Sparkling Wine Calls The Shots!

Growing consumer inclination towards global brands and beverages with less alcohol content has turned out to be a great proposition for existing wine players and new entrants to play with innovative flavours and introduce finer qualities of wine in the country.

In a conversation with Progressive Grocer India, Domenico Scimone, General Manager at Carpenè Malvolti S.p.a, shares his views on how new trends and consumptions patterns are shaping the growth of sparkling wines.

What are your views about the global wine industry? What is fueling the growth of wines globally?

At the moment, the wine market is more or less stable everywhere, globally. There is only one category that has continued to grow in the last three years and that is sparkling wine – thanks to their superior quality. In fact, the sparkling wine category is just eight per cent of the total wine production of the world.

The sparkling wine category includes champagne, white wine, cava, etc. The market for champagne is much more stable in terms of volume in the last three years. The second is the cava category, which is moving at a normal pace of five per cent. Today, the consumption of sparkling wine is not limited to occasions like ‘Thanksgiving’. Rather, developed taste preferences have made it a usual drink.

How is the Indian wine industry doing? What are your plans for the Indian market?

We entered the country seven years ago with Aspri Spirits as our distribution partners. I believe India is a potential country in all aspects to produce and also to understand consumption trends. However, at the moment, our winery is not planning to invest in the country; rather we are planning to strengthen our brand presence in the country.

Currently, we are present in around 65 countries across the globe. In Asian countries like India, our goal is to improve our distribution and positioning. The most important part of our plan is to position our Prosecco superior wine in India, which is our finest sparkling wine and we want to build a strong brand image and demand for it. Secondly, we would like to add new variants such as grappa and brandy to our distribution channel in India.