Wine market sees more sparkle

The impending unveiling of a range of sparkling wines from the house of French champagne major Moet & Chandon later this week is adding fizz to the still nascent sparkling wine market in the country.

The move has also added momentum to the handful of existing sparkling wine makers in the country, with Nashik Vintners, the makers of Sula wines, uncorking three refreshed labels of their made-in-India bubbly on Monday. These include a Brut and Rose Brut, both made by the Methode Traditionnelle, the traditional method used for making champagne which entails a second fermentation in the bottle which gives it the characteristic fizz. Nashik Vintners hold 65 per cent of the Indian wine market.

Moet Hennesse too is expected to launch a Brut and a Rose Brut, in Mumbai this week, and eventually across India by next year.

Both will be from Chandon, a brand currently produced only in four other countries worldwide – US, Brazil, Argentina and Australia.

In India, the company is currently bottling it at the York Winery in Nashik, but is in the process of building its own winery in neighbouring Dindori.

Huge potential

Though the current market for sparkling wines is a mere 1-2 per cent of the 1.2 million-cases-per-annum strong Indian wine market, the potential is huge. “Wine, and particularly sparkling wine, is still largely a celebration drink, and between 60 per cent and 65 per cent of all the wine consumed in India is in hotels, bars or at parties,” points out Jagdish Holkar, Chairman, Grape Processing Board. The arrival of Moet is testimony that the world is viewing this as a captive market, he adds.

Sula has launched the first ever batch of made-in-India grape seed oil, a well known and highly prized by-product of the wine-making process.

grape seed oil

The Nashik-based vintner has successfully extracted the oil after cold pressing the seeds that remain after grapes have been crushed and the juice which is used to make wine has been extracted.

“Till now we used to compost the seeds, which because of their stony nature do not decompose easily,” says Rajeev Samant, Founder and CEO, Sula Vineyards. Sula’s first production batch of extra virgin grape seed oil is around 30,000 bottles, and the company has tied up with Godrej venture Nature’s Basket for marketing it, he added.

With a distinctive nutty flavour, emollient properties and high smoke point, grape seed oil is used both for consumption as well as in the cosmetic industry. On the price front it compares with that of extra virgin olive oil.

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