There has been no culture of wine drinking in India so Indian wine production is still in an unknown territory. The Indian consumer has begun to understand the difference between good and bad wines only now even though wine production started in India in 1980s. Most of the Indian wine is produced in Maharashtra and Karnataka and the entire wine market in India stands only at Rs. 2000crore.
Indian wines presently are being produced without standards so there is no guarantee of their quality. Since there are no standards, the grape growers do not grow grapes based on those standards and wineries produce wines as they deem fit and without standards. However, the Indian Grape Processing Board (IGPB), which has members from the private as well as the public sector, has formulated standards which it has forwarded to the Ministry of Food Processing.
Since India has joined the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) the proposed standards are probably based on the guidelines set by OIV. However, IGPB has also kept in mind the food regulations as established by FSSAI.
The standards are now being examined by the scientific committee to whom the proposals have been sent by the FSSAI. The labelling committee is also examining the proposals before they can become standards. However, wine producers are worried that the standards may not be ready before the 1st July 2015 deadline. Wine producers have to conform to the new standards before this date if they want to continue to sell their wine in India.
The wine industry produces various kinds of wine which includes dry wine, sparkling wine, sweet wine and liqueur wine and none of these has standards individually or collectively. Since each of the wines has a different production procedure, the standards will have to define this also. There are also many wines that are imported. Wine is produced with various types of ingredients like Fruits, Sugar, Yeast, Acids, salts. Standards have to be set for all these ingredients.
The standards that are to come into effect by July 1, 2015 are presently being studied by the various committees. The standards would come into force only after the FSSAI receives the reports from the various committees and then drafts a notification to place in the public domain. However, there is still a lot of work to be done as wine does not even have a proper definition yet seeing that there are various types of wines.
Besides having standards another very important point about wines is that if they are not handled properly they can deteriorate. While the wine producers can ensure compliance but the wine is out of their hands once it leaves the wineries. They have no way to see that it is being handled and stored properly to maintain the flavour and quality.
The IGPB would like that the wineries to be checked periodically and audits carried out just like in France to maintain a high quality in Indian wines. Once the Indian standards come into effect inferior quality oxidized wines and sub standard wines from overseas would no longer be permitted to be sold here. Standards are also important to ensure that consumers are drinking safe wine that has a beneficial effect on their health.
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