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October 2009 - Posts
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Celebrate Bandra brings you an exquisite Wine Tasting Experience. An
occasion designed to inculcate an informed appreciation for wine and
the processes of winemaking.
There will be a total of 13
wineries participating, each offering first hand knowledge and tasting
advice. There will be live music
and fine gourmet on offer. There will be a selection of food outlets
serving specialities from the kitchens of Zenzi, Mia Cuccina, Kakori
House and Flora Caterers.
The wine tasting begins at 11:30 am on
the 15th of November and ends at 10:00 pm the same day. It will be held
on the D.P.R.C. grounds [D’Monte Park, Bandra]. Please feel free to
e-mail us at celebratebandra09@gmail.com should you wish to book your
gourment lunch/dinner or purchase your wine appreciation kits in
advance
More: mumbaireadyreckoner.com
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France has said that the dispute with India over import duty on wines and
spirits would be sorted out through discussions without approaching the WTO.
The European Union (EU) had recently threatened to drag India to the WTO if taxes on wines and spirits imported from Europe are not slashed.
Foreign Trade Minister of France Anne Marie Idrac says,
“We are sure that arrangements can be found between Indian producers and Europeans, especially French producers.” In 2007 India had slashed the additional customs duty it charged on imported spirits, up to 150% of value of imports in some case, but simultaneously hiked the basic customs duties to 150% from 100%.
Prior to this, the European Commission had dragged India to WTO in 2007 seeking redress of its grievances which included what it called denial of ‘national treatment’ to liquor imported from Europe. More: Economic Times
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Sula continues to experiment with new varietals, engage in sustainable
agriculture, support the local rural economy, and, of course, make
wines of outstanding quality and superb value. Sula Vineyards launch Mosaic Wines Sula Vineyards launch a new wine varietal called Mosaic for the Indian market. These
are fruity wines with soft tannins for everyday drinking. The consumer
is getting varietal wines at a great price. Once again Sula is a
pioneer in creating a wholly new category! The wines are all blends of
classic grape varieties, hence the “MOSAIC”! Sula Mosaic wines fit
perfectly into the Mosaic of Life with great food, friends and
conversation. Anywhere, anytime!
• Sula’s White Mosaic of Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc pairs well with fish and summer salads. Serve well chilled.
• Sula’s Red Mosaic of Grenache and Syrah pairs well with kebabs and curries. Serve lightly chilled.
• Sula’s Rose Mosaic of Grenache and Syrah pairs well with anything really, on a warm day. Serve well chilled. More: IndiaPRLine.com
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Sula Wines plans to: - Add acreages under contract farming
- Increase capacity at its facilities
- Introduce mid-priced range
to attract wine lovers.
Currently, Sula sells about 2.75 lakh cases annually. The Indian wine
market stands at 1.2 million cases (one case has 12 bottles of 750 ml
each). Sula’s brands are priced at Rs 400 and above. However, Samara is priced
at Rs 150 for 750 ml. The company is looking at increasing its production from 45
lakh litres to 52 lakh litres. This would entail an investment of Rs
four to five crore. Sula has a wide national distribution network
within India. It exports its wines and also imports and distributes
wines from leading producers worldwide.
Rajeev Samant, CEO Sula Wines said, “The hiccup
caused by the slowdown has almost come to an end. Our market share has
grown to about 30 per cent of the total cases sold in India. We are
looking to grow aggressively for the current year.”
The Rs 70-crore company is targeting a 20-per cent growth for the current year. Sula has 1,500 acres under contract farming. “We will be increasing it by 20 per cent to meet the demand for quality wines,” he said adding varietals planted include Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Zinfandel and Merlot along with Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier and Riesling. More: Hospitality Biz India
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Recession took care of
corporate snobbery
Rajeev Samant has a reason to smile: Out of every ten wines
moving in five-star hotels, five are Indian - recession took care of
corporate snobbery. The normally ebullient entrepreneur says India's wine market, which
had been growing year on year, dropped by 20 per cent between August
2008 and July 2009. Economic slowdown meant corporate honchos partied
far less and private entertaining hit rock bottom.
