The producers have the option to send their samples either to London or Delhi. The venue for London will be Montgomery International Ltd, 9 Manchester Square, London, W1U 3PL, where it will be held on 7-9 October. In Delhi it will be held at Hotel Hyatt Regency on November 11-12. Both venues remain unchanged from last year.
Explains Robert Joseph about the venues,' the two options are kept for the sole purpose of convenience of the participants. It doesn't indicate two different challenges.' Adds K.V. Rajeevan, CEO of InterAds Montgomery India Pvt Ltd, who organise IFE-India and are co-coordinating the Challenge in India, 'the two options have been kept to help producers overseas who do not have distributors in India but are keen to enter the market.' Indian producers and the distributors of the foreign producers should logically send samples to Delhi.
Another advantage to enter the Challenge in India is that the entries can be submitted till October 27, whereas if they want to send to London, the last date for booking is 19th September. They do get a week more to physically deliver the samples afterwards.
Last year saw an entry of about 350 labels. The response was excellent for the first year for entries sent to London but Indian participation of domestic wines or the imported wines was not as expected. Doubting Thomases, who like to sit on the fence and watch the doomsday come, were uncertain of the quality of the competition.
But as Rukn Luthra, Business Head of Pernod Ricard, says, 'We are very confident of
Robert Joseph's professionalism and the way he handles such competitions overseas. We shall be taking part in the next India Wine Challenge.
Another supporter was Dharti Desai, founder & CEO of Finewinesnmore of Mumbai, who says 'we are a nascent industry. We must support such competitions in order to take our industry forward... We shall take part in even bigger way this year.'
Chateau Indage participated last year in a nominal way. This year, with a lot of medals and recognitions at the Japan Wine Challenge last month, Ranjit Chougule, Managing Director says, 'We will, of course, be present with our largest portfolio yet at this year's India Wine Challenge.'
Another Chateau which was not present, it being their first vintage, was d'Ori. Says, Ranjit Dhuru, CEO of Chateau d'Ori, ' I am very sure of our quality. We will enter all our wines and are confident to win many medals. It will also motivate us to improve our quality further'. Rajeev Samant of Sula plans to partake on even bigger scale including some foreign labels. Their Sauvignon was the only Silver medal winning entry in the Challenge which saw domestic wines garner only bronzes or Seals of Approval.
The Challenge
The India Wine Challenge 2008, the latest in over 50 such competitions that Robert Joseph has chaired or co-chaired across the globe since 1984, exists to provide the map not only to capture a larger chunk of the market which is growing at 30-35% annually but also help improve the quality.
The event is India's first and only serious impartial annual competition for Indian and international wines. 'The caliber of its judges and the judging procedure make its results a uniquely valuable resource. Stated simply, a medal at the India Wine Challenge is not easy to win, but once attained, it will help you to sell more wine in India,' Robert says.
International Judges for Delhi
For the India Wine Challenge 2008, the wines will be judged in Delhi by a panel that includes top local experts and some of the world's most illustrious producers. These include Gina Gallo of Gallo Family Vineyards in California; Vanya Cullen who was named finest winemaker in Australia; John Forrest, one of the most highly regarded wine producers in New Zealand; Mike Ratcliffe of Warwick Estate and Vilafonte in South Africa and Roberto Bava a top Italian producer who has already taken a great interest in India.
Robert Joseph launched the first International Wine Challenge in London in 1984, an event that went on to become the world's biggest wine competition and,
in the words of Jancis Robinson MW, 'the Oscars of the Wine World'.
Joseph has launched International Wine Challenges in China, Japan, Vietnam,
Singapore, Hong Kong and Russia. He has judged and/or chaired wine competitions in France, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, South
Africa, Chile, Portugal and the USA. Joseph sees the India Wine Challenge as part of a bigger move to develop a thriving wine industry and market in India.
For any query write to Robert Joseph at robertjoseph@unforgettable.com
For detailed brochure and the entry kit in the pdf format, click here. |