Pics by Adil Arora

The venue was buzzing with importers, sommeliers, restaurateurs and other wine and spirits professionals, milling around and tasting the offerings, though the number of exhibitors at 11 was smaller than the previous year and the crowd seemed to be thinner, perhaps because the time for tasting was rightly increased to 4 hours, compared to the usual 2 hours.

The following 11 exhibitors participated in the Delhi event whereas 8 exhibitors including the Champagne House G.H. Martel with 13 samples opted for Mumbai only as did 7 others- a total of 19 producers have opted for Tasting in Delhi and Mumbai.

1.       Collection Tramier:  export@collection-tramier.fr

2.       Domaine Andre Brunel: fabrice.brunel@andre.brunel.fr

3.       Alma Cersius: dir.commercoial@almacercius.com

4.       Vignobles Vellas: Julia-export@Vignobles-vellas.com

5.       BWine: Nathalie.Lagrue@bwine-bordeaux.com

6.       Chateau  Charmail: business@bifrost.global

7.       Le Fleur de Bouard: business@bifrost.global

8.       La Vintage Company: bgarineau@lavintagecompany.com

9.       Les Vignerons Réunis de Monségur rose-marie@cave-de-monsegur.com

10.   TUTIAC : Jyoti.sekhri@tutiac.com, anne-cogny@tutiac.com

11.   Les Producteurs Réunis: Julia.kalinicheva@lespruducteursreunis.com

With the ever increasing experience of addressing the Delhi wine stakeholders, the event was very well organised with tasting rather comfortable and giving a serious importer an opportunity to interact with the exhibitor and taste most wines of interest during the time that was thankfully increased this year to 4 hours.

Also Read : Tasting France in Delhi with Tastin’France

Wines were generally in the affordable range of €2-6 though champagnes were a bit expensive- from €16-30. A point in favour of the producers was that Champagne has become much more expensive during the last 3 years and like Burgundy, generally too hot to handle. There were quite a few wines in the €2-4 range that would go very well with the pocket and palate of French wine lovers in India despite very high duties. There was a wide featuring Vins de France, IGP (Indication Géographique Protégée), and AOP (Appellation d’Origine Protégée) wines to taste.

An enormous range was offered by TUTIAC, a 50-year old cooperative having about 500 winegrowers and 150 Bordeaux Chateaux under its wing, giving a wide choice to the buyers at prices starting at €2 with a choice of better quality at €2-3. No wonder, Anne Cogny, the global Export Manager was very happy with people waiting to taste their wines and was hopeful of developing contacts and some resulting in orders. ‘We know India is a tough market but we are here for the long haul as we strongly believe we have a range and price for every pocket and a quality at all price points,’

Also Read : Business France: Tasting France at the French Embassy

Mumbai will be even better for the visitors as the Prowine is for 2 days (8-9 November) and many more serious importers and restaurant owners are likely to visit for the Tasting and negotiations. Delhi market has been in some disarray due to inexplicable and obscure excise policies in the recent past that made many of the importers and restaurateurs stay away from the Tasting.

Also Read : TASTING FRANCE: A Wine Tasting courtesy Business France

The event was organized by Business France, the national French agency supporting the international development of the French economy. It was founded on restructuring and merging UBFrance with ‘Invest in France’ Agency in 2015 and has continued to organise the event at the French embassy Main Hall for the last several years. The event has become a must-visit on the calendar of every wine lover in Delhi.

Also Read : Tasting: India Wine & Spirits Tour 2013 from France

Estelle David, Trade Commissioner of France, and Head of Business France in India was at hand to meet the producers and also Tasters if they had any issues to discuss. As always Vianney Meynier, the familiar face at this Tasting and who used to visit from Bangalore, was present and seen interacting with all the familiar faces from previous occasions.

Here is the list of all the participants in Delhi and Mumbai with their URLs for reference.

BWINE, CHÂTEAU LA FRANCE & CHÂTEAU DE SEGUIN | COLLECTION TRAMIER| TUTIAC| LGI WINES | LES VIGNERONS REUNIS DE MONSEGUR | ALMA CERSIUS | VIGNOBLES VELLAS | DOMAINE ANDRE BRUNEL | LA VINTAGE COMPANY | CHAMPAGNE G.H MARTEL & CO | FRENCHIES WINES | LES PRODUCTEURS REUNIS | DISTILLERIE DES MOISANS | FIWINE BORDEAUX / FINESTWINE.COM| CHÂTEAU CHARMAIL | CHATEAU LA FLEUR DE BOÜARD | SLAUR SARDET | BOYER – DE BAR

Subhash Arora