Hotels pared down their wine lists and stopped
buying any label that cost them more than Rs 1,500. Maharashtra's newly
minted wine companies; as a result, face gloom and doom, and wine grape
prices have slipped from Rs 30 to Rs 25 a kilo.
"The wine business just went into the pause mode," says Samant, but
he's quick to add that the last two months have been positive.
The industry, though, has grasped the reality the hard way. More: IndiaToday
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spri Spirits Private Limited, one of India’s leading importers and distributors of premium Wines, beers and spirits has introduced to India the finest & premium range of Nederburg Wines from South Africa.
Nederburg is South Africa’s leading and most ornamented winery, winner of many international & domestic awards, more than any other winery in South Africa. Nederburg is a part of Distell group, which is listed on the JSE Securities Exchange and counts for about 40% of wine market share in South Africa.
Aspri will initially focus on “The Wine Masters Reserve”, the premium range from the Nederburg stable the Shiraz, Pinotage and the Sauvignon Blanc. Shiraz is dark ruby in colour and has rich aromas of ripe plums, berries and oak spice with a hint of cigar box. The wine is rich and full bodied with ripe plums, new leather and a good tannic structure. The wine has been matured for a period 18 months and has a good maturation potential of 7 to 10 years. This varietal is available in 750ml with end consumer price of Rs 2398 in Mumbai. Pinotage is ruby in colour with purple edges.
This wine has a plum and cherry fruitiness with slight oak spices in the background. It is well balanced and has rich fruit flavours with soft tannins and a lingering aftertaste. The wine has been matured for a period 12 months. Available in 750ml, Pinotage is priced at Rs 2398 in Mumbai.
Sauvignon Blanc is brilliant lime green in colour and has a distinctive vibrant grassy and gooseberry aroma with a hint of herbaceous nuances and ripe citrus. The wine has a wonderfully balanced palate with a lingering pleasant finish. Available in 750ml, Sauvignon Blanc is priced at Rs 2167 in Mumbai. Nederburg wines also educate you in the ethnic way on the right food combinations with these three variants of wines.
Shiraz goes best with robust meat dishes like the spicy lamb, Indian Sheekh kebabs, Souvlaki or traditional roasts and barbecued steak. Pinotage serves best with pastas, pizzas, roast leg, bobotie or even chocolates. Sauvignon Blanc is best when teamed up with sea food, creamy fish and chicken dishes.
For over 200 years, Nederburg has been celebrated internationally for exceptional quality, while earning the status of one of South Africa’s best-loved wineries. Nederburg’s multi-tiered variant has been structured to appeal to a broad range of wine lovers, from connoisseurs and collectors to those seeking everyday drinking pleasure.Established in 2004, Aspri Spirits Private Limited is one of the leading distributors of premium wines, spirits and beer in India. The company is promoted by Jackie Matai and Arun Kumar. Aspri Spirits has it’s headquarter in Mumbai and branches in Delhi and Bangalore.
http://www.ambrosiaindia.com
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Vinsura wines, the prime quality wines from Nashik, India are a brand product of Sankalp Winery Pvt. Ltd which was formed by passionate horticulturists who brought a dream from France to Vinchur Wine Park.
 Vinsura in expanded form would mean Sura, of Vinchur. Vinchur is a small hamlet adjoining the Wine Park, and Sura in Sanskrit means wine. The pharmacological value of wine is well known since antiquity. “Considering these two prominent factors, i.e. the location of the winery and the ancient nomenclature of this beverage, The company decided to brand our product as ‘ Vinsura’, says Nitin Mohite, Director - Sales & Marketing, Vinsura Wines.
“Wine is our passion and we strive to go beyond the simple act of finding commercially viable wines, by insisting that there are also wines which appeal to us collectively and individually and which we ourselves would like to buy and keep for our own consumption. We have our Vineyards for self dependence,” adds Mohite.
