Indian wine market is warming up to international labels but issues like rigid legislations,

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high label and brand registration costs, lack of wine conservation methods and awareness about wine and international brands were making it difficult to uncork this market to its fullest.

Though the young domestic wine market is still to take off compared to international mature wine markets, the consumers slowly and gradually had begun displaying interest in international brands and are ready to experiment, according to Arun Kumar, Aspiri Spirits, leading importers and distributors of premium wines and spirits in India.

"Earlier wine, just meant choosing between red and white wine. The association was limited to very few brands. A bottle of wine was just an option during a party, in case anyone felt like having it. But now the scenario has changed and consumers have a portfolio to choose from. There is an educated choice," he said.

"International brand awareness has made its way into the Indian consumer market, going by increased brand recall. Consumers now walk into a store and demand for wine by its label," he said.

"Today India is one of the fastest growing market and we are keen in establishing our presence here," said Jake Jacob, Regional Director-Asia-Pacific and UAE, Gerard Bertrand Wine, renowned wine group from Languedoc Rousseau region of France.

"We get around four queries per day by international brands wanting to get into Indian market," says Arun, whose company has 150 international brands in its portfolio.

The work done by domestic wine market players had helped in expanding the market. Entry of new consumer segment-- women and youth-- had provided additional impetus.

Wine consumption was also picking up in cities not earlier associated with the drink. "We now are seeing sales in places like Chandigarh and Uttaranchal", said Arun. There is also momentum in places like Rajasthan where renowned international chain of hotels and heritage properties had a presence.

Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai were the markets that were taking up to wines and international brands as well. While in Mumbai retail and on-premise sales were 50-50 per cent, in Delhi, on-premise leaned to 70-80 per cent. In Bangalore, it was 60 per cent retail sale, said Arun.

However, despite the quite and steady momentum taken up by wine market, internatonal players were still straddled by issues like prohibitive excise and custom duties and state-levied taxes that varied from place to place, he said.