Wines from foreign shores

In India, sales of imported wines have grown from a few thousand bottles in 1986 to nearly 5 million bottles in 2014

In 1986, when the now-defunct Indage Vintners (then Champagne India) launched the first wines made from wine grapes in India, they gave their brands French-sounding names - Marquise de Pompadour, Riviera, and Chantilli - because French wines were then considered the acme of quality. Today, anyone doing that would be laughed out of the market by consumers - a telling sign of how things have changed in the wine world in India (and internationally) in less than 30 years.

Today, the United States has become the largest wine-consuming country in the world; Australian wines have overtaken French wines in volume in the United Kingdom; and China is the fifth-largest wine producer worldwide (1.4 billion litres), overtaking stalwarts such as Argentina, Australia, South Africa and Chile.

In India too, sales of imported wines have grown from a few thousand bottles in 1986 to nearly 5 million bottles (400,000 12-bottle cases) in 2014, with the largest share (35 per cent) going to wines from Australia, although French and Italian wines are not too far behind.

Jacob's Creek, an Australian wine, has become the single largest imported wine brand, selling an estimated 45,000 cases in 2014. This was helped by decent quality, smart pricing (it retails for Rs 1,000 per bottle in Bengaluru and is available duty free at Rs 610 to hotels) and strong distribution (owner Pernod-Ricard India is the leader in premium imported spirits like Chivas, Ballentine's, 100 Pipers and Absolut, besides IMFL brands like Blender's Price, Imperial Blue and Royal Stag whiskies).

The largest wine importer in India is Brindco, which has a gazillion wine labels in its portfolio at every price-point and from all countries. Popular wines include Bodegas Norton (Argentina), Gato Negro (Chile), Laroche (France), Oxford Landing (Australia) and Ti Amo Prosecco from Italy. Brindco is the major supplier to hotels around the country - it helps that it also imports and distributes spirits from the Diageo portfolio, including Johnnie Walker Scotch and an enviable range of single malts.

Catching-up fast is the relative newcomer Aspri Spirits, with a big portfolio of wines and spirits and popular labels such as Albert Bichot (France), Finca Flichman (Argentina), Mateus Rose (Portugal), Two Oceans (South Africa) and Zonin (Italy). The company jumped onto the tequila bandwagon early, and has also made a killing for the frenzy surrounding Jagermeister, the German digestif (it's made from 56 herbs) that has garnered a cult following in certain circles.

The third-largest importer is probably Nashik Vintners (Sula), which imports and distributes wines mainly to retail markets. Its labels include Trapiche (Argentina), Hardy's (Australia), Cono Sur (Chile), Ruffino (Italy), Kim Crawford (New Zealand), and The African Horizon (South Africa). They also import a range of spirits - Mount Gay rum, Barbados, Remy Martin Cognac and Cointreau, a French orange-flavoured liqueur.

The most interesting importer is Wine Park, an importer of wines mostly from family-owned boutique wineries. It caters mainly to star hotels and fine-dining restaurants. His small portfolio (less than 100 labels versus upwards of 400 with the larger importers) has many award-wines: Brancaia IL BLU Toscana and Querciabella Mongrana (Italy), Honig Napa Valley (California), St Cosme and Christian Moreau Chablis (France), and St Urbans-Hof Riesling (Germany) have all featured on Wine Spectator's Top 100 lists in recent years.

Wines I've been drinking: The St Urbans-Hof Riesling 2012 from the Mosel, Germany, which was number 60 on the WS Top 100 for 2014 with 90 points. My tasting notes read, "Complex aromas of roses, lychee/honey with some Umami and petrol notes. Sweet attack on the palate, but with balanced acidity that goes on to a nice long and dry finish." Priced at Rs 2,615 in Bengaluru, and well worth every penny.

Prost, as they say in Germany

Alok Chandra is a Bengaluru-based wine consultant