About his company’s brand portfolio he says the fastest growing brands at present are Vinsura Brut (Sparkling Wine ),Vinsura Zinfandel ( Red Wine ) and Vinsura Rose ( Pink Wine ). The growth has been good and balanced in the year 2008 – 2009 and it is 15per cent in comparison to last year (2007 -2008), Mohite informs.
`Our turnover in terms of sales volume has been 21700 cases and on the initiative part we plans to launch few Blends which are not available in the market as well as initiated some of the international markets who really appreciated the trial consignments of the Vinsura,” he adds. On the company’s expansion plans Mohite is sanguine about the company’s expansion plans which plans to invest Rs.5 crore shortly
Asked about the latest additions to his company’s portfolio, Mohite says, “We are adding the “reserve” category wines in our portfolio i.e. Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon and Reserve Shiraz.”
Commenting on the trends on the Indian market relating to consumption of wine, Mohite feels, “So far consumption of wine is very low in India compared to other foreign countries. Merely metro like Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore are having the awareness of what ‘wine’ is all about.” It’s very seasonal too (states like Rajasthan, Goa, Kerala etc. where wine gets consumed by the foreign tourists during their visits to India).
Generally people enjoy wines during parties and its still facing the social acceptance. Only those are really health conscious and having other drinks generally shift to wine or many of the beginners who start drinking alcohol for the first time prefer to go for wine because of the less percentage of alcohol. Indian wine makers have to take initiatives to develop the culture of wine and making consumers aware about it by doing wine festivals across the country, not only in metros but in two tier and three tier cities also.
Again it’s still not affordable for those who really want to go for wine because of the high price tag.
Government rules and regulations has been the strongest constraint in the domestic wine industry recently, says Mohite. Because each state has their own policy for the wine, though the volume is very small they consider wine is a liquor category, which is keep changing every year. E.g. Change in the Excise Policy in states like Karnataka, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan etc. which force small players to go out of market and also force to make wine more costlier too. There must be a uniform policy particularly for the wine because volume of the wine in terms of sale is very small compare to Beer, Whisky, Rum, Vodka etc.
If a situation like this arises, we will try to reduce the cost of raw materials and marketing expenses to cope up with any losses incurred, he adds. Liquidation of the old stock is one of the foremost reasons why the entry level wines are launched by major wine companies.The Indian climate has nurtured the growth of grape varieties like Zinfandel, Chenin Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, he feels.
Mohite feels it isn’t the right time for the new importers to enter the market. The future of imported wine brands in India depends on Government policies.
http://www.ambrosiaindia.com
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Fruit is not the only source of natural sugar that will turn into alcohol without any help from anything except wild yeasts. Ripe fruit can, and will, ferment spontaneously as yeast arrive to grab
the sugar in the fruit and flood the surroundings with alcohol to keep
their rivals away. If you walk
through an untended apple orchard in the autumn, after the apples have
fallen from the trees and been lying on the ground, the scent of cider
will envelop you, as yeasts attack the rotting fruit. Right now, I’m in
a Middle Eastern city where thousands of date palms line every road,
and in the evening the strong smell of vinegar is on the warm air: this
is because dates that have fallen to the ground have fermented, and
then gone on to the next stage, where alcohol is converted by
specialist bacteria into acetic acid.
In order of age, the first fermented drinks were fruit-based, followed
by honey-based drinks – mead and its variants – next fermented sweet
tree-sap drinks such as palm wine, and only fourth, beer. More: Zythophile
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The European Union has warned that it will drag India to the World
Trade Organisation if New Delhi does not slash taxes on wines and
spirits imported from Europe.
The European Commission had earlier taken India to WTO in 2007
seeking redressal of its grievances which included what it called
denial of 'national treatment' to liquor imported from Europe.
Under the national treatment rules, the imported products have to be treated at par with domestic items.
The WTO consultation process on the issue was suspended following
some corrective actions by New Delhi in 2007. However, the 27-nation
bloc which produces some of the finest wines and Scotch whisky in the
world is not completely satisfied because of the increase in basic
duty.
