Indian Wineries attract attention at LIWF
Under the aegis of The Indian Grape Processing Board,Indian wines made a great showing at the London International Wine Fair for the second year in a row. Wine producers that exhibited at the Indian stand, which was strategically located near the Press Office were, in alphabetical order, Château D'Ori, Four Seasons Wines, Fratelli Wines, Good Earth Winery, Grover Vineyards, Indage Vintners, Mercury Winery (Aryaa), Nirvana Biosys (Luca), Surahi Wines, Vallée de Vin (Zampa), Vintage Wines (Reveilo) and York Winery.
Pictured: S.G. Chougule, Reva Singh and Dr. U.Venkateswarlu
Raising Indian wines' profiles were the wineries' owners and senior executives along with the Board's chairman and vice-chairman, S.G. Chougule and Dr. U.Venkateswarlu, respectively, who were present at the IGPB stand on the first day. Rajeev Samant arrived in the afternoon, very elated at Sula's Sauvignon Blanc having won a silver medal at the Decanter World Wine Awards 2011. Fratelli too won a commendation for its chenin blanc at the International Wine Challenge. Indian wines continue to make inroads in overseas markets. Ravi Jain, chairman of Vallée de Vin, was in London for the launch of Zampa wines in the UK and hosted a dinner at Zeen restaurant on Drummond Street during the Fair.
The three-day trade show closed on May 19, with the final visitor attendance figure at 13,745, a slight increase on the 2010 total.The feedback received, however, was overwhelmingly positive about the quality of visitors, noted Brintex, the organisers. Despite tough economic trading conditions, UK agents were out in force alongside pavilions from all the major wine producing nations, as well as promising emerging markets such as India, Lebanon and Russia which reported positive business leads and created a feeling of optimism for the coming months.
Above: India pavilion at the LIFW 2011 before the opening of the Fair
