaing and E. Guigal from Hermitage and Cote Rotie, coupled with Australian blockbusters from Penfolds, Henschke, Torbreck, Giaconda and Yalumba.
What Bubbling Under at Indage? New-Look Riviera, For Starters
At Champagne Indage, work just doesn't seem to stop, even as the market is abuzz with expectations of an IPO from the country's largest wine maker. Recognising Riviera's rock star status, the company proposes to lift it up the quality chain. It will be sold in Bordeaux bottles with hip, New World-style labels in vibrant colours from December. Not only that, Riviera will be upgraded to varietal status. It will be available in seven varietals.
Just in case you believe you've outgrown Riviera, the company has decided to release the 2006 vintage of its premium range, Indage Vineyards, into the domestic market from this year. It promises to be a treat, because only 4-5,000 cases of this wine are produced in a year.
The company is also releasing the country's first Champagne with a domestic label. The bubbly, sourced, naturally, from Champagne, will come in a bottle that'll remind you of Laurent Perrier and it's being named MDP Cuvee Reserve. MDP is what the trade calls Marquis de Pompadour, the sparkling wine with which Champagne Indage launched itself. Other news from Indage House:
- Shyamrao's Manual: Indage patriarch Shyamrao Chougule, with help from Dr K. L. Chadha, who was Horticulture Commissioner, Government of India, when the country's wine pioneer had just launched his venture, has put together India's first manual for wine farmers titled Wine Grape Varieties: Clones & Rootstocks. The manual is designed to share with farmers Chougule's encyclopaedic knowledge of the subject.
- Restaurant Ventures: Athena, the Indage Group's lounge bar and restaurant, has been renamed Prive. The group's other restaurant venture is a Japanese offering named Tetsuma. Also off the ground is Ivy, Mumbai's first exclusively wine bar, has opened at Indage House - it has the entire Indage range on its wine menu; the food spread is snacky and scrumptious.
- New Wineries: The new Champagne Indage wineries in Goa, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab will be operational within this year. The ones in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka will follow soon.
- Wine Programme: Indage will collaborate with Adelaide University, home to Australia's leading wine school, to launch India's first integrated wine education programme at the Indian Institute of Vine and Wine, Narayangaon. The institute will operate out of a 100-acre campus. The South Australian Premier is expected seal the deal when he visits the Champagne Indage headquarters in Narayangaon, Maharashtra , early next year.
- Vodka & Whisky: Looking beyond wine, Indage is well on schedule to launch its vodka and whisky brands. The vodka is called Sno. Its premium range, which will be made with grape alcohol, will match up to Ciroc, assure company insiders. It will be priced Rs 100 above Smirnoff. The whisky, christened Kingdom, will be primarily molasses-based; a part of the production will be sourced from Scotland, where Indage has bought a distillery.
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