FOCUS VINITALY – INDIA’S NEWLY RICH LIKE ITALIAN WINE: FROM NEW DELHI TO MUMBAI, THE DEMAND FOR WINE IS GROWING. FROM 2000 TO THE PRESENT IMPORTS HAVE INCREASED AN AVERAGE 30% PER YEAR

More wine and less whisky. According to a study by Focus Vinitaly on India’s wine consumption, there are some very positive results from the world’s second most populated country and, while India’s one billion inhabitants have long been influenced by the British, now Italians are hoping to edge their way into the consumption habits of the country’s new upper classes, which will include 3 million families by 2010.

Today, wine represents a status symbol and, “an opportunity” – explained journalist Magandeep Singh – “to explore the fascinations of Italian wines with fragrances and aromas that are totally unknown to Indian palates”.
Wines imported to India cost four times as much as local wines (12 euros versus 3.60), but with the current “reverse brain-drain” - the homeland return of many immigrants who had found wealth abroad - expensive habits and traditions picked up from European countries have also been brought back to India.

Further incentives for wine consumption have also been helped by Indian doctors who have begun advising patients to substitute whisky with wine, as well from India’s Minister of Agriculture who plans on announcing cuts in customs taxes, and, obviously, as companion to Italian cuisine that also continues to grow in popularity in India.

For now, this new commercial Mecca is being dominated by France (with 30% of all imports) and Australia (20%), followed closely by Italy (15%). New Delhi and Mumbai (that have already hosted Vinitaly India for the past three years) are the main markets in a country that spends 9 billion euros on alcoholic beverages (mostly on whisky and beer for now) and which imports only 20% of all wine that is consumed (equal to 230,000 cases).

“In January 2008” – explained the General Director of Veronafiere, Giovanni Mantovani – “the two stops in India registered an increase in buyers of 50% compared to 2007: a performance that signals how opportune it is to be there to collect the fruits of a market with potentially enormous dimensions”.

The Director of Sviluppo Progetti Vino di Buonitalia, Giorgio Serra, has a similar opinion: “since 2000, the consumption of wine has registered an annual growth rate of 30%, the highest value among the alcoholic beverages sector. In India, in fact, for the younger generations, drinking a good glass of wine during a meal is becoming a real trend”.