Feature: Chandigarh - India's Most Progressive Wine City

Chandigarh is the most progressive city for wine marketing and availability, finds Subhash Arora, editor of delWine during a recent visit to the city. The local taxes on imported wines are reasonable, storage is decent and availability easy.

Growing wine market: Chandigarh is a Union Territory that is allowed by Article 47 of the


This store actually sold the highest- about 1000, cases of wine last year

constitution to set its own wine marketing policy, like other UTs and States. Four years ago it was considered a backward wine city. But the pro active policies of the progressive excise commissioners with a vision, and the local government has made the city reach an annual sales of 5000 cases, a jump of over 500% during the last four years , according to locals.

The imported wine which was sold in insignificant amounts in a couple of hotels then has almost 50% of share of the total sales today.

One major factor of growth is the NRI links of the city. About 40% residents have relatives who are NRIs. Not only is there this floating population who likes to drink wine, they also like to invest in ventures like wine and liquor marketing, especially since the licensing has become very liberal during the last couple of years.

Progressive sales, tax and excise policy: The change can be attributed to the progressive policies of Chandigarh which has consciously moved from a policy of auctions and liquor cartelisation to freedom in getting the license; a policy that encourages consumption of lower alcohol beer and wines by keeping the excise duties and VAT extremely low.

The VAT of 4% is the lowest in the country and understandably the model policy is being passed on to other states so they can also rationalise their policies.

L-2 License: For shops interested in retailing with Indian and imported liquor, there is a fixed

annual License Fee of Rs. 25 lakhs (reduced from the earlier Rs.40 lakhs) payable in advance. There is a procedure and conditions laid down clearly by the administration are to be followed.

Naming the store as ‘Wine Shop’ is passé. Spirits, World of Whiskey, Cheers, Tycoon are some of the nouveau names of the shops which the private stores have evolved whereas the traditional stores like Empire Stores (they upgraded the earlier supermarket license this year) are chugging along with their traditional name.

Tavern (Ahata) License: L-2 license holders can get another license known as Ahata; (name changed to the more modern ‘Tavern’ this year) for an additional Rs. 1.0 lakh. Wine etc., purchased in the shop can be consumed in this Tavern without paying any extra amount. Limited snacks have to be offered at reasonable prices to the customer. The design, colour schemes etc have to be as per the specifications provided. So, one does not have to go to expensive restaurants to consume alcoholic beverages.

I was told that even women frequent some of them in groups, where they can have their favourite tipple.

Chandigarh which encompasses the area within a small radius of 12 kms. has about 150 shops with L-2 license , 110 of which have the tavern license also. About 30-40 of the total licensees stock imported wines, making the availability fairly easy.

License for Supermarkets: (L-10B) Supermarkets and stores who sell only imported wine, beer or liquor can pay an annual fees of Rs. 50,000. They have to pay a nominal amount extra for each bottle purchased. Currently, five stores have this license- MG, Punjab Stores, Budhraja Stores and Peshawar Store(2).


Wine Cellar of Empire Store- Too much light but a good start, nevertheless

Prices: The prices of imported wines are cheapest you can find anywhere in India. Reason, the excise and vend fees are very low. For L-2 license holders it is less than Rs.10 a bottle (in Delhi it is Rs. 150 for the same bottle. For supermarkets that sell imported liquor and wine, an additional duty is chargeable at Rs.144 per case, payable by the buyer. There is an import fee of Rs.4 per bulk liter for the producer which is built in the costing per bottle.

The prices are not fixed and there is no MRP for any wine. There is a lot of variation in prices and discounts can be availed, if the quantities are big. Prices on imported wines are much better than in Delhi. Tarapaca Chardonnay (625), Hardys (625), Ruffino Chianti (925) are relatively very good price, especially if you know that 15% discount is available from Spirits on a case (the owner told me for 20 cases he would give 20%-no wonder he sold 1000 cases of wine last year!)

Many importers are now planning to enter the market. Says Sanjeev Singh, MD of TT and G, importer of Torres, whom I met in one of the shops, ‘We decided not to enter the Delhi market. But we can compete very well even with Indian wines in this market and are entering soon.

Paradoxically, Indian wines are too expensive. Dindori which sells for Rs.700 (till a couple of months ago selling for Rs.550/600) sells for Rs.860 in Chandigarh. ‘Grover’s lower end Sante sells for Rs.435 while the comparable Madera from Sula sells for Rs. 290.

The customer needs to know the comparative prices of various wines and negotiate when he can, if the quantities are bigger.

Wine Storage: One has heard a lot about the excellent storage and display of wines in Chandigarh. Raman Nijhawan, the Area manager of Sula for North, who had offered to take me around town even insisted the storage was better than in Delhi.

If one were to compare the overall scenario, I would definitely agree. All the shops and super markets I visited were air-conditioned, unlike the majority in Delhi and Mumbai.

But the best of them had something lacking-nothing they cannot work on. Some stores had poor or insufficient air conditioning while others had much too strong lighting shining on the bottles. Some did have no prices mentioned on the bottles while others had fine champagne like Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin rolling between Deinhard Sekt (low end German bubbly).

Four years ago when I had been invited by the industrial Yasho Saboo who was opening a new luxury watch store, Ethos in Chandigarh, I was impressed by the guests who showed keen interest in drinking and learning about wine. The then excise commissioner who had also been a guest assured me that the coming policy would be quite progressive.

Brand registration charges did come down from April that year and every year has been better. At present, registration charges are Rs.5000+1000 per label, immaterial how much quantity is sold during the year following. It is a policy that could be emulated by other states to encourage availability and cheaper prices for softer alcoholic beverages, especially wine which has additional advantage of being healthy when drunk in moderation.

Chandigarh has the location advantage of being a gateway to Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh and perhaps meets some requirements of these regions thus escalating sale of wine in the city.

Spirit: If you have bigger requirements, you can get 15-20% discounts.
Empire Stores: Best stored wine

Avoid buying Indian wines unless you are on a budget and want lower end wines. Better values are available in imported wines. Shop for Indian wines in Delhi. Check legality of bringing them back. You need to sleep your wines for a few days after they travel.