INDIA SHINING - THE VITIS VINIFERA WAY!!

When I thought about writing about Indian wines taking the advice of my good friend Sherine Thomas, I didn’t really know that I was stepping into an ocean of information. I really don’t want to start this piece by give you the market figures and statistics. That will make the read quite morbid. Stastical figures here in the article is strictly for wow and boo purpose of comparison. I had an interesting but a month long research that I had to do to shape up this piece on the ever evolving and never changing risky, but classy market- The Wine Market, India.
The history of Indian wines date back to 2500 BC it seems. I wonder what they called this fermented grape juice then in India. It’s believed that it was the Persians who introduced the wines to the Indian people and thus got us all drunk. In 1844 Indian wines were showcased in the great exhibition of Calcutta. That’s an interesting fact. But the producers of these wines came into light and brands came into being in the dawn of 20th century. In the late 1970’s two new wines: Golconda (Shaw & Wallace) and Bosca (UB) became much popular to the wine explorers. Chateau Indage was a later part in the bargain and Grover vineyards set the trend moving for Indian wines. According to me the wine market was at the verge of slowing down when MR Rajeev Samanth gave up his Silicon Valley job and started growing vines in the 20 acre farm of his family in the Nashik valley. It was not late when he had Kerry Damsky, the Davis trained winemaker from Sonoma onboard his new venture.

After the success of Sula sauvignon Blanc in 1997 & later the Chenin Blanc which became the biggest seller in India, there was no looking back for Mr Samanth. Grover vineyards in the state of Karnataka also started making some brilliant wines at the same time. Michal Rolland, the Bordeaux consultant kept Grover in roll with the competition.
God! I am talking as if there is only Sula and Grover in the whole of the Indian wine market. Totally forgot to step into the international wine market.

India is the 2nd largest populated country. 1.24 billion. God! Now that’s a whooping big number. If you take into account the per capita amount of wine being consumed in India it sadly comes down to an estimate of 11ml and that’s a miniscule amount. The per-capita consumption of 11 ml when compared to the world over consumption of 4 litres , 8 litres of United states , 2 litres of china and a whooping 40 litres in France shows where India stands when it comes to consumption. India has a long way to go from becoming a wine destination, but given the progress that Sula made in just over a year, the future does indeed look brighter. We can clearly see that there is a huge growth potential in this sector and all we have to do is to create & enable an environment suitable for the grape farmers and the end consumers.

 Maharashtra does head the majority of total wine production in India, which is followed by the southern state of Karnataka, the major players in Karnataka being the UB group and Grovers vineyard. One of the interesting things I noticed about the four season house set up by UB in Rotti ,Baramati is its structure with the small water body in front which resembles the classic Bordeaux houses.
Lets talk about the consumption trend now. Indian men are stuck with their brandy and whisky and the Indian youth are so stuck with vodka and beer. They do not want to appreciate the brilliance of this amazing beverage or they are too lazy for a change. I and my friends did fall under the latter category for a long period of time. The major portion of wine consumers in Inida hail from cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore & Goa. Not to forget there are some adventurous people from Calcutta, Pune and Hyderabad too who are looking for some change and don’t want to follow drinking what their ancestors have been drinking .No offense meant. There are nearly 2 million people in India who actually consume wine and it’s an interesting fact that about 10% of this figure opts for wine as their preferred beverage.

The Indian market size at present stands at 1.2 million cases at present where the domestic wines alone take a share of 435000 cases and cheap entry level wines account for another 590000 cases. Sidhartha Mallya , heir to the UB group says that the current alcohol penetration in India is around 42.5%, while beer and whisky beverage penetration holds to 26 % and 23 % respectively. Wine can claim only a tiny 0.6% and there is a long way to go. People still have to understand the wine is not a drink which can only be enjoyed over dinner at a fine dining restaurant.

Many people are investing in the wineries off lately. They are under the impression that setting up a vineyard is equal to plowing profits in future. May be it is true but they don’t understand it’s not the near future. Like every other agricultural product there is a lot of risk that is involved and a lot of cost that is incurred. According to Sovna Puri, DGM Marketing &head of training and tasting, Sula vineyards, it takes 5-10 years for any vineyard to get its return on investment. Profit is a distant dream. Many vineyards open with all hey and ho but is shut down within 1-2 years of its operation. The shelves getting empty is not really a direct indicator of the wine doing well in the market. I remember Mr Ankur Chawla , Restaurant manager ,Taj Mahal Hotel , New Delhi shared with me a list of wines and tasting notes that he made on Indian wines . I was shocked to see there was over 65 different wineries and their wines featuring in the tasting session. I must admit that I only knew a few of them and that too only the key players in the market. The government policies in India are to blame for this as we have strict regulation on advertisement pertaining to alcoholic beverages. The wine lovers are not updated about the new entrants and these new entrants in the market lack the push it can get from advertisement and marketing.

