The Hindu Business Line : US-based Sawkar Family in talks with Indian cos to market wine

A CALIFORNIA-BASED entrepreneur with investment plans in Bangalore, but no interest in IT? Dr Raghu Sawkar is the only Indian to own a vineyard and make wines in the Nappa Valley in California.

He has now come armed with a Rs 6.7-crore investment plan, and is scouting for a strategic partner to bring the Sawkar Family wines into the country.

"We're already in talks with Grover Wines and Sula Vineyards to bottle our wines," said Dr Sawkar.

Explaining the reason for tying up with a local partner to enter the country, he said that a direct marketing route would make the wine expensive with each bottle topping over Rs 1,600 a bottle, while retailing it through an Indian bottling partner would mean a drastic reduction in price at around Rs 1,050 a bottle.

Dr Sawkar is also betting on other options for bringing his wines into the country: blending with local wines.

"A 10-20 per cent of our wines mixed with local wines would change their colour and depth, thus giving a different flavour and profile." Also on the cards is a tie-up with a local restaurateur to start a wine tasting room, where consumers are educated on the nuances of wine drinking.

Despite prohibitively high duties in the country, the domestic wine market is now increasingly stocking and selling imported wines.

Sales of imported wines are estimated to be in the region of 1. 2 lakh cases per annum, while locally produced wines clock about 4.5 lakh cases annually.

Sawkar Family Vineyards stretches across 25 acres of land in the Nappa region in California, the region that soured the businesses of some traditional French grape growers.

Last year, the region recorded $10 billion worth of wine sales.

Dr Sawkar, a vascular surgeon-turned-wine maker, bought the vineyard in 1998, and bottled his first wine in 2001.

A college education in viticulture and oeneology, help him of course.

"We now make about 3,000 cases per annum, and I expect to sell some 1,000 cases here once the partnerships are firmed up," says the optimistic Dr Sawkar.

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