With the festive season on, people are happy to celebrate whatever opportunity they get, especially after the dank Navratri and Durga Puja, which is usually a grand affair for many. The winters have come early this year with temperatures dipping steadily, along with the smog in the city, which is not so welcome. However, the true spirit of the season is now upon us and there is a lot of planning going on across the country, especially in terms of food and drink.
Winters mean that the consumption of alcohol will pick up as well, and though India is the largest consumer of whiskey in the world, there may just be another beverage catching up fast and moving beyond the gender bias: Wine. However, during this time, when the Covid-19 cases are going up in the city, the wine experience is lagging behind somewhere and it is affecting both the social life of many as well as the alchobev industry as a whole.
From a global perspective, India is an emerging wine market, having picked up as recently as say 5-7 years ago. The literati in cities like Delhi, the millennials in Bengaluru, and possibly the glamour industry in Mumbai have been leading the way, mostly. Even though fruit wines from the hills have been around for a while now, they haven’t quite made a mark in the main cities since those are not available readily in our local ‘thekas’, to begin with. However, for the uninitiated, since fruit wines are made of every conceivable fruit like peach, litchi, kiwi, gooseberry, pear, they are a great way for someone to start drinking the beverage since they are sweet on the palate and extremely, if I may say, fruity.
In terms of the various markets, Mumbai still leads the pack with the highest consumption of wines, followed by Delhi and Bengaluru possibly, with its preference for international wines rather than domestic ones. The reason is that consumers here are well-travelled, have been through wine tastings in different countries, and are conversant with various varietals of wines with the right pairings of food. Although the taste preference in India is still towards wines, there is a sizeable market that is developing rapidly for champagne and sparkling wines as well.
Mostly, wine is seen as a gender-biased drink, with more women lining up for it than men. Again, it is more common in urban areas with it being the preferred drink for launches, to be served in art galleries, fashion shows, and so on. In fact, wines have found more acceptance even as a daytime drink than any other spirits for that matter, especially the chilled whites. Earlier, it would be mostly the imported labels in these gathering but lately there are quite a few Indian brands that have found their way in.
According to Malay Kumar, brand ambassador of Van Loveren and Four Cousins in India, wine drinking is picking up in the city, but generally “we do a lot of commercial wines, which has almost a 45% market share in the country. These are pocket friendly wines and slightly on the sweeter side with a fruity taste, which helps someone get initiated easily into drinking the beverage, before getting into mature wines… In Europe, it is a culture to drink wine; in India, it is about whiskey, but the good thing is that the trends are slowly changing.”
When it comes to wines, Kriti Malhotra, a sommelier by profession, feels that people are not very open to take an opinion from an expert because of various reasons. However, she says “The younger lot is well travelled and they know their wines and know what they want. For most others, wine is intimidating and they would rather order a whiskey or a mojito than risk it with a glass of wine, or take professional help! The important thing in terms of developing taste is to drink by the glass and develop the taste, without having to worry about pairing it with food.”
Magandeep Singh, a professional alchobev consultant and sommelier, feels, “Those taboos are gone; both men and women savour wine equally if they are open to tasting new wines.”
However, during Covid times, most of us haven’t had a chance to taste anything new or go out to enjoy the festive season due to the pandemic looming large. Magandeep Singh, for one, has caught the bull by its horn and he says, “We take the experience online from now on with a select few people. We conduct a lot of social events on Zoom and make sure that everyone is able to taste a new product and have the same experience in their own style. It benefits the trade, the makers and the consumers in a big way, especially when the discussions around the products are so invigorating.”
That’s the new-age solution that we are all looking at right now. Despite the odds, consumption may have actually gone up since people are preferring to stay indoors and spending time with friends and family over some great wine and dinner. In fact, with the pandemic situation worsening in the city and the winter chill setting in, there is nothing better than some beautifully spiced mulled wine to bring in the much needed warmth, flavour and some life into our otherwise dulled social existence.
