Rojita Tiwari –
Indianwine.com, 28th July 2010
The Indian wine industry has recognized the importance of developing wine culture in the country. Wine festivals not only serve as the best place to convert non-wine drinkers to wine drinkers but also help boost the culture as well as wine sales in the long run.
Wine festivals are an integral aspect of any wine growing region. However, it’s just recently that India has woken up to the need of such events. Sula Wines and Chateau Indage being one of the pioneers in organizing its popular Sula Fest and Narayangaon wine festival every year has inspired many more this year.
Renowned as India’s first wine festival, Narayangaon Wine Festival follows traditional routes of the French Wine festival. Celebrations are conducted in a more formal way, but with pomp, splash and splendour. A wide range of ceremonies, starting from a walk through the vineyards to planting of individual vines is in offer. A tour of the winery is an integral part of the festivities.
Thrilling and exhilarating, with an array of celebrity guests, this wine festival is hosted by Chougule, the owner of Chateau Indage. Narayangaon Wine Festival is an exhibition of finest quality of wines that offers a rare chance to taste all the vines on display. The actual spirit behind this unique celebration is to promote a wine culture with tourism. Zampa wines had recently organized a
Zampa Crush Festival in Nashik. The event attracted around 450 guests having a day full of fun and frolic. Zampa Wines promoters Ravi Jain, Deepak Roy and Neeraj Deorah played gracious hosts and regaled their guests with loads of amusing activities which included zany grape crushing, a soothing foot spa at the top of the hill, live performance by JUNKT and a scintillating tour of the stunning vineyard. Grape stomping uplifted the spirits of wine enthusiasts Ashwin Deo, Kishen Mulchandani, Naaz and Remu Zhaveri and Shamita Singha as they were seen reveling in the wines and immersing themselves in an afternoon of sheer pleasure.
There was private wine tasting at their cellar where guests pleased their palette with some unique wine straight from the barrel by Zampa’s South African winemaker Nic Van Arde. Grape stomping was followed by a tour of the breathtaking winery which had everyone rushing to know more about the exquisite Zampa wines and all present breathed in the fabulous tour of the spectacular vineyards. Also seen having a gala time were Tejasvini Kolhapure, Manasi Scott, Mashoom Singha and Sanea Sheikh.
Corporate honchos Kishore Chhabria, Jaydev Mody, Mukul Kasliwal, Aditya Puri, Javed Tapia and Pradeep Shah added distinct charisma to the beautiful afternoon. According to Deepak Roy, Wine Festivals like this are important marketing fields to showcase the winery and brand. It also helps to cause wine making in a very pleasant and picnicking manner to bring consumers closer to wine and also build brand.
The whole effort of organising such an event in a very consumer-friendly way brings the concept of wine and wine making closer to consumers. Obviously the strategic intent at the back of mind is always to promote sales. Wine festivals are not done for sheer joy. As wine business expands in India, Harvest festivals will definitely become part of marketing calendar of every major wine maker. This will be in conjunction to wine tourism which is another way to promote wine culture in India, adds Roy.
Apart from the major wine producers, there are also clubs who have started organising festivals for its members and wine lovers. The Club, Mumbai, a leading private club in Mumbai suburbs had a wine festival showcasing few Indian as well as imported wine companies. This was organised by The Anada Wine Club, the only wine club in Mumbai that provides the opportunity to appreciate and promote both Indian and International wines, wine producers and wine lovers. Fresh grapes from the vineyards was trampled and stomped upon with a live band in attendance and celebrity guests. Undoubtedly, it was a visual delight to see the stomping brigade enter the vat, joyfully, crushes them and watch pure grape juice flow.
With a sumptuous spread of food by The Club and number of wines to go with, the event was a delightful one. Few of the participants were, Reveilo, Chateau Indage, Good Earth winery, FineWinesnmore etc. Fun and excitement being the key purpose behind these festivals, the SULAFEST this year roped in major bands like Jalebee Cartel, Shkabang, Something Relevant and Teddy Boy Kill to perform in its day long event in Nashik vineyard. From noon till midnight on
February 20th, Sulafest partygoers enjoyed a carnival atmosphere of music, food, wine and fleamarket shopping in the chilled environs of the winery’s beautiful open-air, Greek-style amphitheater. Spicing up this great musical line-up were eclectic food stalls that included kebabs, pastas & pizzas freshly made at Sula’s very own vineyard restaurants, washed down with a wide array of local and imported wines.
The event offered a great day out with loads of fun for the wine lovers as well as the usual visitors. Kiran Patil, the owner of Vintage wines which produces Reveilo believes in direct consumer contacts. “With the given market situation and issues with the stockists, these kind of events gives us the opportunities to do direct marketing with the consumer.” Wine festivals / events do contribute in creating and building awareness of a particular brand. The end consumer also gets a first hand experience by way of sampling the product, and to some extent, gains an insight into some more information about the product, the company, and the people behind it. These festivals also provide a platform to view all the brands absolutely, as well as, relatively, and can tell one from the other. However, she feels that wine festivals, per se, do not boost sales directly, but they do spread awareness about the category and the brand, per se, which, in turn, could enhance the sales of a particular brand, if evoked a good response from the consumer on a long term basis. A B2B event, in turn, could give good leads to the beginners.
If the events are well organized and based on a good format, for eg. B to C format combined with a plethora of allied activities in the side, coupled with adequate publicity and in a good location, it is bound to do well. Sharing his views on this new trend, Magandeep Singh, the internationally acclaimed
sommelier says, “Wine Fests help promote the ultimate bond: that between winemaker and wine-drinker. Consumers can meet the producers and this is a very healthy interaction for both parties. This helps to gain knowledge as also improve or tweak wine styles.”
Do you think this is a new strategy to boost sales? To that he says, branding and brand marketing as also building brand equity have many facets and this is a good interactive version.
The future of such events seems bright at present. The quality may not always be top notch but as the consumer gets more discerning and the organisers less casual, things will improve.