The moment of truth seems to have dawned on the Mighty M who might have decided to join the wine industry bandwagon at the ripe time when this market is at the take-off stage. The consistent growth of over 25-30% annually during the last 4 years may not sound much with the current low consumption of over 700,000 cases, but A simple math calculation would imply that  at this sustainable rate the sales may cross 8 million cases or more in 10 years if the likes of UB are in the ring (never lose the hope of lower import duties!).

There are no known beer companies using the same brand name for wines. Foster's which is known more for its beer in India (though it sold its brand to SabMiller recently) is one of the biggest wine companies in the world. It has over 40 different wine brands-none of which is   Foster.

Another parallel closer to home is the Cobra Beer, one of the largest selling premium beers in UK , owned by Karan Billimoria. Following the footprints of Mallya and making his billions from the lager business, he too decided to diversify into wines 10 years ago. When he launched his wines, he did not brand them as Cobra. He chose his father's name and christened it as Billimoria wines. Perhaps UB could name them as Mallya, or even Vithal wines, named after his late father!

We should welcome wines from the Kingfisher stable, but I would say 'No' to Kingfisher wines. Cheers to Mallya (wine, that is!)

Subhash Arora  

For related stories visit: http://www.indianwineacademy.com/dm_77_item_1.asp

http://delhiwineclub.com/news/King_M.asp