Now learn about winemaking at Nashik vineyards

MUMBAI - Wine lovers in India are in for a treat this weekend with a winemaking workshop being held in Nashik, Maharashtra offering a journey in the lap of nature.

The two-day festival starting Saturday has been organised by thewineclub.in. It will include a wine educator from Nashik to guide guests about the basics of the beverage. Wineries of Sula, York and Zampa will have their educators talk about wine and how it is produced.

On the first day of the festival, the evening will witness York Live festival which will encompass music, fun and food.

“Wine is a very upcoming and desirable product in the international arena and India is not far behind. In fact, since India started late in recognising wine or the benefits of wine and the kind of culture associated with it, it kind of caught up fast,” Avijit Burman, organiser of the event, told IANS.

“So the whole purpose of our portal is also to educate more people about wine, take wine to the masses to be more precise and make wine a common man’s drink.”

India has a wine market of approximately 1.2 million cases and it is growing at 25-30 percent. But currently only two percent of alcoholic drinks consumed in India is made up of wine.

Burman, a connoisseur of wine, feels there are many misconceptions attached to wine drinking and through this programme they want to break them and help the market grow to at least 10 percent.

“Most people feel wine is only for the niche audience. But you don’t have to be a snob or have millions to have a glass of wine. It can be consumed like just another drink,” he said.

“So through vineyard discovery, we are trying to educate people about wine, which is an agricultural product. Maharashtra has got a lot of agricultural families dependant upon these drinks for their livelihood, so the fact is that if more people visit Nashik and learn about wine, the wineries will get motivated, people will get interested in trying wine as their drink and that will benefit the farmers of Maharashtra,” he added.

Burman stresses that the purpose of the festival is not to convert teetotalers into drinkers.

“We are not saying that we want to make people more tipsy or invite non-drinkers to become drinkers, but the purpose is that people who are already drinkers, they should rather choose wine,” he specified.