Blog: Magandeep Singh
I like crystal ball gazing. It is right up there next to voodoo dolls on my list of Xmas gifts. Don’t snigger; I can cast spells too...
2009 has been a jinxed year so far. Not because of itself but mostly because of all that preceded it. All that commotion and action in the hotels have shown us how much of a dog-eat-dog world we live in. And then the terrorist attacks worsened things. Markets were already low, and now Satyam has just made the equivalent of a substantial chunk of our defence budget disappear.
This is what I feel should happen in 2009.
Indian wines will get better. Not all will be drinkable, mind you, but they will all get better. Competition is surely going to heat up but the production is still far short of what we can really consume. Some companies may have changed their name but let’s see if they make changes at other, more pertinent levels. As a result, the winemakers can continue not to give a crap about quality and continue to churn out whatever can pass as vino. However, with failing markets, most are realising that to hedge their risks they need to be in multiple markets and the West (or North or East or South for that matter) isn’t as forgiving about bad wine as India.
Cork may lose a bit of its hold on the market and screw caps will flourish more easily, at least at the entry level. Expensive wines will still only be cherished when sealed with a cork. That won’t change. But I don’t think that corked wines are as big a problem at the higher end of the segment; at a recent tasting I conducted with some high-end snob-stuff, we opened a good few dozen old vintages and none were corked. None that we could tell anyway, so either way, cork is cool.
Foreign wines will continue to suffer. As much as I would like to see the WTO bitch-slap the duties out of our system, it won’t happen so easily. Like an afternoon soap on some dud TV channel, there will be highs and lows, heightened anticipations and anxieties, but all in all we will still have to pay hefty amounts for our wine and gulp with lumps in our throat the size of the cork itself.
Bleak so far, I know. On a positive side, the wine shows are improving. IFE was great. They managed to pull in a decent crowd although I still don’t approve of their associations with some of the wine organisations that they publicise openly. If anything it could cost them business in the years to come and also detract from the clean, professional image that they will desperately need. IIWF, their biggest and only competitor looks quite promising. For the moment, they seem to have the right people on their side.
But on the whole, all these shows will help the consumer come more into contact with wines. Once consumers start asking questions, F&B professionals will have to clear the cobwebs from their wine books and finally have a look at what is happening in the wine world. Stand-alone restaurants too will make life difficult for these hotels which have otherwise enjoyed a smooth near-monopolistic run. They might just contemplate upgrading, not to mention dropping margins but don't wait on it. Do what I do, buy duty free. Otherwise, I have had a look at the WSI offerings and they are pretty good, and no, they aren’t paying me to say this. Not that I wouldn’t be willing to accept contributions...
Apart from this, TV shows too will publicise this concept. Sure, I do a couple of shows too but I am my own worst critic and believe that my presence on cable is a substantial contribution to why they call it the Idiot Box.
But, personal praise aside, awareness among consumers will definitely increase. I too am working on a groundbreaking on-the-ground project (does that make sense?) which I will blatantly publicise here once it is up. I have no qualms, fewer morals and an extremely vague idea of which is which.
This blog has been marginally intelligent or coherent so far. Perhaps that’s why it’s called a blog and not prose. Bye!
Just,
Magan.
