India's First Wine, Food and Hospitality Website, INDIAN WINE ACADEMY, Specialists in Food & Wine Programmes. Food Importers in Ten Cities Across India. Publishers of delWine, India’s First Wine.
 
 
Skip Navigation Links
Home
About Us
Indian Market
Wine & Health
Wine Events
Hotels
Retail News
Blog
Contact Us
Skip Navigation Links
Wine Tourism
Book Review
Launch
Winery
TechTalk
Photo Gallery
Readers' Comments
Editorial
Media
Video Wall
Media Partners
Ask Wineguyindia
Wine & Food
Wine Guru
Perspectives
Gerry Dawes
Harvest Reports
Mumbai Reports
Advertise With Us
Classifieds
US Report on Indian Market Released
Top Ten Importers List 2015-16
On Facebook
 
On Twitter
Delhi Wine Club
 
KRSMA ka Karisma and Karishma

Posted: Friday, 22 July 2013 11:31

WOW: Top Ten Women of Wine in India 2013 -Dharti Desai of FWM

July 22: The Indian wine industry is at a nascent stage but many women have taken the plunge in the field of winemaking, marketing, education and journalism, with varying degree of success. It may be too early but in an effort to be the first in many areas in wine, delWine brings you the first-ever list of Top Ten Women of Wine in India 2013: WOW, with the objective of recognizing the persistent ones in the face of adversity and to encourage more to choose the healthy option.. We have refrained from ranking them as that would require extensive polls and surveys and have chosen to keep it generally in alphabetical order

Click For Large ViewThe Top Ten has been arrived after compiling a list of around 50 women living in India and active in the wine industry in some capacity. One of the criteria has been that those selected should have been contributing towards the industry for the last five years or more. If their sphere of work is not exclusive in wine, they should have been spending a majority of their time and efforts in the wine activities.

An effort has been made to keep a balance (the same key ingredient as in wine quality) in selecting women from different segments of wine- like winemaking, production, sales and markeing including export and import, restaurants and wine journalism keeping in view the international exposure, wine educational background, corporate or business experience.

The purpose of this Series of articles, the first ever of this kind in India, has been to highlight that the wine industry is not a male bastion. We need to encourage women to enter the industry and recognize them for their contribution in the increase of wine consumption. Wine may not still be a full time job for most women at this point of time. We have considered those with passion for wine and devoting a majority of their time to wine related activities. In most cases, the figures and facts have been taken to be the truth since they are given by the women-we assume that they are women of integrity.

Also, it being the maiden attempt, we have not kept the list in order of merit, but rather in alphabetic order. There is bound to be criticism but we have tried to be as objective as possible. The readers are welcome to send their suggestions and any glaring omissions – in fact we encourage and appreciate such inputs.

We are starting with Dharti Desai in this volume of delWine. We shall consolidate when all the ten have been listed, in one article.

WOW: Dharti Desai of FineWinesNMore

‘I am amazed at how my company is in the midst of all such inane rumors every few years,’ is the response when I asked Dharti Desai about what was happening to Fine Wines N More, the import company she had founded in 2006. “The previous year 2012-13 saw our highest sales of 8,000 cases from only 3,000 cases in the worst year 2010! We are present in six states." Climbing slowly and steadily in the initial years, she has had a setback due to the recession and the sales had plummeted to 3000 cases, making people speculate that she was getting out of the wine import business.

Wine has been her passion before it became business for Dharti, who has been managing a Direct Marketing business in New York for a few years. During her visit to India in 1996 she decided to start the same with the help of the family she founded Regency Direct Marketing (RDM) in 1997. With an eye on the print business, Mail Order Solutions (MOS) was born-today it is printing and distributing for clients in the DM industry in 20 countries. She has sales offices in New York and Vancouver.

In early 2006, she started thinking of her original love for wines and feeling that the time was right for India, did some research and founded FWM with her brother. The challenges were plenty and she learnt quickly that she needed to invest more. Being a hands-on person, she went about learning every aspect of the wine business starting from the complicated imports structure, supply chain, licensing, excise, pricing structure, costs cards, octroi etc. Admitting to having made several mistakes she says she made some good decisions like hiring Craig Wedge and associating with fine institutions like American Express Platinum and opening their own wholesale and retail trades.

Dharti is a single mom who found it tough to be an entrepreneur. ‘When I was alone in NY I had to drag my daughter along to my meetings and on my travels as well but thanks to the family support and the resources from both RDM and MOS, I have  been able to leverage well.’ Even though the struggles are still many in FWM and will be there for some time, I am continually learning and we are constantly fine tuning our business strategy.'

I cringe when I see quality wines parked on a dock for days with 40 degrees temperatures because of some ridiculous regulation. Working with wines like Caliterra, Sileni, Chapoutier, De Bortoli, Bava and Zardetto, she imports smaller quantities so she doesn’t have to deal with wines being stuck in bonds at customs warehouses. She has initiated several wine events and has co-created with blue chip brands like American Express Platinum

Dharti is a trooper who is neither bitter nor willing to quit despite the hiccups and is very optimistic about the future of the wine business.

Subhash Arora

Tags: Indian wine industry, Top Ten Women of Wine in India, WOW, Dharti Desai, Fine Wines N More, Craig Wedge

Comments:

 
 

Gwen Chesnais Says:

Dear Subash, This is a great topic, thank you for that. It would be nice to know if these "wine women"really feel it is more difficult for them to succed in this industry in India

Posted @ July 29, 2013 15:42

 

Subhash Arora Says:

Dear Aeisha, The precise purpose of my talking the leadership role in WOW is to highlight women who have established themselves in the wine industry in various capacities. You’d be surprised how the industry has been male dominated in other countries as well. I have talked to women in Italy, Spain and Chile etc. where they have been discriminated by their own families! The men looked down upon them as not-so-competent. It’s a few women like Madame Clicquot of VCP Champagne and Baroness Philippine de Rothschild on whom the leadership was thrust upon and they came up with flying colours. But the wine world has changed decidedly for the better so far as women are concerned during the last few decades and I would like to see women get a fair share of the pie in India as well. Rather than me writing, I am asking these women to be the shining examples and be a motivation. I will come out with an article later taking various facets of women of wine in India. Thanks for the comment and keep on pushing the Big B and exhorting the winemakers to give you better product and variety to penetrate the wine market deeper. Subhash

Posted @ July 22, 2013 15:58

 

Aeisha Sahni Says:

Great to see that your writing about this topic, Subhash. It would be nice if you could mention a few points in your future article on why women should work in the wine industry and some of the benefits. Hopefully this would inspire more and more women to be a part of this trade,and put an end to the fact that it is currently a male dominated industry.

Posted @ July 22, 2013 14:00

 
       

Want to Comment ?
Name    
Email       
Please enter your comments in the space provided below. If there is a problem, please write directly to arora@delwine.com. Thank you.
 

Captcha
Generate a new image

Type letters from the image:


Please note that it may take some time to get your comment published...Editor

Wine In India, Indian Wine, International Wine, Asian Wine Academy, Beer, Champagne, World Wine Academy, World Wine, World Wines, Retail, Hotel

     
 

 
 
Copyright©indianwineacademy, 2003-2020 |All Rights Reserved
Developed & Designed by Sadilak SoftNet