Austrian wine cos keen to tap India

Austria is a beautiful country, the kind of place where you can, at a pinch, write a couple of sonnets without really straining yourself too much.

The wine that the country produces, such is its quality, could also help in composing those sonnets. And this wine may soon be available in India even though Austria is a relatively small wine producing country - less than 1 per cent of the world's wine is made here - and a large amount is consumed internally.

Export of wine from Austria is a new thrust area, and India is one of the few countries it is exploring with eager intent.

As a never-before initiative, almost 12 owners of wineries have come together as a "family" to explore the Indian market for top-end wines here. And since Austrian wineries tend towards smallness, it makes business sense to collaborate for the export market.

Says Brigit Braunstein, whose family has been in this business for four centuries, "India is becoming a wine drinking country. And we are in the high quality wine business and we feel that wine can be an ambassador for Austria." Particularly since Austrian wines tend to pair well with Indian food.

Business, the group affirms, isn't the only objective of their trip to India. Says Hans Moser, "This venture will hopefully be a learning process between two cultures. We want a long-term relationship."

And the group has already put their money where their mouth is by donating to an orphanage in Dehra Dun as the starting point of the charitable work they will be doing in India.

The group is hoping the interest in Austrian wines will trigger an interest in the country of its origin. Says Georg Grill who, like the rest of the group, owns a vineyard, "Austria has 6,000 vineyards that make quality wines and when you land in Vienna, the first vineyard is not even a 10-minute drive away."

The Austrians, gung-ho as they are on the Indian market, haven't formalised when their wines will be available here. Though a wine-tasting event was held this week, the wines are likely to be launched only later in the year.

As one F&B manager of a prominent Delhi hotel put it, "Their wines are good and young, and they will work very well for first-time wine drinkers. There is a young feel about these wines." Is it just a coincidence that India too is a young wine-drinking nation?