‘Fetes de Geneve’ is the annual Geneva Festival where India has been invited as the Guest of Honour country- ‘Inde-invité d’honneur’, as the invite on their website says in French. ‘Great Mélange-the Incredible India Journey’ campaign of the Indian Tourism and Development Corporation also includes the journey through Maharashtra and Karnataka wine regions, with wines from 9 Indian wineries making the Swiss exclaim ‘Incredible!’, (does India make wine too!) while tasting wines at the Wines of India stand erected by the Indian Grape Processing Board.
The other thing that has been surprising the visitors is that India has been accepted as the 45th member of OIV- the ‘United Nations of Wine’ where only governments can become members and IGPB has been able to get a complete membership in a relatively short time and that too with a unanimous vote. Switzerland of course is not only a member but also has a Swiss, François Murisier, as the Vice President of this prestigious organization.
‘We were approached by the Ministry of Tourism to send Indian wines for the 2500 sq ft Incredible India stand. We approached our winery members and 9 of them agreed to showcase their wines. Sula, Four Seasons, York, Mercury, Vintage Wines, Fratelli Vallone, Zampa, Grover decided to give us the wines that were air-freighted by us to Geneva,’ said a senior official of the IGPB in an interview with delWine yesterday.’ Red, white, Rose and Sparkling wines are all represented through these wineries. A not-so-surprising omission is Indage which till recently was taking part in all such shows.
IGPB is very pleased that the ministry approached them for wines for their specially created village. Barely 2-years old, the Board has understood well that besides making wine laws it is also important to showcase wines to connoisseurs and critics abroad to get a proper and neutral feedback besides creating awareness of the wine production in India. It is fast becoming a focal point for Indian wine promotion and unless there are wheels within wheels trying to spoil the show, it will in all likelihood develop into a result-oriented wing under the tutelage of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries.
The Indian cricket team does very well at home but fails overseas. Our Ministry of Tourism on the other hand seems to perform much better when pitching on the overseas wicket. It failed miserably when it did not take any steps to promote Indian wines on its own soil during the Commonwealth Games last October and we lost a golden opportunity. One fervently hopes that in all its future foreign forays, the Indian wines will get a due share- not to forget the wine tourism opportunities and the tourist traffic the concept can generate for these wineries and other such centers bound to come up around the vineyards, consequently benefiting Indian tourism.
‘One nice thing about this campaign is that the producers do not have to be present themselves at the stand like in wine shows. We have appointed a sommelier not only to taste wines but also to take enquiries from potential buyers, which will be passed to the respective producers,’ said our source. UK trained, well-qualified sommelier Gurjit S Barry is manning the stand at the Festival which kicked off with an Indian Concert on August 4. It will continue till 14 August, almost in time to unfurl the Indian flag as the Independent India turns 64 on August 15.
After participating in Hong Kong, UK (London) and Germany (Prowein), the Board has moved into the right direction by participating in such shows. Wines of India could become a successful export platform like Wines of Chile, Wines of South Africa and similar bodies in most of the other wine producing countries. It must continue to look for such opportunities where a concentration of opinion makers and wine drinkers and buyers are present. |