India has made its presence felt in the international market as well lately, with Waitrose becoming the first UK supermarket to stock wines from the subcontinent. Ritu Viognier and Zampa Syrah are beautifully executing it at Waitrose. Sula vineyard’s Sauvignon Blanc 2010 winning the silver medal at the decanter world wine awards and the honours going to two Indian wines namely Frateli chardonnay 2011 which won the commendation and Zampa Reserve 2010 bagging the bronze medal at the 9th Annual Decanter wine Awards. That’s not all IGPT( Indian grape Processing Board) also helped in putting the Indian wine market at the centre stage where Indian wines were featured at ProWein in Dusseldorf – the worlds no1 wine trade show. All these factors are helping Indian wines to make an immense impact on the international market.

There are several wines in India that hold the making of a great statement, may it be in the domestic or international market, may it be in the Indo-Italian venture of Fratelli, Mr Samanth’s Sula vineyards, Grovers , Seagrams nine hills of Pernod Ricard , Four Seasons and Zinzi of the UB group or the latest fruit wines by LUCA , India is all set to be a wine destination and is in the process of proving Michel Rolland wrong when he said ‘India makes good wines but not great wines’.

Jai Hind.

THE WINEMAKER : THE WIZARD OF THE VINEYARD

 When you pick up a bottle of an old world wine and read out the label the first thing you probably notice on the bottle would be the large letters that specify the appellation or the area of production, next to it the  house or the chateau and then the vintage and then the other information.  It’s hard to see an old world wine carrying the varietal as the main component in the bottle label when compared to a new world wine bottle. What I am talking about here is not the label but the importance the old world wine regions give to such things -the regions and sub-regions, the communes, the clos and the chateaus and most important- the terroir.

The terroir which is the combination of the climate, water, soil and temperature or sunshine has a substantial effect on the wine produced in the old world regions.  The minerality in the soil gives you that very profound taste in the wine, the chalkiness which gives the wine its acidic essence etc. is completely due to the soil condition.  The cold breeze that caresses the grape during its growing stages is also due to the effect of the climate.  The concept of terroir came into being due to the centuries of trial and error methods that defined wine making in old school areas and over time certain areas have come to be associated with certain grape varietal, wine style, and even bottle shape.  The terroir in such regions create an immense variation in the final product.  The old world wines over time claimed the intellectual right over the concept of terroir and its decisive influence on winemaking.  But today as you can see more and more new world wine has also become terroir driven. What the worlds wine regions is losing out here is the addition of one more powerful component which contributes in creating exclusive wines even if they fall in the same terroir and they follow the same production technique - the Wine Maker himself.

The roots of this post carry the reference to my earlier work where I spoke about the complex world of wines   where I mentioned that the terroir also includes the wine maker himself.  I was criticized by saying the winemaker can never be a part of the terroir.  My beloved readers, technically you are right.  He cannot be, but my perception is that the wine maker is he/she who does justice to what nature blesses him or her.  The wine maker is skilled in creating the perfect blend over and over again with the same distinctive taste, aromas and flavors in every bottle year after year after year. The wine maker is like the Dumbledore of the vineyard, the most powerful wizard who can do magic with varietal growing in a vineyard.  Jokes apart, he is the one skilled technician who knows the science, who knows the technology and who knows the minutest aspect of growing the grapes, harvesting the grapes and finally fermenting and blending it to create that same magic in a million bottles.  I believe a wine maker’s status is equivalent to any brilliant scientist.  They even have a special name unto themselves in big wineries- oenologists.  The winemaker has to be there throughout coordinating people working in that vineyard or the very many vineyards the house has, supervise every step in production.  He also has a major say in the marketing of the bottles, future planting programs, and what new steps or changes has to be done for the next harvest or the next season.  And not to forget difficult vintages would mean extra skills from the wine maker’s part to harness the best possible wine from a poor harvest. And hence it’s rightly put that a great terroir minus the skills of a wine maker is like an orchestra minus the conductor.

