L Shantakumari Sundar, development commissioner and chairperson of the wine board, said Monday, ‘Besides free tasting of wine, a seminar has been organized to educate farmers, industrialists and public about wine cultivation, production and contract farming.’ Opportunities available in the state after the wine policy was announced will also be highlighted at the festival.
"The festival, apart from cultivating a love of wine among people, also aims to promote Indian wines. The focus is to promote fruit-based wine, which will benefit farmers," said the chairperson.
One can taste different wines and also buy wines at the spot. The new wine policy allows individuals, groups, companies and wine producers to organize wine festivals to promote and market wines. The fortified wines like port etc. have been excluded under the policy.
However, it appears the festival is only for the wines produced in Karnataka. Abhay Kewadkar, Chief Wine Maker of UB wines informs delWine, ‘I am glad the Board has taken the first step. But I am also disappointed that only wines produced in Karnataka are being allowed in the festival. There are only 2 wineries- Grover and Humpy Heritage which ahs 3 different labels-Kinwa, Naka and Humpy. They should have allowed all the wines sold in Karnataka if they wanted to make it really worthwhile show.’
Wine festivals are a centuries’ old tradition in the Old World countries and are regularly held even in the new world. Tiny villages in Italy, German, France and Spain are annual features where the wine queens are selected. The US and Australia have similar events at the town, city and state levels.
The festivals can be extremely useful to educate people about wine and its health benefits. These also offer the opportunity to educate people about the ill effects of over-drinking and the visitors can be motivated towards moderate drinking; 2-3 glasses for men and 1-2 glasses for women regularly and no binge drinking of wine or any other alcohol beverage.
<It would be a real shame if Karnataka Board allows only the Karnataka produced wines. DelWine actively supported the government policy of slapping additional tax on the out-of-state wines coming to Karnataka because of the Maharashtra government’s unfair policy towards their wines. This should not make the consumers of Karnataka who drink other wines as well to be precluded.
Parochialism in any form is bad for the country. One hopes the Board denies that only Karnataka producer can participate. All wines being sold in Karnataka ought to be included in the festival so that the consumers get to taste all the wines they can. If they want to buy, they can buy at higher price which include the special excise duty which has been justifiably added on for the out-of-state wines-editor.>
PS- It is another matter that the festival is more likely to be a flop if there are only two wineries being showcased. |