When you think about it, it isn’t the least surprising. Given that Bangalore’s strong liquor links date back to well before the IT hordes came swarming in, today, the fact that there are many flourishing vineyards and wineries on the outskirts of the city and many a Bangalorean, fourth- generation or fresh off the plane/train, is drinking wine most happily, will elicit only one response: salut!
The figures look good. The city holds second place in the list of wine producing places and third place in the wine-drinking cities list. In the period from June 2012 up to June 2013, Bangalore consumed 45,000 cases which translates to 40, lakh litres of wine. Further broken down, sales of red wine constituted the larger share of that pie, at 55 per cent, while white wine stood at 40 % and rose, at a paltry 1-2 per cent. However, given that wine sales have been leaping by as much as 30% in the last few years, Pub City may well become Wine City, at some point in time.
Wine renaissance
This is actually a wine renaissance. The first wave came like an elegant surge, grandly heralded and more than a wee bit pretentious, trailing in its wake a whole new sub-caste: the wine cognoscenti, people who compared Cabernets, Merlots and Shiraz, sniffed, sipped and spat, and dispensed patronising doses of appreciation for the ambrosia under discussion. Wine and cheese evenings were all the thing. The media went mad and there was much talk of smoky aftertastes, intermixed with oak, wit and irony. Paeans were sung over many marked- up wines, cognitive connections were made with the blushful Hippocrene.
The hoi polloi, meanwhile, watched with a lot of interest. They then headed for the shops, picked up a bottle of whatever looked good and didn’t cost too much, (premium wines retail at upwards of Rs 500) and headed home. Sometimes they remembered to chill it, most times they drank it at room temperatures. So much for telling your rose from your blanc.
Somewhere in all the hype, we had lost sight of the fact that basically, wine-drinking was and is, an intensely tactile experience: you drank what looked good to your eyes and tasted even better on your tongue.
Also, we were trying too hard. Unlike in parts of the West, particularly in Europe, India does not have a wine-drinking culture, notwithstanding the legends surrounding soma. If Indians drank wine, they drank it like they drank hard liquor: before sitting down to a meal. Of course, port wines and fortified wines (sherry, Madeira, and the like) had and continue to have their own niche.
However, the times they were a-changing and naturally, things had to change too. Indians were going abroad in droves, for business and pleasure , and many of them came back with a bottle or two of wine nestled alongside the Chivas and Glenfiddich in their duty-free bags.
It was just a matter of time before someone woke up to the fact that Bangalore’s rich, loamy soil, warm days and cool nights, its temperate climate was good, maybe even ideal, for producing the best varietals of grape. Then, of course, there was no looking back.
Bangalore big on wines
Bangalore is today the third-largest wine consuming city in the country after Goa and Mumbai. There are 22 and counting wineries around Bangalore across the Nandi valley, Krishna valley and Cauvery valley areas, big names like Grovers, Red Hills, Four Seasons, Heritage and the latest crimson gleam on the Bangalore horizon, the SDU Winery.
The wine growers and vintners have their grouses but on the whole, a supportive government, the licensing path made fairly tangle-free and a spatial history of being particularly sophisticated vis-a- vis liquor, all work in Bangalore’s favour.
And so, Bangalore’s vineyards today can boast of producing Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot noir, Merlot, Pinnotage, Shiraz, Zinfadel, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc.
The Grovers are old vets, credited with having planted wine flags in Bangalore 25 years ago. Their Viognier, made from Rhone valley grape, is a perennial favourite with serious wine drinkers. Heritage Wines produces a variety that spans Cabernet, Shiraz, Chenin Blanc, bubbly wine, even a sweet red wine, and claim to have cornered 75 % of the city`s wine market sales.
Says Kapil Grover, “There are really only two states, Karnataka and Maharashtra, which are important producers of wine. Of course Maharashtra leads; they declared a wine policy almost seven years before Karnataka, which includes subsidies to the farming community to encourage them to establish wineries. But in my opinion, Bangalore is already a serious wine drinking city .“
Sheila Kumar • October 6, 2013