The time is ripe for something new

One of the great things about wine is that every year is a voyage of discovery: no two vintages are exactly alike, and with new labels appearing on the shelves all the time, consumers have the opportunity to find something new every time they visit a good retailer.

Of course, our options in India are still quite limited. Wine from wine grapes are as yet produced only in the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka, and what with inter-state taxes pushing up wine costs by between Rs 200 to 300 per bottle in those two states, most wineries prefer to sell their wares within the state of production itself.

All India, the most significant new wine available at retail is Four Seasons, from the spirits division of the UB Group. UB has the vision, the means, and the setup to both make wines for every taste and pocket, and make them widely available. They will give the current market leader Sula a tough fight in the years to come.

More interesting are the wines produced by small, independent producers who have neither the reach nor the deep pockets of the majors, and who hence end up selling fairly decent wines at significantly lower prices.

In Bangalore there are a slew of new, locally-produced, low-priced wines suddenly available at retail: Kinvah, made at a winery in Bijapur, at about Rs 430; Seasons (no link to Four Seasons), produced at a winery in Bagalkot (Rs 430/480); and the improbably-named (and poorly-labeled) Dabur/Gagan/ Silver Dew/Ulhas (at Rs 300 to 350), also from the same winery. Sula has been the first wine major to ‘beat the heat’ by sourcing wines locally, and so Bangalore’s consumers now have Sula Mosaic (Rs 375), Madera (Rs 290), Samara (Rs 223), and Port 1000 (Rs 137) to quaff. Way to go!

Karnataka had liberalised wine production and sales in late 2008, and as in Maharashtra, we can expect many new wineries to come up in that state in the next few years.

Actually, the entire leeward side of the Western Ghats, from Nasik all the way down to Belgaum, Shimoga and even Mysore is quite suitable for grape vineyards, as also parts of the plateau area in much of South India.

One hopes that both AP and Tamil Nadu will follow the lead of Maharashtra and Karnataka in liberalising wine licensing and taxes — this will both allow ‘kharab’ lands to be used (grapes thrive on poor soil) and give consumers something other than rotgut spirits to imbibe.

There’s also a slew of new wines produced in Maharashtra, which I will talk about next fortnight — after visiting and participating in the 2010 grape harvest in Nasik.

WINES I’VE BEEN DRINKING:
In keeping with the mood, I piled on to the Kinvah Manthan red wine (Rs 430 in Bangalore) at an art-cum-music soiree at the Leela Palace Bangalore, and found it quite drinkable, if a tad young and tannic: a pleasant fruity aroma preceded a fairly smooth taste and a short finish.

I have promised myself I will try all the other new wines now available — Hic!

The author is a Bangalore-based wine consultant