Over and above the import levies, states like Goa, Tamil Nadu and
Maharashtra which are the major consumers on imported wines and spirits
in India impose special fee on these products. More: Business Standard
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Indage Vintners, the erstwhile biggest wine producer of India, passing through a massive financial crisis, suffered another blow to its public image when the staff at its Corby based bottling unit in UK were sent home yesterday without pay, after not being paid for three weeks.
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Indage pre-empted the move by the employees to go on an unofficial strike and laid off about 100 employees for an unlimited period. They had not been paid salaries for three weeks. In contrast, the employees of Indage in India have not been paid salary for almost a year; many have been laid off or resigned since then, but the company has not been able to pay the salaries.
The economic situation in the town of Corby in Northamptonshire is so poor that the workers at Indage UK have promised to go back to work tomorrow if they are paid their salaries but some are not confident about the company’s future, according to a report.
On their way out yesterday, engineers and office workers told the Evening Telegraph that weekly workers had not been paid for three weeks and monthly staffs have been waiting a fortnight for their wages.
Last month the company had paid a part of the unpaid salary to some employees in its Mumbai head office because the matter had gone to the labour ministry in Maharashtra.
However, the company is laden with statutory financial liabilities running into millions of rupees, which have further straitjacketed the company as it is unable to sell its wine in most of the important markets like Delhi where it has not been able to get the excise registrations done this year.
In the meantime, the liquid gold as the company liked to call its wine, is turning into dust due to improper storage and the distributors who are owed sums running into millions, not keen to market the products further until their outstanding are cleared.
Ranjit Chougule, MD of Indage Vintners had admitted to delWine about two months ago that the salary to employees was indeed not paid but was quite optimistic that some good news would be forthcoming. However, the good news never came as the company’s efforts to rope in a strategic investor have not fructified so far.
The company had to cancel the purchase of Loxton winery in Australia earlier this year due to financial constraints after postponing the purchase and several releases to the media that it was a mutual decision. The seller eventually sued them and won the case last month when the court ordered Indage to forgo the non-refundable deposit of A$6 m and supply a substantial amount of wine from its Riverland winery Thachi which is primarily a low-end, bulk wine producer. A reliable source in the region has informed delWine that the winery has the instructions to liquidate the stocks at any cost in order to get cash.
Most analysts attribute the crisis due to the downturn in the market. But the company management and the financial jugglery has also been a major cause. Several distributors have commented adversely about the company’s book-policies of the company, already reported in delWine. But our reliable sources confirm that the wine industry in South Australia was perplexed not so much by the export of bulk wine to India, but import of Indian wines into Australia!
DelWine was one of the first in the wine media to report about the possible financial crisis the company could get into, by getting into the international buyout deals. After postponing the closure of the Loxton deal, the company also backed out of the purchase of the second UK winery- the Norwich based Broadland wineries.
However, the erstwhile Corby Distillers and the assets of the sister company Darlington were bought over in June last year and the company became a part of the Indage UK. The deal had saved 120 jobs and is reported to have about two hundred employees, half of which have been retrenched-hopefully temporarily. |
Curtsey: http://www.indianwineacademy.com
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Living Liquidz flagship store at Tata Star Bazaar, (Andheri) Mumbai has been launched as the
city’s first, largest and most eloquently designed, full spectrum liquor
store accompanied by a quaint Wine Bar ‘n’ Café with a
special selection of desserts. Offering over 1000 different types of
liquor brands and more than 300 wine labels covering every region of the world,
this venture is an initiative to make available exclusive wines, beer and more
to Indians. Within a few months of being operational, we
have also noticed an increase in women purchasing wines,” said Mangaing Director of the store, Moksh Sani
The Living Liquidz store will also offer customers free
wine tasting sessions at its Wine Bar ‘n’ Café and conduct
wine training and bartending workshops. More: The Times of India
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Fine wine investment is no longer
considered a niche market today like it was just a few years ago. “Fine
wine used to be considered a fairly exotic way of trying to achieve capital
growth. But these days, with the advent of the internet and the growing market
transparency, fine wine buying and selling is more structured and has become a
more mainstream way of achieving the aims of investors,” says
Lenagan.
