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FINE WINE

According to an article sourced from ambrosiaindia.com, around one million cases of wine are manufactured annually in India and another 1.5 lakh to 2 lakh cases are imported. Pit these figures against the spirits industry and you get an idea of the insignificant nature of these numbers. About 125 million cases of hard liquor were sold; the corresponding annual figure for beer was around 100 million cases. So if even a small percentage of people were persuaded to switch to wine, it would mean a quantum leap in consumption.

That’s the good news. But what about the flip side? First, a couple of obvious things. There is the indiscriminately high tax, which pushes the price of wines beyond the reach of many. But then, taxes invariably reduce as collections increase. With increased consumption, a fall is very likely. The other factor is the poor to middling quality of a lot of Indian wine. But this is changing very rapidly, with the entry of boutique wineries such as Big Banyan and Reveilo and the marked improvement in the overall quality of that put out by Sula and Grover.

The real obstacle to runaway growth, in my opinion, lies in the drinking and eating habit of Indians. Wine can be enjoyed before and after meals but, most of all, it is an accompaniment — something that complements food wonderfully. Desis are sequential in the way they approach food and drink. At parties, we tend to quickly knock back large pegs of spirit, usually whiskey, and then, after having decided we’ve had enough, end up attacking the nosh. Ever noticed how quickly parties come to an end once dinner is over?

Wine doesn’t fit in well with this rapid drink-eat routine. It is a beverage that is designed for slow sips, languorous dining, and intimate conversations. The fact that it is inextricably paired with food poses another kind of challenge in the Indian context. In the West, as well as in some eastern cuisines, food is always served with something to wash it down. This could be fruit juice, cola, beer, soda, wine or – if you so prefer – plain water.

Indian cuisine does not require such lubricants because much of it is wet, involving gravies, dals and the like. This is why we don’t drink small sips of something during a meal – it’s simply unnecessary. When I read articles which say that the real challenge in making wine more popular than spirits is to spread more awareness about it, to demystify it and so on, I wonder if they are correct. Perhaps, the real challenge is to change the way people eat — something that will need a lot of doing.

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