Top 100 wines of India - Page 3

Discovering the wine region of India

India is an emerging wine economy, both in terms of production and consumption, and has the potential to become a major player on the global wine scene. This is because the country has consistently experienced the highest growth in consumption in the world, at around 20-30% per annum between 2002 and 2010. To meet this demand, a significant amount of wine is imported every year, but India also has a set of well-established and evolving domestic wineries. Historically, the introduction of grapes to the Indian subcontinent and the subsequent proliferation of viticulture came from Persia in 500 B.

C. There is no evidence that commercial viticulture existed before the 19th century, when British colonialists supported the establishment of a local source of supply. However, just as the embryonic wine industry was beginning to take shape, it suffered a devastating blow from the outbreak of Phylloxera. Religious and cultural vetoes on Alcohol consumption also proved to be a difficult challenge to the growth of Indian wine after independence from Britain.

This continues to be the case in many parts of the country, where prohibition is enforced through local laws. Despite these obstacles, the Indian wine industry expanded on a large scale in the late 1980s and early 1990s, due to globalization and liberal economic measures, as well as notable initiatives in modern viticulture by producers such as Chateau Indage - India's first commercial winery. The current boom in wine consumption is largely due to the growth of an affluent 'middle class'. Due to its geographical location, India is not an easy place for large-scale viticulture.