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A long, dry summer

A silver lining in the dark clouds of this 10-week lockdown and the attendant downturn in the economy is the possibility that online ordering and home deliveries of at least wines will continue.

Bs_logowine, liquor, alcohol
Ben Marco Malbec (Rs 4,151 in Bengaluru) is rated at 93 points ("Excellent") by James Suckling. It's a lovely full-bodied wine with ripe red fruit and roasted coffee beans aromas, soft tannins and a bright chewy finish, well worth its premium price.
Alok Chandra Bengaluru
4 min read Last Updated : May 22 2020 | 8:51 PM IST
March 22: A “trial” lockdown for 24 hours shows how easy it is for people in India to stay at home — if you have a home, that is. Something novel for the novel coronavirus now “going viral”.

March 24: A three-week lockdown announced by PM Modi in a dramatic 8 pm telecast the night before, giving four hours’ notice — presumably so that people cannot “escape” to better climes. Word must have got out, though, for a goodly number of Delhi’s denizens with hilltop homes seem to have made their way there.

No great change in my lifestyle: I am stocked, and in any case have been practising WFH since 2002. One does, however, miss the wine appreciation sessions and wine dinners organised by The Wine Connoisseurs, The Bangalore Wine Club and the Chaîne des Rotisseurs.

April 15: The lockdown is extended for another three weeks up to May 3. No great surprise there, given the media hysteria and the expanding footprint of the pandemic. The issue of migrant workers struggling to return home is a grim reminder of the reality facing so many fellow citizens.

May 4: Lockdown 3.0 for another two weeks, up to May 10, with minor concessions regarding local travel and shopping. Liquor shops, however, continue to be shut, which is really getting people’s spirits down. The media storm concerning the virus continues to crowd out all other news.

May 11: Liquor shops in Karnataka open to huge queues. The story is repeated in other states to such an impact that shops in Mumbai are shut a day later. Fortunately, the Yediyurappa government holds its nerve, and although the lockdown will continue up to at least May 25 (and possibly May 31), things are no longer unbearable.

wine, liquor, alcohol
Ben Marco Malbec (Rs 4,151 in Bengaluru) is rated at 93 points ("Excellent") by James Suckling. It's a lovely full-bodied wine with ripe red fruit and roasted coffee beans aromas, soft tannins and a bright chewy finish, well worth its premium price.
“Progressive easing” is the new mantra, with the local authorities lifting some curbs almost daily: parks and barber shops opened in Bengaluru on May 19 (my shaggy dog days will draw to a close soon), and one looks to hotels and restaurants re-opening next week.

However, the world will never be the same again: “social distancing” seems to have got entrenched in the psyche of people and it will be a long time before business in the travel and hospitality industries comes anywhere close to what it was before the pandemic.

The wine industry in the West will be as badly hit as travel and hospitality. Anywhere between 30 per cent and 50 per cent of all wines are sold “on-premise”, which necessitates a change in strategy to focus on retail and direct sales for the near future.

In India, the proportion of wines sold through “on-premise” is a lot lower as the hospitality sector is less liberated than in Europe. However, wine importers and producers will both need to expand their footprint in retail and ramp-up direct sales and home deliveries to consumers, as is being planned by spirit majors Diageo and Pernod Ricard.

So, a silver lining in the dark clouds of this 10-week lockdown and the attendant downturn in the economy is the possibility that online ordering and home deliveries of at least wines will continue.

Wines I’ve been drinking: The Malbec grape originated in France but has become the signature red wine grape of Argentina — the sixth largest wine producer in the world. But the country exported less than 25 per cent of its 1.2 billion litres produced in 2017 (Chile with a similar production exports three times as much).

The Dominio del Plata (“Domain of Silver”) winery in its Mendoza region is family-owned and-run, and its Ben Marco Malbec 2017 (Rs 4,151 in Bengaluru) is rated at 93 points (“Excellent”) by James Suckling. It’s a lovely full-bodied wine with ripe red fruit and roasted coffee bean aromas, soft tannins, and a bright chewy finish, well worth its premium price.

Alok Chandra is a Bengaluru-based wine consultant


Topics :CoronavirusLockdownwinesIndian wineWine in IndiaBengaluruNarendra ModiWork from homeKarnataka governmentB S Yediyurappa

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