Indian Wines Go International

Source: Company
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Indian wine in a leading wine and food retailer in the UK? Believe it or not, and for some of my friends in the wine industry who might not like the sound of it; Yes that's true. Earlier this month, two Indian wines viz. Zampa Syrah 2008 and the Viognier 2010 by Ritu (Four Seasons in India) seem to have made the breakthrough.

Source:Decanter.com

While it is the first time (or at least as claimed in the media) for an Indian wine to have found place in a UK supermarket, never before has it created this much buzz.The launch of these wines in my view exhibits a raise in the overall quality of Indian wines and also their potential to compete and be accepted internationally. And thankfully this time, the wines would not be merely confined to restaurants alone as an obvious pairing to the country's cuisine. Rather, these will be available to a wider, retail audience. The foundation work to the launch I suspect began in May this year during the London International Wine Fair wherein there was a reasonably decent amount of interest around Indian wines. As hinted in one of my conversations with a leading UK based importer during the event, the launch was always in the making.

The UK consumer is one of the most spoilt for choice in the world of wines and the launch of these 2 Indian wines adds further diversity to the abundant offering at their disposal. What would be interesting to see is the time for which these novel offerings remain in demand. Given the popularity of the Indian cuisine in the UK, especially the beloved 'curry', it'll be no surprise if Waitrose gets them re-ordered often. Apparently their first lot of the wines which was up at a promotional price is selling fast with some stores running out of stock!
Let's hope that the trend continues and Indian wines find further recognition in other parts of the world too.