‘YOUR MOST PREFERRED WINE PRODUCING COUNTRY’ was the title of the Survey.
It is always difficult to choose just one country as your preference, but if you were given just ONE option, which country comes first to your mind? We requested only Indians and the Indians living overseas to respond and vote along with their comments.
Although the sample was very small with no statistical evidence, it did give out an interesting trend. France has polled in about 25% votes with Italy at 22%. Spain has a very decent 14% whereas Australia, Chile and India are each at about 6% with the rest of the countries sharing 21%.
The reason for Spain could be due to more and more Indians trying out better Spanish wines since they are not astronomically priced. Torres has been increasing its range, giving the wine drinkers a wider choice. Although it remains a surprise, the emerging of the new trend is there beyond any doubt.
Australia undoubtedly scores over others in exporting to India but the high numbers are indicative of the low and competitive pricing, that may not necessarily make people believe Australian wines are the best-they may be attractive value for money at best.
Another surprise was Indian wines chugging along neck to neck with Australia and Chile. Again, this could be because a majority of our drinkers are Indian and many are novices who might not have had the opportunity to taste foreign wines. Indian wines have been improving in quality too and more and more people are enjoying them too.
Germany, South Africa, New Zealand and the USA are neck to neck but much lower in terms of priority. We shall be following up on this minor survey to look at other issues facing the wine industry in general and India in particular.
It must be emphasized that the study has not been categorized strictly and is at best indicative of the changing trends. Of course, it does imply that it will help export the Indian wines and that Australia needs to brush up its image in India too as Brand Australia.
Subhash Arora
If you like to be part of this group to check out debates and discussion of various questions related to the Indian wine market and tastes, send a request on the Indian Wine Academy closed group or send a mail to arora@indianwineacademy.com and we shall register you without any obligation. |