This exclusive gathering held at the Malabar restaurant at the Taj Land’s End Hotel Bandra on 25 October, 2023, captivated its audience by unveiling the latest treasures from the Indian wine world.

Perhaps the largest gathering of Indian wineries ever, saw 23 wineries participating. The professionally handled event had a simple format with each winery having an individual table to display its wares. Stalwarts like Sula, Fratelli, Grover Zampa, Reveilo, York (Subsidiary of Sula) and Chandon featured their latest releases while the upcoming players such as Oakwood, Virgin Hills, Good Drop, Big Banyan, Seven Peaks and Soma  showcased some interesting labels too. Noteworthy was Vishanth, a new boutique winery that has just launched varietal wines.

The most significant growth however was seen in the non-grape wine category (meads and fruit wines) with meaderies such as Moonshine, Cerana and Primer, and fruit wine producers such as Rhythm, Resvera, Fruzzante, Wildcraft, Wild Harvest, Pomona & Siquera putting their best foot forward, showcasing their latest and the best.

A first of its kind event

Speaking at the event the secretary of WineGAI and Founder of Good Drop Wine Cellars, Ashwin Rodrigues said, “For the first time, the Indian wine industry organised an event exclusively dedicated to trade and media. The need was felt for the industry to have its own voice through its very own event, where the new vintage as well as new releases could be offered for tasting.’’

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There was an air of disbelief and excitement at the Tasting, says Ashwin. ‘People loved the energy and positive vibes at the event. People came to us and asked us how they could get linked with the project or what they could do to make it even more exciting next year.’

The Association proposes to make it an annual event. In its first year it was held in Mumbai, while subsequent years will have multi-city editions in Mumbai, Pune, New Delhi, Bangalore, Lucknow, Kolkata and Tier 2 cities.

It was heartening to see an unprecedented 23 wineries come together on a single platform. It appears that the Indian wine story is going through a resurgence. The quality benchmark has been significantly raised over the last 5-10 years and the multiple awards won at international wine competitions are a living evidence.  The premiumisation has touched Indian wines as well.

What’s notable is the presence of several new fruit wineries, not only in Maharashtra but States like Karnataka, Kerala, UP, Himachal Pradesh and the North-east. As predicted by delWine 5 years ago, fruit wines started coming into being only 5-8 years ago and are soon catching up with the grape wines in terms of presence. With every state having good fruit production, they are here to stay and will surely become a significant part of the Indian wine story.

Masterclasses

The event featured two masterclasses hosted by Peter Csizmadia Honigh DipWSET, one for media and the second one for the hospitality trade. They featured the best wines from each winery and the latest offerings from existing as well as new and upcoming wineries.

Having personally visited almost every winery, Peter was well placed to comment on the wines and took his audience through every detail and nuance of the wines. Peter Csizmadia Honigh Peter is a wine writer based in Somerset, in the UK. As the author of The Wines of India, the OIV award winning title of The Press Publishing, he has been featured on BBC World News and in The Hindustan Times. Peter is also a Senior Judge at Decanter World Wine Awards and acted as the Regional Chair of the Asia Panel.

WineGAI- the Wine Growers Association of India, is the premier Indian association with Sula, Fratelli, Grover, Good Drop, Reveilo, Moonshine, and Virgin Hills as the founding members. It is primarily a collective voice of wineries with active brands in the wine market. The association is committed to fostering the sustainable development of the Indian wine industry through the facets of technical, marketing, policy advocacy, and social responsibility.

Kudos to WineGAI from Wineguy India and delWine for organising such an important Tasting and showcasing the diversity, variety and quality of Indian wines. They need to carry on with the same zeal into the export markets as well to showcase the flavour of Indian wines

Subhash Arora