I must say I was a little unlucky that I missed the opportunity to meet Paul Pontallier, the winemaker, Chateau Margaux as I was on leave and I was munching on my mom’s special delicacies (for which I was indeed lucky).  But my colleagues who got to meet him shared with me that he had to spend a decent amount of time in laboratories tasting and re-tasting the blends created so that he can figure out which will make that perfect blend and unique taste of Chateau Marguaux wine bottle.  So my statement that the wine maker is also a scientist holds  major value here, I believe. Don’t forget the wine maker’s role does not end after the wine is bottled and is ready for sale, that’s just the beginning.  His skill in making the wine ends in the vineyard but the major skill required for a wine maker is the interpersonal and communication skills which should be as good as any marketer.  He should be able to speak about his wine and tell how distinct it is from others.  Most of the winemaker today  in the old world regions are busy learning languages like Mandarin ,Japanese and Korean as these places have become massive markets for the old world wines especially Bordeaux and Burgundian wines.  Above all this the most important requirement a wine maker should possess is experience.

You cannot make a good finished product if you don’t have the decent raw materials to produce it.  That is a universal fact.  The same rule applies for the world of wines.  If you don’t have the good raw material because of unfavorable terroir or some other reason, don’t forget that the wine maker has the skill , the science,  the technology and experience to yet create the best blend of the season.  “A great wine is crafted in the vineyard, not in the cellar” says Henry Jayer who is credited with introducing incredible innovations with Burgundian wine making.  He believed low yields are the foundation of truly great wines.  He pioneered the now universal idea that wine making begins in the vineyard.  He has experienced the process of extreme wine making. The terroir and the harvest cannot always be in your favour but the winemakers know what exactly has to be done. Bruno De Lambert, winemaker and owner, Chateau de Sales in Pomerol which is the largest estate of Pomerol explains the role of a wine maker in a very catchy way. He says,” The Vine is the medium that joins the sky and the earth - the two greatest elements of terroir - in holy matrimony.  The wine maker is the priest who solemnizes the marriage!

So I believe I have answered your question on how the wine maker becomes evidently the most important part of the terroir.  And I am sure the next time you pick up a bottle of wine you will definitely remember that a lot of effort from the wine maker has gone into making the 5 glasses of wine that you enjoy over dinner.

Cheers 

FROM MASS TO CLASS:EVOLUTION OF LUXURY SPIRITS & THE CONSUMER

It’s crazy how the world moves these days.  Everything is always moving into a new dimension.  And there should always be a superior product to every normal product or even every premium product.  It’s hard to believe that premium products in the market these days have a superior brand over it.  And these products or services get broadly termed as “Luxury goods.”  What are luxury goods all about?  They are those Products and services that are not considered essential and are associated with affluence.  The concept of luxury has been present in various forms since the beginning of civilization.  Its role was just as important in ancient western and eastern empires as it is in modern societies.  With the clear differences between social classes in earlier civilizations, the consumption of luxury was limited to the elite classes.

Every industry has seen this transition, an evolution of luxury goods in to their portfolio.  I was kind of shocked to understand a luxury item is an item for which demand increases proportionally as income rises, and is a contrast to a "necessity item", for which demand is not related to income. Here today right now I do not want to play around with such huge topic as I will be talking to you about this small segment that interested me and that’s nothing other than “Luxury Spirits.”

As I told you earlier normal has become an understatement for most who are living in this world and luxury has kind of become the in-thing.  People demand for more classic more finer and more glorious products .Consumers are continually looking at something which delivers more quality setting them apart from the rest of the world.  The word “Luxury” has transformed from not just being the price element but to quality, unique experience, satisfaction achieved and much more.

It’s a simple game.  When people have more disposable income and their lifestyle itself has changed from wanting luxury brands, the beverage market which was not a key market 15 years back, has to live up to the expectations of the luxury segment like every other market.  And mind you, this market where the consumers may be drinking less but better is going to be the reality for the beverage industry in some years to come.  The price part of this segment is rarely looked into as each luxury spirit brand has a story to tell, a perception and an experience to be lived and cherished.  As I told you there is a unique story attached to every Luxury spirit.  This story itself makes it special and worth all the money and sets it apart from everything else and that story itself forms a means to market it.

According to Rohan Jelkie, Training Manager at Tulleeho Beverage Innovations, Every luxury spirit becomes important or special because they use superior raw materials for its production, may have an extra distillation process, usually have a unique production process, a unique finish, high end packaging and the entire marketing spend for the final product would be around 25% of the total revenue.

