I met Sanjay Menon for the first time in 2001 when he had organised a paid wine dinner at the present West View Restaurant in the ITC Maurya Sheraton Hotel. At Rs. 4,000 a head it was steeply priced for that time. But as I found out later, Sanjay excels in organising expensive wine dinners, matched by the quality of wine he provides.
It was only at the dinner that I discovered that our table of 10 was perhaps the only paying table. Most guests were invitees or journalists who had come to enjoy the evening with two of the finest, Third Growths from Bordeaux- Chateau d’Issan and Chateau Lagrange. The food was excellent-wines were even better. But, there was plenty of wine left over in the glasses by the invitees who did not have to pay for the dinner.
At the end, we could see Sanjay kept on mumbling expletives at the ignorance of the Delhi-ites and their lack of appreciation for fine wine as he went about emptying the glasses left on the tables in his mouth. ’How can these people be so crass and ignorant about such wonderful and expensive wines and leave them in the glass?’ It showed their ignorance about fine wines all right, but Sanjay’s passion for fine wines was also quite evident.
Passion always in fashion
He is as passionate about wines as he was then. The prime age of 45 years has still not mellowed him down and he can use expletives faster than one can catch up when he is frustrated with the government policies. He is a rare importer, who does not mind being quoted when he makes anti-policy remarks.
 He travels all over the world attending wine tastings, conferences, meeting producers, learning about wines. ‘During the last 10 years I have made about 40 wine trips abroad, each trip taking me to many wineries in more than one country’, he says. One of his senior managers once told me, ‘the problem with the boss is he is constantly in the fine wines mode, for which he can use multiple superlatives. But the competition sells plonk at much lower prices. The F & B people in the industry with zilch knowledge of wine are easily manipulated by the competition and we find difficult to achieve our targets.’
He has handled top labels like Gaja, Sassicaia, and Egon Mueller from Mosel, Pol Roger Champagnes, Symington Ports, Antinori, and innumerable Top Growths from Bordeaux. He introduced the Chilean Montes Alpha labels in the early nineties when people in the wine industry spelt it as ‘Chili’.
So how did he manage to get his name in the Power List? ‘I don’t know- are you sure my name is there and what list is it anyway?’ he told me when I called him up in Mumbai to congratulate him. ‘This is hardly the time to give a recognition like this when the whole industry is *$@#.’ Truly depressed with the Maharashtra policy he is happy that ‘by streamlining the excise policy last month, the government will help revive the Mumbai market which has been dead for 2 years’.
When I told him it had names of Robert Parker, Sarkozy, Jancis Robinson, he started showing interest. ‘Perhaps, they may have selected me for some historical reasons.’ Maybe, it was a combination of all these reasons he was chosen. But he was still quite nonchalant about it. ‘India is riding high as a country and everyone wants to be a part of the booming economy. That is why they perhaps wanted to have an Indian in the list. Since I have been in the wine business for the last so many years, perhaps they included my name, ‘he said, sounding more unsure than modest. He is the only Asian in the list and perhaps the first one ever, a possibility he has not explored.
The Early Years
 Born in Tamil Nadu, Sanjay moved to Mumbai with his family where he joined his father in the family business of trading in pharmaceutical bulk drugs and intermediates, while studying in college.
The family business also had a division that represented several international wine and spirit companies; more wine than spirit. His father’s premature death in the early 90s and the ensuing liberalization of the 90s period saw Sansula International Brands Limited naturally gravitate towards wine.
Although the market was tiny and still in its infancy, Sanjay has great faith in the potential for the business in the long run. Sansula has assumed a pioneering role in the import, distribution and development of the fine wine business in the country. He has been quite active in Maldives where ‘with 10,000 cases we export, we are the biggest fine wine suppliers,’ he says. Perhaps because Sansula took a lead in this business before anyone else, they were able to speak to the top producers in their respective regions from around the wine world and the business now consists of a confluence of winemakers. ‘We represent 80 wineries with around 1000 labels, if you include Maldives too.’ And which countries are heavy in his portfolio? I ask. ‘France and Italy are the most predominant with 25-30 wineries from each of them,’ he says.
 Sanjay has taken upon himself the responsibility of educating the consumers and the F & B industry in India. He has built and executed successfully, a series of training sessions to several premium hotels around the country, including the Taj Group and ITC. Over the past 5 years he has presented to several groups of wine enthusiasts from organizations like the YPO, WPO, the Wine Society, Delhi Wine Club and Bangalore Wine Club.
He also completed Part 3 of the WSET exams though he does a lot of self study.
Extensive contact with the top winemakers from around the world, numerous tastings of great wines and extensive visits to the top wine producing areas of the world have built an enduring passion for wine in Sanjay and he is excited about sharing that passion with anyone.
So what does he think of the wine market? ‘It has been really depressing for the last couple of years,’ he admits.’ But we are targeting to achieve the sale of 30,000 cases in India as compared to 20,000 last year.’ He puts the current market at less than 200,000 cases but predicts the market coming back on track once the recession is over, soon.
That should be a comforting thought for many people who are as depressed as he has been. But his optimistic targets might be a wake up alarm for his competitors who are simply waiting for the economic situation to get better.
Subhash Arora |