With the world’s top100 wines showing remarkably consistent returns over the last 25 years and also remaining exempt of capital gains tax in many developed countries, wine is slowly but surely being regarded as one of the leading alternative asset classes and, therefore, ideal for diversification. Also, because for most of the current year, the wine investment market not only remained largely immune from the credit crunch, but in an unexpected development also continued to outperform stock indices in both the UK and the US.
“If guidelines are followed and one is prepared to hold
on for at least the medium term (over 5 years), then it’s not unreasonable
to expect returns of around 12% per annum,” says
Lenagan.
Prices of wines can be monitored on wine indices such as the
London International Vintners Exchange’s Liv-ex 100 Index, that is the
industry’s leading benchmark and is composed of the premier 100 most
sought-after fine wines, as well as the Australian Wine Index, among
others.
There is, in fact, a huge market for wine funds abroad
coupled with the authorised auction houses and wine indices for trading.
“As of now there is no such facility available in India, but the demand
for various international brands of wine is catching up here and Indian
investors keen to diversify their portfolio can do so by investing
abroad,” says Ashish Kapur, CEO, Invest Shoppe India. More: Economic Times
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Prestige
Wines & Spirits Private Limited (formerly TT&G Trading Private
Limited), an Indo-European venture has launched alcohol free white wine under the brand name of Natureo in Mumbai and Delhi. Natureo fulfils the needs of those who do not
want to drink alcohol, but still want to enjoy the taste of wine. Natureo
has 0.5 per cent alcohol by volume and is slightly sweet with 30 gm of
sugar per litre (a dry wine usually has 1-5 gms/liter). However, the
sweetness of the wine is balanced with acidity.
‘This
wine will be positioned as low calorie, low alcohol wine, preferably in
vegetarian restaurants and especially for the women,” Mr. Marc Perello,
the Brand Ambassador of Torres and Vice President, Prestige Wines and
Spirits, said. Natureo was launched in Spain last August by Torres and was the first alcohol free wine in Europe. More: FoodBizDaily.com
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Kinvah Wines Red and white wines at Rs 430/- a bottle; buy two get one free, or buy one get a free gift, and free home delivery in Bangalore :-) - Red wines: Shiraz, Manthan and Cabernet-Shiraz
- White wines: Sauvignon Chenin and Sauvignon Blanc
More: Kinvah.com
4 Seasons Wines - 12 premium wines at the special price of under $6 a bottle – normally over $15 … that’s a saving of $115!
- FREE Deluxe Lever-action Corkscrew (a $39.99 value). Complete with handy presentation stand, foil cutter.
- FREE 4 Seasons binder and information-packed tasting notes to help you get the most from every bottle.
- An exclusive 4 Seasons case reserved for you every 3 months, with no membership fees and no commitment to buy whatsoever.
- A
guaranteed minimum 20% saving on all future 4 Seasons cases. We will
tell you in advance about the wines, so you have plenty of time to
decide if you wish to take the case. You’re also free to delay delivery
or alter the mix. All future cases will be offered at just $129.95
(plus shipping & applicable tax).
- The reassurance of our 100% Money-back Guarantee. If ever a wine fails to delight, we’ll refund you in full. No problem.
More: 4seasonswine.com
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Sula's wine gift hampers are available for Diwali at all wine retail outlets in Mumbai, including: - Sante at Walkeshwar
- Phoenix,
Goregaon
- Haiko at Powai
- Godrej NBL at WTC,Warden road,Lokhandwala,
Powai
- Shoprite Mulund
- Living liquids stores
- Spencer's in Orbit
Malad.
The gift hamper: - The range includes Sparkling Wines and Chenin Blanc nip free at a price
of Rs.1364
- Sula Brut and Sula Brut Pink Sparkling Wine and Viognier
Gift Pack at Rs720
More: Imagesfood
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