Let’s take the example of one of the luxury spirit which has a story to tell.  Cognac has always been special to the world.  It was and still is a Gentle Man’s drink.  But if you happen to hear about the story of LOUIS XIII de Remy Martin which comes under the portfolio of Remy Cointreau you will be amazed.  I was amazed when Vincent Cleme, Brand Ambassador of Louis XIII, India shared it with me.  Well the bottle of Louis XIII is a Pine Crystal bottle whose neck is 24 carat gold plating and he says that it takes 4 days and 7 people to make just the bottle.  The spirit inside has a bigger story to tell.  Being a blend of over 1200 euax de vie , of which the least aged is at least 40 years old.  After the master blender blends this its aged for over a century that is the person who blends the wine will never get to see the spirit hitting the market and may be even their children won’t.  And this unique process gives it its tagline –“A Century in a Bottle.”  Going a step further the Louis XIII launched a new limited edition collection called the BLACK PEARL, which were 786 individually numbered Barracat crystal bottles which got sold out in 2 months within its launch.

There are more examples, the Tequila Ley .925, which hold the Guinness Record for the world’s most expensive tequila is yet another luxury spirit which is a 2kg show of gold and platinum.  Also the very famous gin, Martin Muller, makes a journey of 3000 km before its bottled.  It travels from England to Iceland where it  gets blended with the water from Iceland and back to England where it is finally bottled. The impressive story of Ron Zacapa, which is a rum produced in Guatemala, a place which borders Mexico is the only rum which is produced using the Solera system of fractional blending which is used in the production of Sherry.  Coming to vodka, my personal favourite -Grey Goose of Bacardi Martini carries the tag line “The world’s best tasting Vodka.”  Dimitri Lenzinska ,Global brand ambassador on up-selling grey goose vodka proudly tell us about the Grey Goose being the only vodka having a respected maitre de chai from cognac. Made with 100% winter wheat and respecting the quality of wheat and the distillation process creates all the flavours specific to Grey Goose Vodka, he says.

Every big producer, may it be Diageo , Pernod Ricard, LVMH, Remy Cointreau etc have extended a new portfolio as Luxury Brand which is superior to the premium brands in the portfolio and that’s how the wind of luxury has struck the beverage industry.  The luxury beverage market in India is booming at a very fast rate.  Indians are trying new and more expensive spirits to experiment or even demonstrate status and the latter is a good deal for us who are in the industry :P.  The ban on luxury advertising in India is a huge set back though .It takes away a major marketing tool I must say.  But I am sure the marketers and brand managers always come up with better practices and better ways to let the world know about their brands and its uniqueness through launch parties, tasting sessions and lot other means.

 I believe this trend in luxury spirit will live and enjoy the status in the economy for a real good time and until then don’t forget that "beer has become a bit boring now, there is more of a statement created when you walk into a bar and order for a Grey Goose Martini."

It’s a complex world of wines

I remember the first I time I walked into a wine cellar of a hotel. Yes, that dimly lit cold room, cozy And comfortable that no one really pays attention to, not really. It was during the initial days of my Industrial training at Jumeirah beach hotel Dubai, where I found out that this dim lit room (which is Colder than the ambient temperature) is my friend and my only friend in the hotel because no one Could see me inside and I was indeed happy spending time inside, clearing my head and busting

levels of stress by myself. Oh my! Don’t think I was miserable in life; it was just a getaway spot.

But slowly the bottles stacked on the unique shelves of the room kind of caught my attention and I always wondered why these bottles were kept tilted and some were horizontal and some were inside a Chiller inside the already cold room . Being a teenager there are no boundaries to questions that can just pop up in your mind. Why this, why that, why is it this way, why is it that way and so on and things like that. And the only person I could go to at that moment who had all the answers to my question was Miss Elena, who was the then asst outlet manager of Latitude, the multi cuisine restaurant cum coffee shop of JBH. People in the hotel used to call her a junior wine sommelier. For some odd reason my concept of a wine sommelier is a guy who walks around with a tasting glass hanging down his collar who wears a red tie and who has the authority to taste any wine before even the guest tastes it. She neither wore a red tie nor had the hanging cup nor did she taste any wines. Then it struck me, she was called a junior sommelier because she knew the complex world of wines.

