India's Wines Growing Love for

Changing tastes of Indians in their drinking preferences has resulted in changing fortunes of the Indian wine industry.

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The indigenous wine industry is seeing a constant growth in demand in the country. One of the reasons for the increased wine consumption in India during the recent years is perhaps due to reports of wine being good for your health.

Today there is a variety of wines — Indian as well as foreign— available in the Indian market. Ashok Malkani examines various aspects of this age-old but forever new beverage, which is becoming popular with the young and the old alike in the metros and mini metros of the country.

Price-wise, most other alcoholic drinks are not only cheaper than wines but also are more intoxicating. This is a detriment in a country like India, where the market is largely price-sensitive and where alcoholic drinkers, by and large, prefer hard drinks which can give a good ‘kick’ of headiness. But despite all these, nowadays in urban India, we are increasingly seeing that not only the elites but also the laymen are consuming wines with increasing frequency.

Wine has been perceived as an elitist drink in India, but slowly and surely, this erroneous perception is undergoing change. The rise in disposable incomes in select but sizeable pockets of urban Indian society during the last decade; the growing awareness and fascination in the country towards international food & beverage trends, which again is fostered by increased exposure to Internet, television and overseas travel as compared to a decade before; a demographic ratio tilted heavily in favour of the young population; and growing economic and social independence of women have all contributed to the increasing wine consumption in the country. Perhaps the knowledge about the health connotation of wine intake has also contributed to this trend.