CHRISTOPHER THOMAS FROM CHAPOUTIER, Nicolas Bizzari from Chile, Paulo from Italy and Oliver Dixon have one thing in common. They all agree that in India, Pune is one of the cities, emerging as a major market for wine whether domestic or imported. Although wine consumption in Pune is still small compared to most metros, it is growing rapidly under the impetus of changing lifestyles, increasing disposable incomes and wider availability of drinkable wines.
Today Pune, once thought of as a conservative city,not only has eateries offering a variety of cuisines but. Puneites order wines that complement all that food. Therefore, hotels and restaurants today are doing their bit to educate and encourage people to take up wine drinking, by organising food and wine festivals and Sunday brunches. The fact that wine sales have doubled in most restaurants and hotels shows that food outlets have become serious about wines.
“A good wine complements a great meal and the best part is that it can be sipped with the food.Besides, the alcohol content is low compared to spirits makes people feel more comfortable holding a glass of wine,” says Jaswinder Narang, General Manager, Le Meridien, a wine connoisseur who came up with the revolutionary concept of starting a wine connoisseur’s club three years ago. Narang, whose aim is to spread the culture of drinking wine in Pune admits the. “I have had a lot of foreigners coming up and saying that they feel good when a hotel in a so-called small town comes up with events of international calibre. At Le Meridien, we have a wine list of around 70 wines.”
At La Dolce Vita, a popular Italian restaurant, people who want to order wines often require guidance. “We in Pune, still have a long way to go to reach a stage where diners are familiar with wines, and to encourage the wine culture, we need to educate customers about wines. To enable our staff to help guests, we regularly conduct staff training sessions. Currently, our wine list includes wines like Hardy’s, Santa Christina, May Bach, Ruffino Reserva and Michele Laroche,” says Ashtad Dadachanji, restaurant manager, La Dolce Vita.
Puneites also tend to follow the ‘herd’ mentality, where the ‘must eat at’ rule is guided more by trend and pseudo-modern kitsch, than by considerations like value for money and quality. Which means if it’s ‘happening’ to be seen at a particular joint, eating a particular kind of food, then that’s the way to go for the yuppie with the disposable income. This mentality seems to doing a lot of good for wine companies at least. Athena bar and Merlot, introduced by the Chateau Indage group in October recently came up with a club of their own known as the ‘Merlot Wine Club’. Athena’s extensive wine list, a blend of Old and New World Wines, includes over 60 different labels, 45 of which are foreign while the rest are produced in India.
Apart from the three leading domestic companies, Indage, Sula and Grover’s, other companies such as Kiara Wines and Sonarys sell a decent amount of wines as well. Last year, new brands such as Howling Wolves, Venky’s Rock, Bluefold Wines and ND wines also made their presence felt in Pune’s wine market. Wine companies too have played an active role in encouraging wine consumption. By conducting training sessions regularly on wine etiquette, facts and trivia about wines, wine companies have penetrated into the market to reach out to the common man.
In an effort to arouse interest in wines, Indage organises tours to their vineries, where customers learn how wine is made. All ‘A’ grades restaurants across Pune will educate people coming to the restaurants about wine culture, wine etiquette, wine and food pairing, as well as other necessary wine information. Our primary sales have gone up by 52% and our secondary sales have gone up by 38% compared to last year for the Pune region while profitability has exceeded 300% growth,” says Ranjit Chougule, Managing Director, Chateau Indage.
The effects on the consuming market are quite apparent for Nripendra Chauhan, Business Manager, Mainland China, discloses that consumers today have graduated to ordering varietals. “Initially, it was only red wine or white wine ordered by brands. But today, people in Pune order by grape varietals – they want a chardonnay, a cabernet or a merlot. They are aware of temperatures, food pairings, appropriate wine glasses, etc as they travel so much these days.”
Red wines outsell whites in India and the same holds true in Pune as well. Great Punjab and Mainland China record higher sale of reds as compared to whites. Tejpal Gandhi of Great Punjab feels that red wines team better with the kind of food that he serves. With the kind of food that we serve here, shiraz and merlots do very well.
Whether its training hotel executives or holding a wine tasting session for the crème de la crème or targeting middle management, Grover Vineyard’s has done it all. “In Pune, the wine culture started as a spillover from Bombay some four years ago and then the BPO and IT industry gave impetus to the same. At a lot of Pune parties, wines have replaced spirits. Grover’s has grown in Pune at the rate of 20% per year consistently,” says Bharat Deshmukh from Grover Vineyards.
For a lot of health conscious Puneites, wine is also a better option than spirits and they feel better holding a glass of wine. Adrian Pinto, General Manager, National Sales and Marketing, Sula Vineyards, feels that the health factor has a major role to play in people wanting to switch over from scotch and whisky to wine and we adopt a very proactive approach for the same.”
Australian wines are very popular in Pune, which perhaps is why Venkateshwara Hatcheries group’s foray into the wine market is through a joint venture with South Australian wine maker Boar’s Rock and thus the brand, Venky’s Rock. “From our research we concluded that India is not a hard-core wine drinking country. To develop the palate, we conducted a lot of research in collaboration with Boar’s Rock and today we can confidently say that our wines team very well with Indian food,” reveals O.P. Singh, CEO, Venky’s.
President of the Pune District Wine Trader’s Associations, Vijay Kutty not only reiterates the steady growth in the wine sales, but adds that domestic companies have not passed on the benefits given to them by the government..”
In spite of all this, the common perception in Pune is that enough is not being done to help people who need to know more. Most wine tasting sessions still focus on the upper strata of society and the same faces are seen at most parties that showcase new wines. “We are not doing enough to educate the consumer. Instead of just focusing on certain classes, wine companies should go all out and educate everyone with disposable incomes who has the willingness to learn more about wines and is curious,” says Kayzad Hiramnek, a self confessed wine enthusiast, who works for a telecom company. Wine lovers and connoisseurs feel that this is the right time for democratic wine clubs where everyone who is interested can learn more. Tarita Mehendale, an educationist stocks up to 200 bottles of wines in her cellar and gives away wine bottles as presents to her friends and acquaintances. Wine in Pune is now a social drink, the younger generation has taken to it and more will take to drinking wines. I hope very soon instead of people meeting over a cup of coffee, they meet over a glass of wine. Wine is still considered as a high society drink, which is true also in Pune.”
Pune has developed over the last 5 years into a buzzing metropolis as an extension of Mumbai. It has a very large base of well-informed consumers who are willing to spend money for good products, and this augurs well for its burgeoning wine culture.
