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 A few years ago Gaia Gaja (pronounced as Gaya Gaya-former is Italian, the latter comes from Spain from where her father Angelo’s forefathers came) of the iconic Gaja Wines in Barbaresco visited India. I invited her for dinner at a restaurant and told my wife that Gaia was coming and I would like her to join us. She agreed but asked me her name-I said it was Gaia. She said ‘I know it’s Gaja but what is her first name?’ I told her she was Gaia at which point she lost her cool. ‘How many times do I ask you-I know she is Gaja but what’s her FIRST name!!” She felt sheepish when I explained to her that her full name was Gaia Gaja (Gaya Gaya!).
Several years ago when I visited Bottega’s stand at Vinitaly I wondered how they could name a wine company ‘Bottega’ (Italian word for shop, store and also apprentice artists’ workshop etc). I also tasted the Bottega Gold Prosecco, wondering if the bottle packaging was a thin gold leaf-till I met the owner of Bottega-Mr. Sandro Bottega. By this time, the ‘Gold’ had been available in India through Mohan Bros. And I knew it was the style of packaging that made the bottle look opulent and rich and of course, expensive.
I met Sandro Bottega, the owner of the 11 million bottles a year Italian family- owned winery in Montalcino last year at the annual Benvenuto Brunello Tasting. I was surprised to meet him there displaying Bottega Brunello di Montalcino. In all innocence I asked him if he knew anything about Bottega Gold. He said he was in fact the owner of the winery producing it! It was near Conegliano making Prosecco and he had in fact 3 wineries. I told him he needed to come to India to promote the brand. He promised to visit soon so it was no surprise when I came to know that Katia Bonaguro, his Export Area Manager was in town instead and would like to meet me.
Petit Katia is chirpy and as bubbly as their Bottega Gold. As if to underline the fact that ‘Bottega Gold’ is a luxury product, she was hired a couple of years ago when she was working in the luxury industry. She is also the area export manager for Oceania, India and Turkey via Israel and is making the visit for the first time to India. Mohan Bros has been importing a limited luxury range including the Rose Brut for about 3 years but both he and the product suffered at the hands of FSSAI, apparently because of the labelling issues.
Katia says the labelling issues have been resolved and they want to extend the product range to include products from other wineries and wines like Chianti and Soave that are produced by their partners under the Bottega label. They also have a distillery where they make a range of grappas. I wondered how they expect to sell in India ‘Gold’ at such high prices, because of the Indian taxes.
Fetching over £25 in UK Retail, one of its most important export markets, it is a premium product from their winery in Bibano, barely 14 kms from Conegliano known for its DOCG Prosecco, in the Province of Treviso known for making Prosecco for centuries. She also asserted that in fact the Bottega Gold was fundamentally a DOCG wine since it was made from select grapes brought in from Valdobbiadene hills. But due to the appellation laws which did not allow bottles to have any lining making it opaque, they had to downgrade it as DOC.
Over 58% of the total production out of 11 million bottles (about 1.2 million cases of 9-litere each) is sparkling wine and Gold is their proud possession in the portfolio. India is only one of the 120 countries of export. About 80% of the production is exported with Germany, Switzerland, Canada (supplying even to the monopolies), Netherland and Switzerland as the big markets while USA and China are growing fast. Interestingly, they have a good market in African countries like South Africa, Congo etc.
 This might be the poor man’s Armand de Brignac ‘Ace of Spade’ (the super premium champagne from the House of Cattier) champagne but in India, there might be a limited market-a niche market where the Indian rap singers do not seem to have been enamoured by the golden substitute, I remarked to her. Unfazed by my argument she says there are several other variants besides the Gold Brut and even a Rose Brut-made from Pinot Noir. ‘I realise that the taxes are very high in India and that we have to bring in reasonably priced Prosecco which have been booming in sales like everywhere else in the world. But we do have competitively priced Prosecco and even wines from Soave, Valpolicella and Montalcino that we are discussing with Mohan Bros for export into India,’ she says.
Bottega has 3 wineries-in Bibano (Treviso), Valgatara in Valpolicella and Montalcino where I had met Sandro. Katia tells me that they have recently purchased another winery details of which are not clear. They also keep Chianti in their portfolio. But a competitively priced red Valpolicella, white Soave and Rosso di Montalcino might be bigger sellers. As she says, their objective was to first prove to the consumers that they were producing premium Prosecco like Gold. Now the time has come for them to venture into other products and the experience with FSSAI would help them conform to the requirements more easily.
Bottega Gold will be available at The Wine Company restaurant in Gurgaon soon, where we tasted it-delicious with bruschetta and pizzas (not-on-the-face mousse helped enjoying the food better) and later with grilled chicken. It will soon be available at this venue for around Rs. 5000, I was told by their Sommelier. With the retail price of around Rs. 4,500 in Delhi, it would be priced excellently and good choice as a celebratory drink or with food. Of course, if you are not the budget conscious drinker, you would enjoy the elegance but please be warned that it is such easy- drinking wine that you may not be able to stop at one.
Subhash Arora |