So let me tell you my dear friends it is all part of the same old game. Starting from the plantation ,nourishing and harvesting and crushing, de-stemming, pressing and fermentation followed by filtration, clarification and bottling and aging was all what I thought is to a bottle of wine that anyone can grab from a decent wine shop. But fortunately the story of every single bottle is more intense

and sentimental like a life of a human being itself with lot of feelings and emotions planted in by the wine maker himself. Each bottle is crafted and nourished with that same sentiments and love and care like we give the whole world to our children. And to know about these sentiments and these intense feelings you should be able to travel deep down to the complexities involved in the process of wine making. Not just to the countries, the regions nor to the villages or the communes not even the chateaus but to the soil, the climate, the water, the sunshine and not to forget the wine maker himself which the French collectively call “the Terroir”. And so going back to Jumeirah beach hotel working with my manager, the “junior sommelier “ and spending my time in the stress busting room called the “ wine room” that’s all I did- break the complexities of wines, learn the terroir and try and figure out why in the world is it so difficult to understand the language of wines.

 

Each wine gets its distinctive character from the grape varieties that are used and when you blend the varietal with a different grape it’s give an entirely different flavour and guess what’s even more challenging, a sauvignon blanc grown in the cold terroir of France will differ significantly from a sauvignon blanc grown in south Africa and its exceedingly different from what is grown in new Zealand. Nobody ever said that it is easy to know or learn the language of wines. And it was indeed not easy for me too. I blabber a lot about wines about their characteristics, about how beautiful they are on the palate, how unique it is and how the terroir affects the production and so on and things like that but evidently I am just aware of 5 % knowledge of the complex world of wines and the rest 95% is still looking at me and smiling.

So basically the next time when someone tells you that I can get floral and black fruits in the wine or some dried nuts and tropical fruits, go ahead and give them another 100 things that you can taste in the wine. Because you are never wrong as it is your taste buds and they can’t disagree but when you know what exactly you are talking about and you know why and how such flavours develop in a wine and why such flavours become prominent. Then you can proudly say ,”yes I cracked the complexities of the world of wines”!!!

Cheers.

Osho – Nobody is here to fulfill somebody else’s expectations

Osho – The energy is perfectly good. Just one problem is there, that you don’t listen to your own voice; and that has to be done. Don’t be distracted by anything else – follow your own feeling. If you are feeling happy, be happy; don’t think of anything else. If you are feeling sad, be sad; don’t consider others, their expectations. Your energy is flowing perfectly well, but you consider others too much, so sometimes you repress, sometimes you become pseudo, inauthentic. You look into others’ eyes and then you try to fulfill their idea of you. Now this is the problem.

Nobody is here to fulfill somebody else’s expectations. And the person who tries to fulfill somebody else’s expectations will always be in misery because he will not be true to his own self. He will not be respectful to his own self, and to show disrespect to one’s self is to show disrespect to god. And the punishment is misery. Respect yourself! That does not mean that you become hard on others – that simply means that you become soft on yourself. Be tender towards yourself.

You immensely need to grow a kind of tenderness towards yourself. You are very tender towards others but very hard towards yourself. That’s what has been taught to everybody, to be hard on yourself and be soft to others; that is utter nonsense. If you are not soft to yourself your softness towards others is just a show, a pretension, hypocrisy. And it is not going to make the other happy either, because he will see through the game; and particularly those who are close to you, who are in love with you, will always be able to see through the game. So you become false and they are not satisfied with your falsity, because falsity can never satisfy anybody. To be really tender and caring towards others, one needs first to be basically tender and caring towards oneself That’s where you are a little hard. Relax!

And your energy is going so well that now I can speak through your energy to you, so whenever you hear something from the inside, remember: I am telling it to you! And that is your commitment. Be polite to others if sometimes you have to go against their expectations; apologise, but don’t pretend. This is one of the problems that always comes in relationship: you have to consider the other, continuously, and he has to consider you, and both become false, inauthentic. How can love grow when both are inauthentic, insincere? Love grows in authenticity – it is a fragrance of authenticity. One needs to be absolutely genuine, only then does love grow. So in the world there are so many lovers and no love at all, because the basic requirement is never fulfilled.

So from this moment, this is your work on yourself: be utterly genuine. And even… it may create a few troubles in the beginning, but only in the beginning. Soon people start understanding – they can see your truth…. And if you respect yourself, others start respecting you and start respecting the space in which you are. But if even you are not respectful to it, who is going to. be respectful to it?

The old saying in the Talmud is: ’If I am not for me then who is going to be for me?’ Then nobody is for you and you are left in a kind of limbo. Be for yourself and only out of that can you be for others too, because then you will have something to share, to give. The energy is perfectly good – there is nothing wrong in the energy; just your mind goes on interfering with it. Stop interfering!