This is not about the Indian wines-though it could well be. However, the matter is taken from an article written about the Chinese wine market a year ago by a wine writer, Tim Johnson in 'China Rises'
'Bulk wine imports to China climbed 121 percent last year, hitting nearly five times the volume of imported bottled wine. Industry experts say most of the bulk wine goes into the bottled wine of China's three big vintners — Great Wall, Dynasty and Changyu which label their wines as products of China,' says Tim.
A purchasing executive with a foreign supermarket chain operating in China, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he doesn't want to antagonize local vineyards, said of China's home-grown wines: "I believe nothing on the label."
Now the Chairman of a vineyard in Hebei province has spilled beans about what happens, reports Tim who has been able to decipher, courtesy a Chinese blog.
'According to the internal source, "wine made from grapes grown in China occupies only 20 percent of the Chinese wine market, and the remaining 80 percent is imported junk wine." "The market size is about 300,000 tons today in China; however, only 20 percent is produced locally and 80 percent or more is from imports.
'What are the imports? They are 'junk wines, so called 'garbage-rank imported wine,' just like the second-hand suits imported from Japan and Korea in the past. The compositions of these junk wines are unknown, and the quality and quantity of each gradient is difficult to monitor. Most of them are not qualified for the aging process or were manufactured during bad years for wineries.'
The Chairman admitted honestly, "I have no idea what my colleagues will say about this situation. However, as an entrepreneur who is passionate about the wine industry and is dedicated to creating a gold label in Chinese wine, I feel very pained to see this happen.
Why do our Chinese consumers have to drink the junk wine that the foreigners do not drink?! Wine sold at nightclubs is extremely poor quality. The manufacturers add food colouring to dry white wine to make dry red wine."
'But we generally never, ever drink Chinese wine. And it just boils down to one thing- 'I don't trust what's on the label,' concludes Tim who is the Beijing Bureau Chief for McClatchy Newspapers
Things are not quite as bad in India. Bulk of the wine and 'Port' sold in Goa is technically not wine; surprisingly, EU has not moved against the marketing of the so-called Port which is a disgrace to the Real Thing. But in the absence of proper wine laws, anything in the bottle or on the label goes. Even bulk wine is imported and added to the Indian wine, as in China, or simply bottled and sold as Indian wine.
Says Rajeev Samant, CEO of Sula Vineyards,' we know this is going on in India and Maharashtra. Frankly, this is a very serious matter and the government ought to pay attention and do something about it. Hopefully, the national Wine Board being formed might be able to tackle it.'
It may be recalled that Sula also used to import Chilean bulk wine when it started marketing Satori red wine; it is another matter that the winery used to openly admit it, since they were not growing red grapes initially.
If what Rajeev says is true, the consumer in Maharashtra is suffering a double whammy. He is not only paying exorbitant prices for the domestic wines, the poor producer is being provided protection by the Maharashtra government in terms of 150% additional duties for out-of-state wines and 200% for the imported wines, while totally waiving off the excise duty on this wine.
And if the article describing the state of affairs in China really reminds you of Maharashtra, Goa or Pondicherry- you are not alone. |