Australian wines looking for love in India

By Richard CALVER

I LOVE a good Indian curry, especially as the weather warms up.

An internet search on the phenomenon of hot food leading to a cooler body temperature derives the proposition that, given the right ambient temperature conditions (especially lower humidity), the ingestion of hot food or a hot beverage is more likely to lower your body temperature than a cold equivalent.

But curry comes with its own issues if too hot. In that case, it’s like throwing yourself at someone who has no interest in you: you get burned in the end.

Recently, the embrace of all things Indian has taken a big step: implementation of the Australia/India free trade agreement occurred from December 29. This news means that Australian wines have a better chance of landing a market in India.

That said, the agreement does not end the current high-tariff regime imposed by India on Australian wine. Instead, the current 150 per cent import duty for wines will be reduced in a decadeslong phasing down over different price points.

A New Delhi journal, the “Business Standard”, in a January 3 article described the reduction thus: “Tariffs on wine with a minimum import price of $5 per bottle will be reduced from 150 to 100 per cent once the deal is implemented and subsequently to 50 per cent over 10 years. The duty on bottles with a minimum import price of $15 will be reduced to 75 per cent, and subsequently to 25 per cent over 10 years.”

No wonder the applause from Australian winemakers was muted, with one winemaker indicating that the opening up of this market was no silver bullet for the loss of exports caused by the 2021 China import penalty of up to 200 per cent. This was particularly the case, he was reported as saying, because a large percentage of the population of India doesn’t drink alcohol.

Another Indian journal mentioned that the growing Indian middle class was responsible for an upsurge in wine drinking, especially during the pandemic, and that locally “the industry is expected to grow by $274 million by 2026, with a 29.3 per cent year-on-year growth in 2022, thanks to a rosé renaissance, a focus on sustainability and a growing base of enthusiastic consumers.”

But, on the other hand, given the prevalence of Hinduism in India, it is unlikely that alcohol consumption will grow at a great rate. One website said that some Hindu sects forbade its consumption while others gave it an ambivalent nod.

So is there really a growing “enthusiastic base of wine customers”?

I decided to ask Pooja Ahuja (love the way her name rhymes), one of the owners of a curry spot, Bollywood Masala, in Kingston, who came down on the “no” side.

She said: “As being born in India, I can vouch that India is not dominated by wine lovers.

“They will always prefer hard liquor over wine any day and the reasons could be their tight budget limitation and easy availability of hard liquor.

“Also, India has a handful of vineyards only. Because of that the wine culture has not been popularised. And it is axiomatic that an uncorked wine bottle won’t taste as good as an opened bottle of hard liquor because hard liquor remains viable for a longer period.

“Even though wine is a fermented alcohol there’s a visible dichotomy in the mindsets of people as wine is considered elite and this is also one of the many reasons why wine is not popular in the Indian culture.”