This article takes a look at the market for wines in India. Wine volumes in India fell 15.7% between 2009-2010, according to data from International Wine and Spirit Research. While China serves as an encouraging example, the gap between the two Asian markets is striking, research by UK-abased Ditton Wine Traders shows. China imports 2.5M/cases of Bordeaux a year. Recent auctions in Hong Kong - which has turned itself into an Asian wine hub by dropping taxes in 2008 - have hit record prices in spite of the economic downturn experienced elsewhere in the world. By comparison, India's market is undeveloped. Asia's third-largest economy imports only 100,000 cases of wine a year. High quality outlets are few. Indian Ocean island states, such as Sri Lanka and the Maldives, import more wine than India, a country of 1.2BN people.
