The biggest challenge sommeliers face is to come up with a wine list that is unique and yet recognisable, a list that has unknown brands aplenty and, at the same time, is familiar enough for a guest to be tempted to order. In India, the laws of the various states only exacerbate this selection process. I won’t get into the details, but suffice to say that with most states in India, the entry process is so ridiculously difficult that only players with voluminous sales can afford to meet the (financial) requirements of applying to be distributed there. For smaller players, the economies of scale just don’t add up: either they would have to double their retail price to simply cover costs or else produce much more than they are currently capable of—both options present major limitations, the kind that can’t be addressed overnight, or even over a few years. Such policies limit the distribution of quality produce and pave the way for cheaper high-volume big brands to proliferate. When I say big brands, I mean houses that sell their ware in hundreds of thousands, even millions.
Their volumes enable them to not only absorb all forms of entry costs and levies, but also—considering how this exclusivity provides them near-monopolistic markets to enter and conquer—churn out a sizeable profit. In metros, the well-heeled and the more informed may scoff at such brands, but these are the ones driving the drinks revolution all over the country. Take Jacob’s Creek, for example. It is to wine what Foster’s is to beer—no true Australian would touch either! Even I would rather sip lemonade. But when my travels take me deeper into the country, an India of smaller towns and barely three-starred hotels, the same Jacob’s Creek wine there seems to rise to the occasion, becoming the best option by far. Why? Because more than their quality (which, although nothing exceptional, is nevertheless reliably stable), it’s their efficient logistics supply chain that ensures that the stock is never too old to be undrinkable. A smaller or boutique brand that may have supplied wine once many years ago (but never after) would have possibly spoilt by now and would be a far less safer bet than a wine from this Oz behemoth. And they aren’t the only ones. From Mouton Cadet (France) and Ag and Argento (Argentina) to Californian Robert Mondavi, Italian Santa Cristina and Portuguese Mateus, big-city consumers may ridicule their friends for ordering any of these, but these are the wines, which are giving small-town India its first taste of imported beverages.
And while I could recommend many Indian brands over these wines, the thing is that only a few of the big Indian houses that can afford to be present ubiquitously, are making constant and conscientious efforts to upkeep quality and maintain consistency (Fratelli, Grover-Zampa, Chandon, that’s it). As for the smaller houses—KRSMA, York, SDU—well, because of the current size of their operations, they can’t yet be present everywhere, so even though they make great stuff, they can sadly only be found in select states, most often the state where they are produced. Outside of these, I would sooner have a generic foreign wine than any other Indian brand of wine. Confusion then strikes foreigners visiting our country, for when they are enjoying a lovely performance of some ethnic song and dance, they can’t help but wonder why in the world did that palatial property in the middle of the desert (or some other exotic locale) chose to list only such generic bottom-of-the-barrel imported wines as part of their ‘exquisite selection’? And so the conundrum continues. What is a sommelier to do? Perhaps focusing less on wine regions and more on drafting wine policies, all the while putting our collective weight behind them, would be more appropriate. But in a nation that is currently crazed with the heady notion of total prohibition, I wonder how these ideas will fly. In the meantime, drink responsibly—if you can find a reliably fresh bottle, that is, even if it’s Indian or, worse still, a Mouton Cadet or Jacob’s Creek.
The writer is a sommelier
