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What is common with York, Turning Point, and the Chandon bubblies? For one, York has been involved in the production for all three brands. The Chandon which have been released so far was conceived at York winery though under the stewardship of their own viticulturists and winemakers from Australia and New Zealand. Turning Point label wines are also crafted here with the special packaging bottles provided by Ashwin Deo who owns the label. But what is interesting and has a common thread is that all three are being distributed in Delhi thru Hema Connoisseurs with effect from January 2015.
Informing delWine of his decision to start handling Indian wines, Amit Agarwal says that this is the natural expansion and extension of his current business. He has been importing wines and distributing them in India for a decade. He has been named as one of the Top Ten importers by delWine in 2013-14 and 2012-13 and is likely to continue to be in the list for the current year as well.
The trend of importers entering the Indian wine distribution has not been a very successful model so far. But as the industry grows slightly mature, the convergence of the two is natural-especially as the distribution channels continuously become same for major segments of the market. In fact, Amit says that there are fewer headaches in selling Indian wines since there is no customs duty involved, thus making the procedure less cumbersome. He says this addition will add to his database and the client base. All retail shops that sell imported wines also send Indian wines as do many of the restaurants. Additionally, many liquor shops do not sell imported wines but stock Indian wines and will add to the client list.
Hema has been importing wines from France (Alexis Lichine and JP Chenet), Australia (Down Under), New Zealand (Babich), Italy (San Simone, Terre Scure) and Chile (Emiliana). Cesari (Italy) and McGuigan fell victim to the FSSAI procedural labyrinth last year but he says he is hopeful they will be back soon in his portfolio albeit with curtailed number of labels, says Amit Agarwal.
York Winery and The Turning Point being from the same stable have concurrently changed the channel and partnered with Hema Connoisseurs. Ravi Gurnani, Director of York who looks after the marketing of wine throughout India and entered the Delhi and Rajasthan markets last year, confirms the change in their marketing strategy for Delhi. He says, ‘we were marketing through a small distributor called Ultra Wines earlier. They couldn't cope up with our addition of more varietals and an entry level brand as well. So we have decided to move now and partner with an established distributor like Hema to help us grow the business. Armed with experience of working with Chandon, York added the Sparkling wines to their own portfolio last year and launched them in Delhi recently. He says, ‘we are adding the Arros, Sparkling, Cabernet Merlot and Shiraz to the portfolio in Delhi. We are also adding Manthan which are entry level red and white wines’.
Some of the labels have been registered and others will get the clearances soon says Amit and they will be available from many retail shops in Delhi.
This is a second case of an importer opting to add Indian wines to his portfolio this year. Prestige Wines added Reveilo wines from Vintage Wines towards the end of last year.
Subhash Arora |