Craig Wedge shares his views on the wine events and visitors response to it.

Over the last month I have been fortunate to have been invited to 2 wine events hosted in Mumbai. The first of these wonderful wine tastings under the mantle of ‘Les 5’ was a re-acquaintance for me with 5 special producers from the Bordeaux wine region of France. Special in so much, first time this programme had been conducted in Mumbai, and as such, confirmed my suspicion that even the highest achievers in the wine world were coveting India as a market. A small ensemble of journalists, foodies and winos from stand alone restaurants and 5 star hotels were in attendance. The second of these events and something on a grander scale was an event named Vinitaly. So here it was! A fabulous collection of near on 60 wine producers, with nearly 1000 wines from every nook and cranny of Italy, in India to showcase their products. They came in their droves, in vehicles of all shapes and sizes. I drove a bus with 16 on board licking my lips in anticipation of the afternoon that was to open up in front of us. I had booked into seminars on wines from Sicily and Montalcino. I had pre warned people I was arriving with a posy of service staff thirsty for knowledge and eager to understand what it was that could make a grown man like me all a quiver with excitement about so many wines in one place. We arrived like a tsunami; the crew from the JW were here!

It was bright lights city! An absolutely fabulous setup! Nothing was amiss as far as I could ascertain. This was for all intents and purposes a world class event right in the middle of Mumbai.

But something was amiss. Where were the people? Joe public was lamentably absent from the event.

I was confident that something as dynamic as wine, would pull a big crowd eager to try what was hot in Italy. I at least thought that all of that booze under one roof would be like honey to a bear. But alas they were not to be. I immediately thought of that one tag line from the Kevin Costner B grade movie Field of Dreams, “Build it and they will come”
It was …. And they didn’t!!

I assure you I did my best for all that were absent, yet alas, I was somewhat disturbed that these people had invested considerable money and time to be here, yet Mumbai, both professional and personal, had failed to live up to the expectations of the wine makers and vineyard owners that were coveting India as the newest super wine market. The general consensus around the room was that this event was world class, that the intended marketing goals for each of their wines may have been a partial flight of fancy, yet each goal was sound and achievable, that Mumbai and India as a whole, even though a new player on the global wine market, was a fantastic launching ground for both new wine producers, and a re-acquaintance and consolidation of the market for those that had come before. But where were the people?

It is a sad enough affair that we deal with idiosyncratic legislation set in place to erode the development and health of the imported wine industry, yet even this falls short of the regrettable lack of enthusiasm from the wine drinking populous. It is events like this and many more of them that are bound our way, whose intrinsic modus operendi is to expose you, the unsuspecting wine drinking public, to the beauty that is the outside world of wine. It is only through exposing you, the people, time and time again to the wine of the world where it is has been at the very heart and soul of civilisation for countless thousands of years, will you hopefully understand and gain the knowledge that empowers you to make more informed decisions on the wines you drink and further enables you to discern what is good quality and what is not.

In the end, it is the power of these people that will force the local industry to take note and gauge themselves against the wine benchmarks from the outside world, and truly see themselves for the products they produce.

Come on people!

By not getting behind the imported wine industry, by not attending these fabulous events in your droves, you are allowing mediocrity to rise to the surface and be accepted as the norm.

The light is on, and someone is home!!

You just have to knock!


Craig Wedge is the Global Wine Consultant at J W Marriott, Mumbai
 

Courtesy:  http://www.ambrosiaindia.com