Should restaurants in India adopt the BYOB programme?

Gagan Sharma on the pros and cons of allowing guests to bring personal bottles of wine to accompany a restaurant meal

- Gagan Sharma

The Indian excise system is convoluted; working within - it can often be difficult. That said, it's only sensible to change with the times and follow new trends. Some states have embraced change. But bringing a personal bottle of wine to drink in a restaurant is still illegal. It's time that BYOB or 'Bring Your Own Bottle', is adopted in the country in some form. We argue for its plausibility.

Why BYOB? Why now?

COVID restricted us to our homes. Oenophiles could neither enjoy frequent shopping at duty-free outlets, nor exclusive labels available at their members-only clubs, hotels and restaurants. So suppliers and retail outlets found creative ways to serve their customers directly through online portals for better visibility and easy purchase of their wines. Vishal Kadakia, Wine Park, Mumbai, purveyor of fine wines observes, "The idea of MRP was a new learning.

That the choicest wines were available - properly stored - at such affordable prices and home delivered, was a revelation for customers." The high mark-ups charged by F&B establishments was exposed. People understandably moved away from these restaurants and patronised them sparingly. So that even now many fine wine dining outlets are struggling to return to their days of glory as people are opting for wine dinners at home.

It's more satisfying than dining out with limited choice of wines at exorbitant prices. Former president of the International Wine & Food Society's Mumbai chapter, Chintamani Kaigaonkar, well-known wine lover and collector, said, "The high mark-up on premium wines is absurd. Hotels will have to give us a rational explanation to spend that much money on wine."