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'Today, the Indian wine industry is still in its infancy;
however technology exchange in winemaking and viticulture from Europe
and Australasia means India is likely to challenge the supremacy of traditional
winemaking countries.
Local demand and aggressive promotion from the state
government means more and more ambitious Indians are turning to fine wine
as a mark of social standing.
If the increasing number of vineyards planted in parts
of western and southern India are any indication, India will soon be taken
seriously as a fine wine-growing nation.
India has the potential to embrace wine in a big way
and the economic muscle to dictate to producers what style of wine they
should be making.'
These are excerpts from Berry Bros. & Rudd 'Future
of Wine Report' that crystal gazes into the wonderful world of wine, 50
years hence, in 2058.
Here is something for the doubting Thomases who believe
Indian wines have poor quality.
In 1958, few people would have predicted that the USA, Argentina or Chile
would be capable of producing good wine. Today, these countries lead the
New World wine rankings.
A glimpse into 2058 might read,' 50 years ago, it would
have been unthinkable to take wine lessons 'virtually' or predict supermarket
shelves would be stocked with wines from China, Brazil, India or New Mexico,'
comments BBR.
'By 2058 it will be quicker to count those countries that don't make wine
than to count those that do. India will have embraced the grape, foreign
know-how having identified the best sites for both bulk and single estate
wines,' says Jonathan Ray, Wine Editor of Daily Telegraph, London.
'Our wine experts also foresee a day when France
may lose its spot as the number one producer of fine wine. As
global demand makes fine French wine a luxury affordable only by the super-wealthy,
with cases selling for up to £10m, other countries like India
may start to produce wine of equal measure,' says Simon Berry,
Chairman of Berry Bros. & Rudd in his Foreword.
Simon Berry also took over as the new clerk of the Royal
Cellars in January this year. As head of the Queen's Cellar he enjoys
a very prestigious post. Simon is a subscriber to the delWine
and regularly sifts through news of interest, especially India.
BBR are the oldest independently run wine merchants of UK and have been
in the business for 310 years. The Future Report has been compiled to
commemorate the 310th anniversary, through information from various sources
including Masters of Wine that work with the merchant company.
Other Changes predicted
Here is some more interesting and relevant information
for our viewers.
Already the world's sixth largest wine producer and
number four in terms of area under vine, China will be
the world's leading producer of volume wine by 2058. Foreign investments
and technology will help this transformation.
China's current 400 wineries will multiply more than
ten-fold, with up to a quarter producing fine quality wine, of the level
of the finest Bordeaux wines.
Australia will be too hot and arid
to support large areas of vine. It will no longer be renowned for volume
wine and will become, instead, a niche producer, concentrating on hand-crafted,
terroir-driven, fine wine.
England will benefit tremendously from
the continued hot weather ( 2007 was the second warmest year in the UK
in 356 years) with more and more English land becoming suitable for wine
production. Today, there are 1,000 vineyards in England. The amount of
English farmland devoted to wine production may rival that of France by
2058.
Continuing global warming will benefit
countries of Eastern Europe, like Ukraine, Moldova, Croatia, Slovenia
and Poland, especially when they attract investment. Canada could experience
a similar uplift and rival the US.
Big brand wines will rule the roost.
They could be grape or blend specific, rather than from a particular country
or region. Grapes will be collected from all over the world and blended
to suit consumers' tastes.
Consumers will ask for wine by the brand name or flavour
and won't care where it has come from. Grapes will be genetically
modified to change a wine's taste and producers will add artificial
flavouring to create a style wanted by consumers."
Genetically modified vines could be grown hydroponically
in off-shore floating vineyards.
Vast industrial vineyards could house genetically-modified
grape varieties resistant to disease, and genetically altered yeast will
improve fermentation and help produce wines with lower
alcohol levels.
Rising global demand for fine wines and limited availability
of First Growth wines from top châteaux would mean the prices
will continue to rise over the next 50 years until fine wine becomes the
preserve of the very rich. There will be competitive biddings which might
take the cost from a great vintage to cost £10m.
BBR believes wine is unlikely to be sold in glass
bottles. Using glass will be unrealistic as retailers and importers
try to cut costs, waste, and reduce the environmental impact of wine being
shipped around the globe.
We are likely to see wine tankers across
the oceans. Bulk shipments of wine could arrive, before being put into
plastic or reinforced cardboard containers in a bid to reduce environmental
emissions and create a domestic bottling industry.
A far greater range of packaging may be seen on the
shelves in 2058. Cartons will be the obvious choice for much of the wine
and will dominate the shelves for the mass market.
For the glass bottles still in use, cork will be replaced
by screwcaps designed to let some air through like today's
corks. Every bottle of fine wine will have a synthetic 'smart cork' embedded
with a chip hardly larger than a grain of rice. The smart cork
can hold pages of information about wine, its producer and its provenance,
and the chip can both send and receive information, to end fake bottles.
The report should be music to the ears of the Indian
producers, some of whom may not be around in 2058, however. As the report
implies, only those who make good quality, are competitive and go for
a make over, will survive.
Several new players are getting into the act, some of
them big players like UB, Pernod Ricard and Diageo. The big giants who
have made tonnes of money in real estate, hotels, telecom, IT, retail
and liquor will definitely jump in the fray. Passion will drive hundreds
of them to Maharashtra, Karnataka and many newer areas where hordes are
regularly driving to, in search of newer locations for producing wine.
Only the fittest and well-healed will survive the marathon.
Subhash Arora
May 10, 2008
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