Picking up the trend of wine lounges, Nashik-based Sommelier group has planned five wine bars in Pune, Nashik, Bangalore and Jaipur over next two years. The newly formed group plans to invest around Rs 6 crore to set up these multi-brand wine bars.
Promoted as 'The Sommelier', the wine bars would serve only wine along with food that suits wine consumption. Interestingly, the wine pricing would be low as these wine bars buy wine from manufacturers directly and sell to customers. "Wine consumption is increasing fast across prominent cities and hence, wine bars are the need of the hour. In a bid to tap this potential, we have come up with an idea of wine bars," said Jagdish Patil, one of the promoters of The Sommelier.
Patil pointed out that Pune city alone consumed more than 3 lakh litres of wine during financial year 2006-07 and the consumption is growing at more than 30 per cent. "We already have one Sommelier operational in Nashik and the next is coming up in Pune. We have planned another wine bar in Pune while one each will come up in Bangalore and Jaipur," said Vinod Deokar, managing partner, Sommelier. The group has tied-up with a number of major Indian wine makers to source wine. "We will concentrate on domestic wine in the initial phase while we will also serve one or two international wines," Deokar added.
The group is planning to organise wine tourism events and activities for customers. "We have implemented a number of measures to educate our clients so that they enjoy wine consumption in an informed way," he stated.
