“Eight Indian winemakers will compete with international brewers at the three-day London Wine Fair beginning Tuesday,’ roared the news item.
This is not a beer show where international brewers are congregating. What the reporter does not know perhaps that wine is not brewed but fermented out of grapes or other fruits. And if the objective is to compete against the international players, I am, afraid they would perform much worse than our cricket team at the recent T20World Cup!
‘The Indian Grape Processing Board has handpicked eight wineries from across the country with a varied product portfolio to represent India and meet industry stake-holders for better promotion of Indian wines, said Abhay Kewadkar, chief winemaker and director of Four Seasons Ltd of the UB Group,’ according to the article.
Prima facie, I would be surprised if Abhay Kewadkar, who did not answer my query seeking clarification to this quote, as he was perhaps already in transit, would make such a statement. I hope the Board would be forthcoming in denying this statement or else it would be accused of being partisan. At least three of the participants are members of the Board. It would be tragic for its credibility if it took the stand that it had in fact handpicked the wineries. To the best of my knowledge, the selection was on a first-come-first served bases, as it should indeed be. I know that Grover Vineyards wanted to take part but were late in responding and were denied the entry.
‘It was trailing close on the heels of the IMFL (India Made Foreign Liquor) market with an 'overall size of 250 million cases annually,’ says the journalist talking about the figures of hard liquor being produced in India.
Again, this statement perplexed me. Trailing-did it say? At only 1.5 million cases of total wine consumption-are we trailing the IMFL market? Or are we trailing!!!
'Britain does not make its own wine. The country imports all of its wine from France.’ I hope no Brit or French has read the article! It may not be important to know the figures, but UK perhaps already makes the number of bottles close to what India produces- in South England where they produce fairly decent sparkling wine. England is also one of the few countries in the world which is totally free in importing wines from all parts of the world-even Indage, Sula and Grover have been exporting for several years-though insignificant amounts.
The report further says- The official said: 'It was imperative for India to market its wines in the same way as Australia, Chile, Argentina and New Zealand - the neo-wine producers - who have been trying to push their brews in the economy segments.' I think the official might need to explain in simpler terms what he meant by the statement.
While every journalist is free to write whatever he fancies and it is not our intent to be critical- it may not be worth the time- but it is important to point out that the journalists are responsible for the statements they make or the facts they write, else they would be clubbed in the same category as the cheap quality Indian wine, leaving the quality producers fuming or laughing.
http://in.news.yahoo.com
Subhash Arora |