The wine hubs of Bengaluru

The Tenuta Sant'Antonio Amarone 2013 is a complex bouquet of ripe fruit, liquorice, and black pepper, with hints of chocolate

Given that about 80 per cent of alcoholic beverages consumed in urban India are spirits and another 18 per cent is beer, it’s unlikely that anyone would open a Wine Bar (serving only wine) for the balance 2 per cent unless motivated either by a passion for wine or by licensing laws.

But wine bars there are, in plenty, in Karnataka: the 2008 Karnataka Wine Policy permitted issue of new licences for “Wine Taverns” at a nominal annual fee of Rs 5,000, and as of March 2019 there were 247 such licences in the state — of which 108 licences had