English Wines, Fine Italian Wine and Argentinian Wine Merchant

 India

India isn’t a well-known maker of wine in the Western world, but it has been making wine for centuries. It was Persian traders who introduced India to grapes somewhere around 4000 BC. However, it wasn’t until the arrival of the Aryans that the vineyards began to grow wine grapes instead of table grapes.

Wine was initially enjoyed by the nobles in India. It was said that Jahangir, a Mughal ruler, loved brandy wine. Port style wines came to the region when India was a colony of Portugal. In fact, colonization by the Portuguese and then the British did much to move India’s wine industry along. Under the British, vineyards were planted throughout the Kashmir and Surat regions and the world began to discover Indian wines in the late 1800s, until phylloxera destroyed the vineyards.

When India gained its independence, the wine industry slowly shut down and vineyards shifted away from wine grapes and back to table grape and raisin production. The India Constitution prohibited the sale of alcohol, which really took hold in the 1950s.

It wasn’t until the 1980s that wine began to flow again in any great quantity from India. With the help of the French, new vineyards were planted, including Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Part of the renaissance of the industry was due to the growth of the middle class in India and new economic vitality, as Indians had more discretionary income and could afford wine. Religious pressures also subsided, further fueling the wine industry.

Most of India is not conducive to growing wine grapes, so the available land is at a premium. Punjab, Kashmir, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Goa and Karnataka are all good growing regions, however. The hot climate requires that a lot of the vineyards be planted in the higher elevations, all the way up to 3,300 feet in Kashmir. Of course, the tropical heat works in the grape’s favor, as some regions allow grapes to be harvested twice a year.

While many French grapes are represented in India’s wines, there are also some native grapes, including Anabeshahi, Arkavati and Arkashyam. The most widely grown grape is Sultana from Turkey, which covers more than half of all the acreage dedicated to wine.

India wines aren’t always easy to find outside of India, but if you find some, know that they can be an exciting discovery. After a little trial and error, chances are good that you’ll find some India wines that are well worth the investment.