In vino veritas. In wine is truth. And the truth is, according to a recent survey, wine may at last be getting ready to start a battle of spirits with whisky, India?s national drink, never mind what Scotsmen say. Indians consumed 66,000 hectolitres of wine in 2006. Okay, that works out to only two teaspoons of wine per Indian per year, an average consumption level a temperance activist would approve of. But the potential for growth is enormous. The industry is growing at 30% per year and the substitution effect on whisky is apparent. This is especially true among younger tipplers who increasingly prefer wine and beer. And here?s a statistic that will make winemakers bring out their bubbly: a large part of the growth is driven by the upper end of the market; wine costing more than Rs 500 a bottle is flying off the shelves quicker. This indicates a fast maturing market. But, of course, this being India, there are sour grapes?that is, policy impediments. For one, taxes account in some cases for 200% of the cost of wine at the retail end. Cheaper wine from the new world, from vineyards of Chile and Australia, that should cost much less when sold here end up looking expensive purely because of taxation. Good thing then that Indian winemaking looks more and more promising. Efforts by Indian winemakers such as Sula and Grovers have contributed a lot to recent growth. Indian-made wine serve many price ranges. There?s even aam aadmi wine, for as little as Rs 99 a bottle, that may hopefully substitute the dangerous looking low price hard liquor sold by government liquor shops.
Any doubt that wine and India now have a firm relationship should be dispelled by shrewd businessmen from other sectors picking up stakes in vineyards. And foreign investment in this sector may reach as much as Rs 100 crore this year. There?s, of course, the question of wine education. This newspaper has absolutely no views on whether wine should be French or Californian or indeed Maharashtrian (Maharashtra, thanks in part to state policies, is doing very well as a winemaking state). Neither are we ready to take a position on whether one?s wine should have a hint of peach or an underlying flavour of apricot. We only note that India already has 30 fulltime wine appreciation societies and the annual growth rate is impressive.
