Wines over the last decade

Wine consumption in India grew at a steady 12-15 per cent annually this past decade to reach an estimated 4.5 million cases in 2019-20

While 10 years is a long time in politics, it is no time at all in wine terms. Still, the last decade has been eventful for the industry, both in India and internationally, and here’s a retrospective of the same.

Out with the old, in with the new 

A key event in India was the collapse of the erstwhile market leader, Indage, in 2009-10 and the emergence of Sula Vineyards as its replacement.

Indage, which had launched in 1986 with the sparkling wine Marquise de Pompadour, followed by generic wines Riviera and Chantilli, had over-extended itself internationally and was deeply affected by the global downturn of 2008-09. Sula, which had launched better-quality varietals (Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot) in 1999-2000, was able to step up and take advantage of the vacuum in the market.

Sula went on to establish two production facilities in Karnataka (at Bidar and another near Bengaluru), and is estimated to have sold over one million cases in 2018-19. Its annual musical extravaganza, “Sulafest”, is now a destination in its own right, attracting an estimated 30,000 people over two days.

New wineries in India 

Fratelli Wines, with 240 acres of greenfield vineyards and a winery (both at Akluj, near Solapur in Maharashtra) launched its first wines in 2010 and has gone on to challenge Grover for the No 2 position in the Indian wine market. An innovative partnership between Indian and Italian promoters, Fratelli has gone on to redefine the quality of Indian wines. The partnership in 2018-19 with Boisset (France) and the launch of J’Noon at Rs 4,000 a bottle is a reflection of the company’s commitment to quality leadership.

Industry giant LVMH invested an estimated Rs 50 crore in setting up a state-of-the-art winery near Nasik in 2014 to produce sparkling wine under the “Chandon” label — its sixth such venture outside France. Earlier ones included Argentina (1959), the US and Brazil (both 1973), Australia (1986) and China (2013).  

Then there are SDU Wineries and Krsma Estates, new boutique wineries in Karnataka that came up around 2014 and are now making excellent award-winning wines, even though these are not available outside Bengaluru/South India due to the high cost of marketing wines in cities such as Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. 

And there is, of course, Grover Zampa Vineyards that went through a change in ownership in 2012-13 when Ravi Viswanathan bought out the erstwhile promoters and injected fresh capital into the company — it subsequently acquired both the Four Seasons and the Charosa wineries in Maharashtra (formerly owned by UB Spirits and the HCC Group, respectively) and is busy reinventing itself as a serious contender in the Indian wine market.

The wider environment 

Wine consumption in India grew at a steady 12 -15 per cent annually this past decade to reach an estimated 4.5 million cases (40 million litres/54 million bottles) in 2019-20. Of this, about 450,000 cases were imported, 1.8 million were domestic premium and the rest were wines priced below Rs 250 per bottle. 

That’s still only about 30 ml per capita (two tablespoons) — compared to 240 ml in China, 1.4 litres in Brazil and 3.35 litres worldwide. So there’s enormous scope to grow wine consumption in India — if only lower taxes and ease of doing business resulted in lower prices to consumers. 

Alok Chandra is a Bengaluru-based wine consultant