|  The number of wine participants could be counted on the finger tips - of one hand. Vinura, Quale Magni, Covides,Olive Farm Wines. Quale Magni was founded last year by Surya Phadke to import South African wines. Olive Farm Wines was founded in 1857 and is the oldest winery in Western Australia. Run by the 4th generation family, it had a first time presence in India and the visiting team was quite excited when I visited them early in the morning on the day of inauguration. Covides is the biggest co-operative in Cataluña in Spain. It produces both still wines and DO Cava (DO being the equivalent of Italian DOC). Their wines were of good price quality ration - the pink cava was awesome - I hope some smart importer snapped it up for distribution in India.
 The stand for the much advertised Mead, the oldest alcohol made in the world, did not make as much impression as the hype created (even delWine had written about it). I must have passed the Indian Baltic Chamber of Commerce stand without noticing it - since there were no large queues as one expected. Although I missed tasting but it could not have been categorized as wine.
A highlight was the joint participation by Chile, Mexico, Columbia and Peru with Chile displaying a few bottles of wines besides a host of food products. The delicious red cherries that Nestor Riveros, the head of ProChile offered me, convinced me that these were in the fine food category.
No Indian wine company was in sight. The Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MOFPI) had a mega presence, at two locations. Yet IGPB was conspicuous by its absence and missed out an opportunity to showcase the efforts made in the promotion of Indian wines. When asked, the Chairman of the IGPB, Jagdish Holkar cited the excise complications in Delhi (I wonder how Sula managed to have a good sized stand with tasting as well, last year). In any case, it had been a golden opportunity to showcase the progress made by it towards wine promotion and drafting of wine laws. Perhaps it is currently focusing on participating only in foreign programs. One of the organisers informed delWine that the All India Wine Producers Association, which was officially one of the supporters of the Drinks Academy, had shown no interest and failed to be present in any shape or way despite being cajoled and wooed-excise was cited as the spoil sport.
 The Drinks Academy designed to conduct seminars on beverages had the semblance of wine in that it was inaugurated by Subhash Arora, President of the Indian Wine Academy and the Delhi Wine Club with a talk about wines for an hour to a full house keen to learn more about wines and the current status in India. The WSET-4 qualified (those with less than WSET-3 are not considered WSET qualified, according to delWine) Niladri Dar who is the former corporate beverage manager of ITC Hotels, talked about ‘Creating Successful & Sustainable Wine Programs for Hotels and Restaurants.’ There were also tastings of Sangria, Cataluña wines and Italian wines by the exhibitors over the 3-days.
 Technically speaking, the exhibition was very professionally and tastefully organised. The Culinary Masterclass Area and the Drinks Academy were very impressively designed although the seminars seemed to primarily promote the exhibitors rather than an attempt to educate the participants about the topics. For instance, the healthy option for Breakfast was handled by Quaker Oats.
One cannot blame the exhibitors for the less-than-exciting participation. Both the wine and food imports have been under pressure recently due to the unfair and unclear policies by the government authorities with several importers complaining about the shipment delays at customs due to vague instructions and different interpretations by individual officers. Hundreds of thousands of rupees worth of food has been reportedly spoilt due to the apathy of officers with authority but no accountability or commitment.
One hopes that with the elections over before the next edition of Fine Food India, there will be more buzz and someone would be able to answer our query - Find Food is Fine-But Where is Wine?
Subhash Arora
Tags: Fine Food India Expo |