The Indians Drinking Wine? Are You Serious?
Predicting the future of the wine industry in India without crystal gazing or astrology – based purely on primal beliefs, faiths and the gaps in-between.
The economy is in place. The statistics continue to impress. If Finance Minister’s 29 February 2008 budget presented in the Indian parliament is an indication to go by, the Indians will merrily sail through the forthcoming fiscal able to spend even more, and live better. Pay commission for central government employees has also just been declared. States are likely to follow suit soon. And the bonhomie is not restricted, or contained, within the confines of Indian shores alone. Indian’s are fast adapting to a global lifestyle – traveling more, eating different and forging global partnership with a confident vigor. Now, with all the sectors brimming with growth, can the Wine industry be left behind? Whether the existing growth is all that is feasible in the present circumstance? Can something be done to register an instant fillip? Let me take you on a wine day out and let us together figure it out.
Having been in and out of numerous wine events, tasting and dinners, and discussed the future of the Indian wine drinking culture over many narrowed rims of wine bowls with highbrow experts, connoisseurs, magazine editors, promoters and sommeliers, I am at last beginning to see the future picture. But the problem is, though the picture is there, its detailing is blurred in obscurity. It’s like looking at something through the wine glass with legs crawling along the entire inner surface – you see the outline of the object but can’t figure out what it is.
So, in other words, the future picture remains rooted firmly only in our imagination – and therefore each one of us entitled to a different one. This is the real reason why the wine industry – though predicted to sustain its growth of 30% for the next few years – is disillusioned about. And therefore it’s about time we tried to navigate through the pitfalls the industry will have to negotiate in the future. But foremost let us understand Indians and their appreciation about wine, a little better. First, Indians traditionally are accustomed to an alcohol free life. Even if it is consumed in certain areas in the hinterland, it is consumed under a false shielding of rituals or religion and not routinely. Regular consumption is considered a bad habit and the society doesn’t take the existence of such extroverts lightly. That is how it is in the villages, where about two thirds of the population lives, even today. Let us leave them out of the wine-drag for the moment. The middle class in the smaller cities, the future consumers, live in a world where alcohol consumption is only reserved for men, that too during festivals like Diwali and Holi (Thanks to Bollywood, the Indian film industry as it is popularly called, the alcohol drinking culture has been immortalized by a few songs and dance sequences by some of the superstars which Indians fondly like to recreate during such festivals). Here too, the women whose husbands abstain consumption of alcohol, openly flaunt, “My husband doesn’t even touch alcohol”. Both the shine on the confident women’s face and the smile playing on the husband’s lips is an instant fashion statement. On the other hand, the lady whose husband indulges occasionally often sulks and feels challenged, and therefore jealous. In the Indian metros however, including the capital New Delhi, commercial capital Mumbai and other larger of the Indian cities with population over ten million people, the alcohol consuming men, and seldom women, are regarded as equal to the teetotaler ones. But here too, girls still prefer a teetotaler husband and the groom’s parents cannot imagine even in their wildest dreams their daughter-in-law drinking alcohol.
Second, wine as a word to most Indians means anything alcoholic that is not beer. Therefore you find all along the Indian highways and elsewhere either wine shops, selling whiskey, Rum, Vodka and gin etc, or beer shops selling mostly beer spiked with alcohol for the much sought after kick. The understanding of the word wine to mean red, white, rose or sparkling wine is alien to almost ninety-nine percent of the Indians. Recently, at a wine tasting event at a five star hotel in New Delhi, one Californian guy, who said was visiting India to understand the Indian wine culture, narrated an unusual experience. Unusual for him, but most of us knew what was coming. He said, on his way back to Delhi after seeing the famous Taj Mahal he noticed a signboard on the roadside declaring the name of a wine shop. He brought the vehicle he was traveling in, to a screeching halt and entered the premise with much anticipation. But to his horror and disbelief the shop had everything else except wine. I am sure he must have since returned to his native country a much wiser man.
Third, the policy of the government not to allow advertisements to promote the wine industry products is a serous hiccup. Sommeliers, teachers, tasters, connoisseurs, who are all anyway in short supply, only end up meeting each other during the wine promotion events. Unless innovation, eye catching and educating campaign is not carried out by companies and wine promotion institutions in print, electronic and web media, any serious growth will always seem to be just a dream – similar to the picture I was talking about in the beginning.
So, in my opinion the industry should attempt a two pronged strategy – one, to reach to the people and educate them, and two, let them know the health benefits. Robert Joseph, the wine challenge creator, who had successfully conducted the first Indian wine challenge last December during the largest Food and wine event held at New Delhi called IFE 2007, recently shared his view with me and a few other friends. According to him, let there be some more wine challenges like the Indian wine challenge here in India. Let people find out what is good and what is not. Let promoters know what sells and what doesn’t. Let the producers know what is preferred and what is not. In other words, let the people and their tastes and choices related to wine drive the market. And there can be no better way for that than the wine challenges. Magandeep Singh, arguably India’s most renowned sommelier, shared his plan with me recently. Education, he says, holds the key. The hospitality sector and the consumers both needs to be educated. Subhash Arora, a die hard wine promoter and a personal friend of mine, who manages the Delhi Wine Club and also runs the Indian Wine Academy at Delhi, puts it all so easily. We have to get the view across to the people that wine is a healthier indulgence than hard liquor. He too is trying hard. There are many others like him, me included.
Touted as modern day Dorothy Parker, Fran Lebowitz’s comment, appeals most to the present Indian situation at the moment. She had said, “Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things and small people talk about wine.” There are lots of great people in India (perhaps there always were) and they talk about great ideas now that they are beginning to get richer, also lots of average people taking about things, but hey, where are the Indian small people? Isn’t it a tad bit difficult to imagine that India doesn’t have them? On a more serious note, the Irish writer Robert Louis Stvenson once said, “Wine is bottled poetry”. It is common knowledge that Indians hold poetry and songs very dear and it reflects in their outlook towards life on a daily basis. Now, can someone really remove the bottle that is stuck in-between? Will the industry please stand up and realize this simple fact.
© Kulpreet Yadav 2008
Kulpreet Yadav is an author and wine commenter based at New Delhi.
