Grape growers uproot vines as Indians fail to acquire taste for community terroirsHambir Gopal Phadtare, founder and owner of Mountain View winery in Nashik region of western India looks outside over his land and sees a diminished vineyard.Four of his 10 hectares have been sold to repay bank loans, the French experts have disappeared and there are no lines of lorries complete of grapes bought from independent growers any more.”It’s been a very dense period,” says the 76-year-ancient, who started making wine in the late 1990s. “We are still not outside of it, however maybe in another couple of years things will be bigger.”Less than a decade ago, hardly any thought India’s grape growers and winemakers would ever be forced to uproot their vines. In this booming nation with its quick-growing middle class, wine was supposed to be a certain, and much pleasurable, path to constitute an simple fortune.Yet, though a hardly any winemakers have prospered, Phadtare’s tale is far from rare. By some estimates more than 50% of the wine-grape farmers in Maharashtra state, the heart of the industry, have ripped outside the carefully planted lines of vines in recent years. In some districts, up to 80% of vineyards have disappeared. Many growers have swapped wine grapes for table varieties, or much for community staples such as onions and tomatoes. The much-trumpeted fantastic Indian wine boom still seems far off.The reasons are many, said Ravi Gurnani, a 27-year-ancient who planted wine grapes on family land in Nashik in 2006 when expectations were at their zenith. “A abundance of terrible wine was made early on and some consumers were place off by those first experiences,” he said. “Tourism is down so the demand from the five-star hotels is less.”Other reasons comprehend high taxes, a common slowing in economic growth in India and poor infrastructure for storing and transporting their produce.And though tastes are changing quick, India remains deeply resistant to wine drinking. Its 1.2 billion inhabitants drank an average of two teaspoons each – 0.01 litres – of wine in 2009. Compare that with a boozier 22.7 litres for the United Kingdom and 45.2 litres in France.There is small imported wine, not least since punitive taxes mean that a bottle of what would be considered supermarket plonk in Europe costs £30 or more in a restaurant. Though such prices can be paid by the ultra-rich, they are far beyond the reach of most of India’s middle class.The contrast with China, which at the end year overtook the UK to become one of the earth’s top five wine-drinking nations and where the average person is predicted to drink two litres a year by 2015, is stark.Though the market has improved since the 2009 crash, those trying to constitute quality wine, usually costing about £10 for a bottle in India, still suffer.”Fair immediately, the bottom border is we demand a growth in consumption,” said Gurnani, whose York winery is surviving by making generic sweet red and white for other producers, despite the accolades won by his own wine. “We’re all waiting for the huge bang [in demand]. In the meantime, it is a affair of holding tight.”Authorities plot a range of ambitious measures to boost the industry. One is introducing strict controls, based on France’s appellation contrôlée system.”We demand geographical regulation. It would not be 100% mandatory however would aim to identify each area as a terroir [wine's site-specific character],” said Jagdish Holkar, president of the All-India Wine Producers Association. He hopes the system will be in place within six months to aid India constitute an identity for its wine.One difficulty is the gap between international and domestic tastes. “Designing a taste for an Indian palate is quite a different body. Here, from top to tip, from Kashmir to Coimbatore, there is a abundance of hot and spicy aliment, so our human beings like a wine with a hint of sweetness,” Holkar said. Critics of Indian wine affirm “hint” usually method cloying sugar, repellent to most international consumers.There are also moves to increase the flow of fine wine into India. Producers affirm this would aid stimulate “wine culture”. However negotiations with the EU to reduce Indian import taxes have dragged on for years. The following deadline is October.”Don’t hold your breath,” said Mark Schuringa, of London-based Ditton Wine Traders, though he added that many international producers and traders saw India as having the potential to be “a second China”. When taxes were lifted in Hong Kong, fine-wine sales inside China boomed. “Merchants are trying to get a foothold immediately just to be there when it happens,” Schuringa said.For Phadtare, any boom may come also late however he is not complaining: “We have suffered a setback, it is fair. However my passion is wine so I will certainly keep going.”IndiaWineFarmingFood & drink industryFood & drinkAlcoholJason Burkeguardian.co.uk © 2012 Twitter News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Employ of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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