?In victory, you deserve champagne, in defeat, you need it.?

?Napoleon Bonaparte

Luxury has many shapes. Occasionally, it can even be a bottle. What in India started as a tentative sip of the red just about three to four years ago by the uninitiated is today a torrent of Mo?t et Chandon Bruts, Veuve Clicquots and the like. Celebrations without champagne are just not complete any longer. That India?s love affair with champagne has begun is evident from a visit to any top end restaurant in the country. While a combination of factors has only reinforced its image as the preferred drink, India is however still to take to it as an evening drink, a casual sip.

?More young Indians need to take to champagne,? informs Rajiv Singhal, the India director of the official champagne trade body, the Comit? Interprofessionnel Du Vin de Champagne (CIVC). India accounted a very small fraction of the total sales ? 247,000 bottles of the 322 million bottles sold in 2008. And the number has been fairly stable in the last three years.

The idea of champagne still entices, and availability by the flute glass has only helped its cause further by making it far more affordable than ever before. But a significant challenge lies in its spread beyond Indians who know their special cuvees from their Brut non-vintage.

What?s in a name

?Champagne ? that?s still what a lot of customers, especially the young, ask for,? says a bartender at a top hotel?s bar in Delhi. ?They still haven?t got the names right!?

According to Vinod Pandey, F&B Manager, Taj West End, Bangalore, about 50% of the customers can ask for the specific brand of the champagne they want. ?Awareness has grown, but an important step in the experience is the skill of the server, who can introduce and explain the intricacies of the labels and vintages.?

?Champagne is not doing as well as we expected,? says Arindam Chakraborty, F&B manager, Shangri-la Hotel, which was one of the first hotels in the country to serve wines by the glass and give a major push to wine promotions. ?Of the 11 labels we have, we now serve five by glass, less than the earlier seven as some varietals were not moving.? Vijay Janardhan, Director, F&B, Hyatt Regency stresses that champagne sales have been down at the hotel ever since the spectre of global recession has been in the air.

Another challenge Chakraborty mentions is the difficulty of pairing champagne with Indian food, which means people more often opt for a red wine to go along with their Indian cuisine. ?Expats still do better than Indian as far as champagne goes,? he says. The image issue is a complex one. For whisky-loving India, even beer consumption levels are a fraction of the average world levels. But beer does not suffer the impression that it is a ladies drink, or an older person?s drink! A casual glance at average upscale parties reveals that many more women flaunt the flute glass than men.

Duty matters

The levies are another sore point, especially with those in the trade. ?A 150% duty along with other cesses makes prices of a product which is expensive to start with even more prohibitive, says Bruno Yvon, MD, Mo?t Hennessy India (MHI, a fully-owned subsidiary of LVMH), which imports four labels in India ? Dom Perignon, Verve Clicquot, Moet & Chandon and KRUG. Prices in India however differ for the same product from state to state. ?As far as alcohol is concerned, every state is a country,? exclaims Singhal about the government levies and the very complex regulatory system which make it both unaffordable and unavailable. ?Government control in Mumbai has been very detrimental to business in the last few years, and have resulted in no trade for a good part of the year.?

Price-wise, expect to start with a price of about Rs 3,000, while the upper end is about Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000 at most hotels. Then there are the exceptions. The newly opened Aman, Delhi has Champagne Salon Blanc de Blanc, which will set you back by about Rs 2,45,000! If the labels are not confusing enough, it is much less expensive in Delhi than in Mumbai or Bangalore. A quality new world wine is available for as less as Rs 1,500, posing another challenge. Per glass prices can however be as low as Rs 600.

Comparatively few are yet buying champagne for consumption at home. ?It?s about conspicuous consumption and you have to show that you are having champagne, says a member of a leading wine club anonymously. So as a result, wine retail infrastructure is still weak. Wine should ideally be stored at below 20?C, which is often not the case in India, admits Prestige Wines? Marc Perello, who points out that their own warehouses have the right infrastructure and they limit the number of bottles they supply to distributors unless they are sure of storage. Singhal is optimistic that this will improve as the customer begins to ask crucial questions such as how long ago did the vendor get the bottle, or how is the storage.

India?s has its preferences

However he does admit that that information campaigns and endorsements have helped increase the popularity of champagne, which has shown on sales. And begun carving India?s unique market trends as well. ?India is a unique market because prestige cuvees account for 20% of the volume, which makes it in absolute terms the largest market in Asia after Japan for prestige cuvees. The recent Dom Perignon champagne fountain at a lah-di-dah wedding is perhaps a defining example.? Mo?t Hennessy India?s Yvon says that he mentions a greater interest among Indians for ?pink or ros? champagnes, across labels.

Most top-end hotels now offer brunches that have unlimited champagne, and wine clubs and importers often ?do promotions for the target clientele, CIVC recently had a ?Champagne Experience? at the Amanbagh where the breakfast had as many champagne tastings as the dinner, and the piccolo made its presence felt too!

While MHI is estimated to have about 80% of the Indian champagne imports, other leading importers include Brindco, who are getting three labels, Sonarys, who are getting seven, Dhall Foods also have three, while Prestige Wines has started getting Taittinger about six months ago. ?Brands that have implemented a focussed marketing strategy in India are reaping the benefits,? says Singhal, pointing especially to Moet Hennessy, which has been building its brands in India since 1997.

Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai contribute the maximum turnover for champagne in the country. Yvon says that promotions are also a regular feature in other cities such as Kolkata and Chennai.

Most agree that India has the potential to be a great market for the future. ?Growth is going to be a function of the prices and the distribution network,? explains Yvon. ?It is about being able to bring in people, which is starting to happen.? Agrees Chakraborty, who says that once retail opens up, sales would be much faster. Singhal points to a few musts for increasing sales?more education programmes, crucial for the trade to understand what it is selling, and for the distributors to understand why champagne needs to be on the portfolio.

Growth indeed had been very fast after quantitative restrictions were removed in 2001, and for a few consecutive years touched triple digits before flattening from 2006 onwards. In 2007, France actually identified about 40 villages in Champagne to meet the growing demand of the sparkling wine from India!

Richard Geoffroy, Chef de cave, Dom Perignon, a regular visitor to markets like Japan, stopped by India too last year. But Singhal would be happier to see steady growth rather than a spurt, which he says could be driven by fads. Globally, champagne sales were 5% down in 2008, and are expected to recover only by 2012, but the region announced at the end of last year that it is expanding its total vineyard area in anticipation of long-term market growth.

What share of that will make its way to India could very well depend on how the market is grown locally in the mean while.

know your bubbly

Taittinger Comtes de Champagne: 100% Chardonnay; pale yellow with silvery glints; fine nose (Importer: Prestige)

Ruinart Blanc de Blanc: 100% Chardonnay, golden yellow; clean nose; mineral and honey notes, long finish (MHI)

Piper Heidsieck: Majority Pinot Noir; clear, pale straw, floral, citrus nose; medium-long finish (Kyndal)

Grand Duchene Charles VII Ros?: 50% Pinot Noir, 10% Meunier, 40% Chardonnay; fruity palate (Fine Wines N More)

Veuve Cliquot Yellow Label: 50-55% Pinot Noir, 15-20% Meunier, 28-33% Chardonnay; golden yellow; foaming necklance of bubbles; nose of first white fruits, then vanilla, later brioche; vinous, lingering aroma (MHI)