Wine musings

THE WINE CLUB

Wine evokes different reactions among different people depending upon, perhaps, their familiarity with the product.

The novitiate wine drinker will approach the matter with diffidence, choosing a low-cost label for an explorative foray. In doing so, many will get put off by the subject for life, since low-cost tends to equate with low quality — a cheap white will taste sour, and the less said of our cheap reds the better.

More knowledgeable wine aficionados like to try different grape varietals as well as wines from different producers and countries — for them variety is the spice of life. When the market is competitive, sometimes one can find very good but unknown wines at low prices — which is what the true wine buff dreams of, as better-known labels tend to be either expensive or relatively bland.

This eclectic tendency is not understood by state-level policymakers — so in Karnataka the move to increase taxes on wines from outside the state will result in volume shrinkage (compared to a healthy 30 per cent growth in the last one year) as the choices available to consumers at the Rs 300-600 per bottle price point will get limited only to the stuff produced within the state, resulting in consumers reducing their intake of wine.

Government types tend to club wine with spirits as “sharab” or an intoxicant, and as such subject it to most of the same controls and constraints imposed upon spirits. Another flawed perspective the authorities have is that wine is consumed only by “the elite” — who can by definition pay whatever is demanded for their drop — and hence tax the stuff as if it were the proverbial golden goose.

It’s sad that wines cost so much in India — while one can get fairly drinkable stuff overseas for the equivalent of Rs 200-250, prices here for most domestic wines tend to start at Rs 300, with most decent wines being about Rs 450 per bottle upwards. Blame it on high taxes, channel costs and low volumes. Conversely, even if you did get a decent wine at Rs 250, many wine drinkers would shun it on the assumption that anything reasonably priced couldn’t be any good (think Sante from Grover and Madira from Sula) — a sort of “Catch 22” situation for the producers.

Of course, most imported wines cost upwards of Rs 600 per bottle (some reaching stratospheric levels: think Rs 30,000 per bottle or more!) and, of course, sales are happening despite these high prices. However, the tendency of state governments to think that demand for wines is price-inelastic is misguided and myopic — that volumes are still growing at 25 per cent per annum despite all this just shows the potential for this industry in India.

Wines I’ve been drinking:
In Kodaikanal recently, I broached a bottle of Basilisk Marsanne Viognier 2005 with friends Jayshree and Doc Kumar. This intriguing white wine by McPherson wineries in Victoria, Australia was very aromatic (citrus, apricots, flowers), crisp yet not too dry, and quite delightful. McPherson is a big family-owned winery (350,000 cases) whose wines are almost entirely exported overseas — very Aussie!
Cheers.

(al.chandra@gmail.com)