| French Wine Industry's Troubles Mount | | | | By: Subhash Arora | << back  Page 2 of 2 |
Meanwhile, a variety of other efforts are under way. For one, the French government recently somewhat eased the country's stark conservative laws on wine advertising, known as Evin Law. In a broader initiative, the government is also taking a fresh look at traditional French wine labeling, questioning whether the "appellation" system, with separate label requirements and agricultural and vinification rules for each of nearly 450 wine-growing regions, making French wine too extraordinarily complicated for the average consumer to grasp. Seeking to demystify and simplify the complex wine labels, the government agencies already encourage the non AOC producers to mention the name of the varietals as in the New World wines..
So what is the lesson in this tough situation for Indian wine industry? Firstly, if you compare this surplus of 250 m litres with our total annual consumption of about 400,000 cases (under 4 million cases) you realize how miniscule our wine consumption is. And imagine if only an insignificant 2% of the AOC wines being converted could be transferred to India at one –fifth the cost and thereby meeting all the consumption demand!!! Also imagine the immense profit potential for the importers and wine producers and bottlers who could strike a tough bargain by committing bulk imports.
But what is more significant is the impact on the possible scenario for the Indian wine industry. Indage, Sula and Grover are established producers who know how to count their marbles. But the mushrooming growth of the new wineries need to have a strong marketing plan. And the industry has to join hands in promoting wine consumption which has taken a quantum jump during the last 3 years since the Delhi Wine Club was formed but a growth rate of 25-30% is insignificant for a small starting base and we need to talk about 40-50% growth and steps to achieve this growth.
We need to create Brand India by constantly improving quality, and taking part in the international wine fairs like VinExpo or Vinitaly as a wine producing Nation. It pains me to see small countries like Ukraine, Tunisia and Uruguay taking part in the international wine shows while all and each of our producers following their individual paths of growth without getting together and with the help of the Government taking the country flag flying at these shows.
Mr.Sham Chougule, Mr.Rajeev Samant, Mr.Kapil Grover, what'd you say?!
About the Author:
Founded Delhi Wine Club five years ago to promote wine culture in India through education by organizing various programmes and training seminars, wine tasting dinners etc.Writing content and managing India's first wine webzine, with India-centric wine news since inception. The Club has organised 105 events in 5 years and has been been voted the best wine club of India by the first-ever survey carried out by Wine Business International, Germany.
Wine passion has taken him to various wine fairs, vineyards and conferences around the world. He has written regularly for a popular daily under, 'Wonderful World of Wine'and a couple of national magazines. An engineer from IIT, Delhi with Master's degrees in Industrial Engineering and Business Administaration from the University of Minnesota, he has been actively promoting wine in India by delivering talks, organizing wine appreciation courses,training waiters and managers,designing wine menus and offering wine consultancy.
He has been a juror for the Vinitaly Wine Competition in 2006. He has been invited to be a speaker at various international forums like Vinitaly, Prowein and Fenavin. He is also the India correspondent of Wine Business Interntional. He is the editor article contributor of delWine, an eNewsletter that goes out to about 6000 people around the world.
He has been also voted 'the Best Wine Journalist' in the Who's Who Survey.
Website Name: Delhi Wine Club
Website URL: www.delhiwineclub.com
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