[malkers]

Whilst buying wine at Metro Cash & Carry in Bangalore the store manager approached me (obviously keen to know how a white guy managed to get a card) and asked me what I thought of Indian wines.  I enquired as to why Indian wine in comparison to other countries seemed expensive and yet spirits seemed so cheap.

Apparently most states in India levy the same amount of duty on Indian wines as they do on foreign wines which is very high, higher in fact than UK duty, wines carry the same (or almost the same) duty rates as spirits whereas in all European countries that I'm aware of the duty on spirits is much higher and related to the alcohol volume.  Also, because wine growing is a relatively new thing in India there is limited supply meaning that the producers charge a premium for it, one would expect this to change as more decent wine growers develop.

So, of course it is cheaper to produce wine in India than in US or Europe but it is the other factors that raise the price to the end user.

I know a few wine importers but sadly none of them import Indian wine, if they did I could find out what the wholesale price would be without duty, I would guess it would be around 70 - 90 rupees.

[cyberhippie]

There's the global economy for you right there, Europe spills wine down the sink, India has a market but the tarriffs are to high to make European export viable. And yes I know it's the same exporting the other way for Indian producers.

It just makes me chuckle these constant sound bites about free trade, the global economy etc etc etc...................Not in my lifetime I'm sure.

[malkers]

CH, you've misread that a little.  It makes no difference for a wine producer exporting from India to Europe as this would be a duty free transaction with the duty paid to the country of destination at the same rate as any other wine from any other country including its own.

Grover reserve retails here for around £6.99GBP which is quite good for a wine of that standard from a small vineyard, if they had vineyards the size of some of those huge Calif ones (up to 3 million vines on a single estate) then they could mass produce it and lower the price.  If I ever saw an Indian wine at $2 though I'd steer well clear!

[priya]

I'm surprised no-one here has made mention of South African wines which have already hit the UK market, although I'm not sure of their distribution or cost outside of South Africa.  As a matter of interest, has anyone here at least tried any of the South African vintages?

SA Wines

[cyberhippie]

Malc I meant that somewhere else down the line tariffs and other obstructions are probably placed on India exports..................and so the beat goes on!

[Somerset]

priya, on Oct 31 2007, 12:47 PM, said:

I'm surprised no-one here has made mention of South African wines which have already hit the UK market, although I'm not sure of their distribution or cost outside of South Africa.  As a matter of interest, has anyone here at least tried any of the South African vintages?

SA Wines

Don't recall seeing any in our local grocery store, although that doesn't mean they aren't here. Australian and Chilean wines are the big foreign labels in my town.

[cyberhippie]

Pinotage is rather nice and quite unusual! Lot's of South African wine here in the Netherlands Priya.

[priya]

(Off topic again, sorry ) If you looked at that link and saw Amarula Cream and enjoy liquers, I'd highly recommend this one.  It's absolutely delicious, as are the recipes.

I'm happy to know that there are SA wines in the Netherlands CH.....do be adventurous and try a few more.  I'm sure you wont be disappointed.

[Hyderabadi]

I haven't seen any SA wines here, or maybe I did not observe closely?  As Somerset says we do see a lot of Australian wines here : Yellow Tail

Around $10 - 12, 1.5L

[crvlvr]

The SA wines I've had are brilliant. But,  the supplies are erratic.

Malkers, are you sure that the taxes on imported wines and domestic are the same? I doubt that. In additional to all the taxes, the imports are levied customs duty.

One article and an interesting follow up discussion:http://www.sommelierindia.com/blog/2007/07/stop_press_additional_custom_d.html

[malkers]

crvlvr, on Oct 31 2007, 06:49 PM, said:

Malkers, are you sure that the taxes on imported wines and domestic are the same? I doubt that. In additional to all the taxes, the imports are levied customs duty.

Yes, definitely for UK but couldn't tell you about anywhere else in Europe but I would think it would be the same although varying percentages.

Put it this way, if I had a vineyard here and produced a bottle of wine for say £1 costs and it came to 12% alcohol volume, I would have to pay the duty for that percentage which (at a guess, been out of the trade a while) would be approx 80p, then I would have to add on what I required for profit and then add VAT to the total price.  If I bought in a 12% bottle from France under bond at a cost of 50p then the process and costs would be exactly the same, the UK doesn't penalise foreign imports like India does.  The cost of a bottle has no bearing on the duty levied on it but obviously has a bearing on the VAT added on top.

Hope that makes sense, I do know what I'm talking about although I've been out of it a while, can't see that much has changed though!

[malkers]

I was a little out on the duty rate, it would be £1.33 for a 750ml bottle of wine between 5 and 15% alcohol, hence why I would avoid a £1.99 bottle in the shops here!