State's wine makers to conduct exhibitions across the country and abroad; to tie up with restaurants to help promote the drink

In a country where wine takes a backseat to the preferable beer or whiskey, wine makers have decided to no longer settle for third place.

In an attempt to promote wine in India, wine makers have decided to woo the crowds by having exhibitions held across states and other parts of the world to display the potential that the Indian market has.


Vintners hope the exhibitions will help in educating the masses about the grape-based spirit and making them appreciate the beauty of it

And in their attempt to entice potential customers, vintners and grape producers from Nashik are attending a wine exhibition in Germany to promote Indian wines.

Jagdish Holkar, president, All India Wine Producers' Association (AIWPA) and chairman of Flamingo Wines Company confirming the move, said, "We need to strongly promote our wines abroad where there is a huge market for wines.

We are making all possible attempts to promote and exhibit wines and participating in such international wine tasting exhibitions is an honour for our country."

Promotions

Holkar also revealed that vintners would be holding state wise wine tasting exhibitions in the country over the next few months in order to penetrate the market and to educate the wine lovers.

He added that to realise this objective, AIWPA has been in talks with leading restaurants across the map to help promote wine.

"We will have food and wine tasting exhibitions for three days in each state, which will eventually contribute to sales.

We are yet to finalise the places but our focus is on educating the masses about wines and making them appreciate the beauty of wine," Holkar added.

New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune and Bangalore account for about 80 per cent of wine sales out of which 63 per cent of the volume sales take place through five-star hotels, pubs, bars and restaurants.

Holkar further elaborated that to meet with the present demand and to cut down the production cost and help in marketing wines, Nashik has formed the country's first wine cluster with help from subsidies received from state and central government.

The AIWPA has also recently formed a special purpose vehicle (SPV), which would be an independent company looking after the interest of the shareholders.

Govt support

Another wine maker from Sangli who did not wish to be named echoed Holkar's sentiments. He believed that the consumption of the grape-based drink was low not only because of social mindsets but also the lack of support from the government.

"We need a platform where people can come together and try out their different wines and this city is one of the best places where we can promote wine but we need support from the government too which is lacking.
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This is a major reason why Indian wine has not been completely absorbed in the market as compared to foreign wines," he said.

An excise official revealed that the demand for wine had still not increased even though the excise department had issued a separate one-day wine licence for wine lovers.
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"This was a move to persuade wine lovers, but unfortunately there are no takers for the same. Though the licence is available for Rs 600 only, we have very few who seek the licence.
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We hope that these promotions will help to increase sales in the state," said the official.

Rs 2.7 cr
Wine's yearly contribution to the state's excise coffers

Did you know?
Luxembourg is the highest consumer of wine with 15.5 litres per capita, followed by France at 14.8 litres, according to Nationmaster.com, a Sydney-based website.

Numberspeak
Just over a million cases of wine are sold annually in India ufffd a country that loves its beer and whisky, which together account for as many as 373 million cases. Even beer that at times is paired with wines accounts for 140 million cases. 41 per cent of the wine quaffed in India is consumed in Western India followed by the North at 29 per cent.u00a0 Metros account for the most sales in wine in India.