‘People are becoming aware of Indian wine and its improvement’

Indian Wine Academy’s Subhash Arora on why it is important to have a special day to appreciate Indian wine

He peppers his social media posts with “Jai ho!” his own way of saying ‘Cheers!’ in Hindi, India’s national language. And after a very busy November 16 celebrating the newly-established Indian Wine Day, his very own brainchild, Subhash Arora (@wineguyindia on social media) must be raising his wine glass in a toast to greater success ahead.

Indian Wine Day was conceptualized as a day dedicated to Indian wine awareness – which needs a hashtag or two to push the concept of ‘Be Indian, buy Indian’ for the young Indian wine industry. Industry watchers agree that there is a need for an awareness boost with wine drinkers both in India and out.

Since I was travelling on the date and unable to witness first-hand all the merrymaking that took place around the country ( specific metro cities) on the day, I asked Arora, widely known as one of India’s most influential and steadfast supporters of wine, for his take on the event that is currently in its second year.

Excerpts from the interview:

As a supporter and well-wisher of the Indian wine industry for decades,  what made you think of  Indian Wine Day – a day to celebrate Indian wine? 

I have been thinking about an Indian Wine Day for almost five years. My ‘Make in India’ concept happened even before the present government came into power (with their Make in India slogan). I wanted the government to think of the wine industry as a respectable one. I want them to think of wine as part of a healthy lifestyle. I have wanted state banquets to serve Indian wine for many years but I was unsuccessful. To achieve this almost-impossible task I believe we must have an Indian Wine Day. As things stand, there are many countries and regions that celebrate dedicated ‘days’ an international level – think Champagne Day, Malbec Day, Grenache Day. There is even a small part of Burgundy which celebrates Beaujolais Nouveau Day!

So the idea was manifold: to reach the government’s ears, to promote Indian producers making quality wine and recognise them, and finally, to remove the wine snobbery amongst Indians by focusing on quality Indian wines that compare well against their imported counterparts.

For those interested in following the Indian wine story please give a perspective from your considerable experience on the growth of the Indian wine industry over the last 10 years; its challenges and where you feel it has done well. What more needs to be done to raise the image of Indian wine in India and abroad?

The annual growth (in India) has been around 12%. It went as high as 25% in some years and as low as 0% or even negative after the 26/11 mishap. Whereas companies like Sula and Fratelli have had exceptional growth, smaller wineries and even Grover Zampa Vineyards have struggled to grow. Indian wines have to be promoted internationally as ‘Wines of India’ with the active support of the government, perhaps with incentives. Wine tourism in India must be promoted in international markets through Indian tourism boards and by establishing a couple of wine routes.

 Do share insights gathered during your travels abroad on Indian wine from experts outside India. Is the image of Indian wine improving? The increasing number of medals won abroad by Indian producers seems to indicate so.

The knowledge about Indian wines is patchy. In countries like the UK and the US, people are aware of India as a producer, but it is far from being known as a quality wine producer yet. Recently, there have been individual efforts by wineries to change the image, and this has been partially successful. I am glad that the (IWD) event was sold out in the UK, besides in Bengaluru of course, where the unified enthusiasm for the event was the key.

The number of medals won definitely indicate that people are aware of the improving quality and this helps spread the message.

Let’s talk about Indian Wine Day. Describe how the events across India unfolded on the day – 16 November 2018 – and any feedback you might have received post the event.

Principally, we had planned the Indian Wine Day dinner only at Delhi with a sit-down dinner for about 100 people, with similar 5-course Indian menus at all venues. Wine labels served were an issue due to excise policies; Delhi, Bengaluru, and Mumbai had 10 wines. Similarly, wherever Kitty Su/ Kitti Ko (nightclubs of the LaLit Group of hotels) existed, the dinner extended into an after-party with sparkling wines and dessert.

Keshav Suri, the executive director of the LaLit Group has been a big supporter. He liked my concept so much that he decided to expand the concept to some of his other hotel locations until we became six locations, including London, last year. LaLit Sommelier Charles Donnadieu who worked in unison with me even went to London to discuss the event there. Ravindra Kumar, the corporate F&B manager was pro-active as well. The LaLit offered to sell Indian wines at a flat discount of 50% across these properties for three days at all the restaurants, which was very encouraging. This year Indian Wine Day was expanded to nine LaLit properties.

The event went very well this year with about 400 guests attending at all these centres with Delhi hosting the largest number, around 100 people.

Besides this, in an effort to expand the scope, I requested wineries with tasting rooms to celebrate it too by offering 30% discounts on all the wines poured on 16 November- Sula, York, and Soma joined voluntarily. Reveilo does not have a tasting room but hosted a couple of wine dinners exclusively to honour Indian Wine Day. This scope will be expanded next year with more wineries participating and also restaurants.

I hope one day every wine lover will have at least a glass of Indian wine and say ‘Jai Ho!’ as a toast to Indian wine and Indian Wine Day.

What in your mind has been IWD’s biggest achievement? How do you plan to enlarge and improve the concept going ahead?

The biggest achievement has been that people have become aware of Indian wines and are talking about the improvements made and openly discussing their preferences in the top wines category, which is essential to help the quality go up consistently. It also highlights an inherent desire of every genuine wine lover to promote the cause of Indian wines on a medium-term perspective. I was amazed by the fantastic, unsolicited support from the blogging fraternity in the social media before and after the event, which helped us create a greater awareness.

What has been the response from within the wine industry? 

The response has been good in that they have supported the IWD by sponsoring the wines. In terms of getting a step closer to getting directly involved, it has been lukewarm. I guess they are waiting to see how successful it gets in the years to come. Expanding in this format on a much bigger scale is difficult at this stage because the producers cannot be expected to sponsor wines indefinitely.

Any plans for the next edition, 2019? Any changes or add-ons to look forward to?

Indian Wine Academy and the LaLit Hotel Group will continue with similar events next year on the same date, 16 November. We have already announced the date. Last year, we had chosen 16 November because it was the third Thursday in November, the Beaujolais Nouveau Day, but this year it was a Friday and was well accepted. So we decided to choose the same date next year (Saturday) and hope this date will stick in the minds of the people.

I hope Indian wine producers will come on board in a bigger way besides sponsoring wines. I would like them to join the initiative as Indian Wine Day by having their tasting rooms offer good discounts and hold interesting programmes on that day. After all, they are the principal beneficiaries.

Through this exercise, I am also trying to get people to appreciate and understand vintage variations and taste every vintage of their favourite Indian wines. I would like to see it filter through to the stand-alone restaurants and even prominent retail stores where tasting is possible. Bengaluru has had an excellent model of complimentary tasting on Indian Wine Day and I hope with the enthusiasm shown by the Bangalore Wine Club, they can spread the message on Indian wines on this special day a lot further.

It looks pretty exciting and promising to me.

Subhash Arora is president, Delhi Wine Club, and Indian Wine Academy; editor, DelWine India and correspondent, Meininger WBI, Germany. He was awarded the Mérite de l’OIV 2011.