“Domestic wineries are gearing up to put China’s name on the map of wine culture, helped by experts from home and abroad. So get ready for a chardonnay from Huadong, a cabernet from Changyu or a dragon’s seal from Beijing. Or how about a smooth cabernet sauvignon from Xinjiang?
“The vines are weighed down with grapes and the local wines are sweetish but surprisingly tasty, and the dry desert soil around Turpan produces serviceable cabernet sauvignon and riesling grapes.”
So says The Independent in a mouth-watering report. “Tea, beer, rice wine and grain alcohol may have been the traditional tipples of choice in China, but grapes to make wine have been grown along this part of the Northern Silk Road for more than 2,000 years, and are making a comeback.
“The wine boom has also led to a château-building boom in China, not seen since the days of pre-Revolution France. The Lafitte Castle Hotel just outside Beijing is a replica of a 17th-century French chateau. It doesn’t actually have a vineyard, but does have a sensational wine cellar.
“In volume terms, China is already the leading consumer of wine in Asia – 3.9 million hectolitres, or over half a billion bottles in 2004. Almost 95 per cent of the wine drunk in China is domestically produced, but foreign exporters are working fast to make headway – Australian wine sales in 2004 grew nearly 90 per cent, while sales of Chilean rose 150 per cent.”
At a time when India is somewhat alarmed with China dumping goods – from electronics items to dolls – costing much less than the local ones, I would any day welcome good and reasonably priced wine from China. Here’s cheers to that!!!
In comparison, India has now 123,000 acres of vineyards, but only one per cent of this acreage is used for wine, says a report. “However, that does not mean the wine market in the country isn’t maturing. Today the overall sales are around 400,000 cases a year. Table wines account for 85 percent of the market and expensive varieties of vintage wines account for the remaining 15 per cent.
“As compared to other wine-producing nations this is a very low figure. Indian wines have a lot of catching up to do. The flip side of the industry is that of the 400,000 cases sold every year, only 30,000 cases of sparkling wine and champagne are consumed in India. In contrast the figures of other drinks are: 37 million cases of whisky, 11 million cases of brandy and nine million cases of rum. Industry officials believe that the market will grow rapidly once the government drops import duties on bulk (currently at 108 per cent) and on bottled wines (currently 264-420 per cent).
“Wine has been made in India for as many as 5,000 years. It was the early European travellers to the courts of the Mughal emperors Akbar, Jehangir and Shah Jehan in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries who reported tasting wines from the royal vineyards. Red wines were made from the arkesham grape and white wine from arkawati and bhokry grapes.
“Under British influence in the 19th century, vineyards were established in Kashmir and at Baramati in Maharashtra and a number of Indian wines were exhibited and favourably received by visitors to the Great Calcutta Exhibition of 1884.
“However, Indian vineyards were totally destroyed by phylloxera in the 1890s. It took nearly half a century to replant them. Today, lineal descendants of some of these historic wines are produced by Chateau Indage, India’s largest producer of wine, as well as by Grover Vineyards. Shaw Wallace too is a traditional wine manufacturer.”
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.