Wine with Pizzas and pastas may be a par for the course in the overseas pizza joints but impractical in India till recently when the Karnataka government started granting licenses to restaurants for serving Indian wine and beer for Rs.5000. Pizza Hut has started serving wine in Bangalore with an exclusive tie-up with Four Seasons Wines Ltd and plans with pan- India roll out within one year.
The first store selling wines from FSWL was inaugurated on 8th December at the Forum Mall in the presence of Sandeep Kataria, Chief Marketing Officer of Yum Restaurants India. He stressed that the wine being introduced at Pizza Hut is another step towards strengthening the brand’s promise to provide an enhanced dining experience for its customers.
‘There are four of them right now selling our wines but Pizza Hut promises to expand its reach to about 20% such stores in India with each such store boasting of 20% share from this sector alone,’ says Abhay Kewadkar, chief winemaker and Head of the Wine Division of United Spirits owned Four Seasons Ltd.
Always strategizing to expand the wine market rather than increase their share of the pie, Four Seasons has been in the forefront in Bangalore ever since the new policy of allotting wine licenses for only Rs.5000 a year was started. A month ago, they had tied up with Barista for an exclusive tie up even though the concept has had a lukewarm response in Delhi where two of the restaurants started selling wine a year ago and have made no headway.
The interesting part of their thrust is that they help make wine available at affordable price. ‘We want the young and novices to enjoy wine in a relaxed atmosphere as a natural accompaniment and not be intimidated with wine. So we have kept it simple and affordable. A glass of wine with 125 mL (six glasses to a bottle) costs less than Rs.100,’
Adding, ‘this is even when we have the problem of our wines being more expensive in Karnataka due to the import taxes.’
As a reply to Maharashtra’s policy of levying extra duties on wines being imported into the state, Karnataka had levied the same on wines from outside the state, putting local wineries like Grover, Kinwa at a distinct advantage over wineries like Four Seasons which are situated in Maharashtra. Incidentally, Grover has not been able to capitalize on the new policy by coming out with such innovative tie ups-not so far.
Interestingly, the Italian wines would have been a natural mate for the pizzas and pastas doled out by the restaurant. But due to the heavy import duties and basically the license costs would not make it practical to serve a Valpolicella, Chianti or Bardolino. But hopefully, it would be a step forward to improve the wine consumption in general and offer the consumers a better eating-out experience.
One more point to Karnataka and one more point to Four Seasons for taking the progressive step!
Subhash Arora |
