Dec 28: The three-day International Wine festival, Karwar 2018 held in the beach town of Karnataka on December 21-23 received a good response from the public. The festival organised jointly by the Uttara Kannada district administration, Karnataka Wine Board, Department of Horticulture and Kali River Garden was an excellent way of helping the vine growers extend their reach through wine tastings.
According to KWB officials more than 12 wineries from Karnataka and Maharashtra, including Sula (Kadu),Grover Zampa, Fratelli, SDU, Big banyan, Rosso and Wine Boutique, participated in the wine festival and showcased over 150 labels. Beside wineries there were food courts to facilitate food pairing with wine, music, entertainment, cultural programmes and other added attractions. This festival was held to create awareness about wine grape cultivation, wine education sessions to train and encourage moderate wine consumption and to offer wineries an opportunity to directly interact with consumers, the organisers said, according to a Report.
M. C. Managuli, Minister for Horticulture in Karnataka inaugurated the wine festival and said that it was being organised to protect the interest of the grape growers of Karnataka and it would help to globally showcase the wine 
brands of Karnataka.
Karnataka Wine Board is one of the most progressive State organisations and has been involved with several wine policies including wine laws. The board helps in the process of establishment of new wineries in the state and the expansion of their business. When it was founded in 2007, its turnover was just Rs 0.6 million. Today it has reportedly touched over Rs 20 million.
Karwar is a small beach town about 500 km northeast of Bangalore and is known for its beaches and tourism. With a population of under 200,000 the festival offers an opportunity to the locals to learn about and taste wines while it’s a great opportunity for the tourists to enjoy wines from a majority of the wineries including the Top Three-Sula (Kadu in Bangalore), Grover Zampa and, Fratelli. A small part of wines offered are imported as well.
At Rs. 20 entry charges, it is accessible to everyone. At such Wine Fests, one is allowed to buy wine (unlike Delhi where strict excise laws preclude any sales possibility), generally at discounts so incentivise the producers and exhibitors to spend money on participation and the consumers to buy at a discount.
Karnataka Wine Board is regularly organising such shows from Bangalore outwards with varied amounts of success-enough to make producers take part in such Shows regularly. It helps the wineries make inroads into smaller towns like Karwar and helps small wineries like Rosso promote their brands that may not be easy otherwise.
It may be difficult to measure the success of such a fair but Karnataka Wine Board has been doing a stupendous job and our congratulations to the KWB and its management to whom we say Jai Ho!
For a video about the festival uploaded by Rukmanand Mayekar, click:
https://www.youtube.com
For a few other relevant Articles on KWB, click;
Another Wine Fest by Karnataka Wine Board
Bangalore International Wine Festival turns a ‘Mela’
Karnataka Wine Policy Finally Notified
Subhash Arora
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