Grape expectations

India is learning to love wine again. Now, there's a well-curated wine bar with free tastings, new labels, more fun, less fuss. And possibly better prices too

- VIR SANGHVI

If you are a wine-lover of a certain age, you may remember a time, around 15 years ago, when the world's great winemakers beat a path to India. When the government decided that wine-drinking was to be encouraged and lowered duties. Nearly every fortnight, there was a wine-dinner in one of India's big cities, where food was paired with great wines from Italy, France, America and Australia.

Yes, it was a long time ago. And it won't happen again. What happened was this: China had emerged as the great new market for top-class wine. It was hard to get bottles of Chateau Lafite Rothschild, one of the world's greatest wines, because the Chinese had developed a thirst for it. Winemakers believed India was the new China, and they had to establish their brands quickly.

But even as Indian wine-lovers got used to being courted by Chateau Margaux and Chateau Latour, by Sassicaia and Penfold's The Grange, things began to change. States levied taxes that made the centre's duty-free concessions seem less and less relevant. The rupee began its downward slide, and imported wine seemed more expensive.

And Indians, it became clear, were happy to spend money on whiskey and Johnnie Walker Blue Label, which were savoured over time, but not on a single bottle of wine, which had to be consumed at a single sitting.